The Smurfs is a spin-off from the comic strip created by the Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford (25 June 1928 – 24 December 1992) better known as Peyo and it was first released in 1958. It was then released as a cartoon series in 1981 by the celebrated cartoon creators Hanna and Barbera, and its popularity reached its peak in the 1980s. I remembered clearly growing up in the 1980s and hardly missing an episode of the Smurfs cartoon series when it was shown on the TV then.
Naturally, when The Smurfs is released as a movie this year, my curiosity peaked and got better of me; I just had to go and watch it to find out if Hollywood made justice to this well-loved and well-known three-apple high blue comic strip creatures. It seemed that The Smurfs made quite a storm in the Malaysian cinemas. Many people I know who have watched it gave favourable recommendation to this movie.
The Smurfs started its story in the Smurf Village, where all the Smurfs are busy preparing a party to celebrate the Blue Moon Festival. Many of them were involved in performing for the festival. However, one Smurf named Clumsy (voiced by Anton Yelchin) is barred from joining the festival as the other Smurfs feel that he will ruin their preparations in more ways than one.
One day when Clumsy is once again barred from joining a stage rehearsal, he went into the forest to help Papa Smurf (voiced by Jonathan Winters) gather some smurfberries, he accidentally bumped into an evil sorcerer named Gargamel (played by Hank Azaria) and his psychic cat Azrael (voiced by Frank Welker). Clumsy was pursued by Gargamel and and Azrael, and in the process he managed to lead them to the protective barrier to the Smurf Village.
Gargamel and Azrael then choose the time when the Smurfs are celebrating the Blue Moon Festival to try to capture all the Smurfs to extract the Smurf essence and use it in the bid to become the most powerful sorcerer in the land. Clumsy being the clumsy Smurf he is was running and tripping all over the Smurf Village with Gargamel and Azrael hot on his heels. The chase went on to a forbidden cave in an uncharted area of the forest.
As it is a full blue moon evening, by a twist of fate, a giant vortex leading to the present day New York City is revealed. Papa Smurf, Smurfette (voiced by Katy Perry), Brainy Smurf (voiced by Fred Armisen), Gutsy Smurf (voiced by Alan Cumming), Grouchy Smurf (voiced by George Lopez and Clumsy Smurf, together with Gargamel and Azrael are all sucked through the vortex and landed themselves in New York City.
The Smurfs befriended a married couple Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris) and Grace (Jayma Mays) Winslow who are expecting their first baby. Patrick is a struggling sales executive at a cosmetics company, Anjelou Cosmetics. His boss, Odile Anjelou (Sofia Vergara) is pressuring him to come up with a new marketing/sales strategy to promote the company's line of cosmetics and skin care products. The ultimatum is that Patrick would be fired from his job if he fails to produce a new advertisement good enough to keep and guarantee a promotion in his job.
Meanwhile, Papa Smurf with the help of Patrick and Grace is trying to determine next full blue moon so that he could conjure the appropriate spell to open the giant vortex to return to the Smurf Village. Patrick at the same time is trying to come out with a great advertising campaign for Anjelou Cosmetics but is severely distracted by the antics of the Smurfs putting up in his home.
Gargamel together with Azrael embarked on a wild goose chase around New York City to capture all the six Smurfs that were transported together with them. However, in the process of trying to capture the Smurfs, Gargamel managed to acquire a powerful dragon wand to help him extract the Smurf essence from all the Smurfs. The chase became a full-scale war where the Smurfs battled it out with Gargamel with the help of Patrick to prevent him from capturing the Smurfs and extract the Smurf essence, rendering him to be the most powerful sorcerer ever lived.
The Smurfs is a thoroughly entertaining movie with plenty of laughs to go around, and it is a feel good family movie. For people who have grown up watching the Smurfs cartoon in the 1980s like yours truly, this movie would bring back the sweet memories of the weekly ritual of watching the cartoon. However, the Smurf theme song in this movie can get quite annoying after listening to it to many a times.
Having said that Columbia Pictures, Sony Animation Pictures and Kerner Entertainment Company did quite a good job in combining CGI animation with normal movie elements, creating what Hollywood termed as hybrid movie for the first time in the silver screen history. The Smurfs both available in both the 3D and 2D versions, but personally I prefer the 2D version as I still think that the 3D technology has not reach the quality I have come to expect, having to wear those cumbersome glasses.
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