In his Smurfs film review, SHIFTER’s Kevin Bourne says the film “underwhelming” and “falls flat with very few high notes”.
One of the more hyped and heavily marketed films in the past few months is Smurfs which sees the cutesy blue humanoids once again battle the forces of evil which threaten their village and the world on a whole. This time Paramount Animation is taking a stab at it after the end of the previous series of films from Sony.
The film follows Smurfette and her fellow Smurfs on a quest to save Papa Smurf from a new and more formidable foe with the help of an unlikely ally. It also sees No Name Smurf go on a personal quest to find his purpose and identity among the Smurfs.
The film features an all-star cast, including James Corden as No Name Smurf, John Goodman as Papa Smurf, as well as Dan Levy, Octavia Spencer, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Jimmy Kimmel, Hannah Waddingham, and Kurt Russell. But the big name on the fill is none other than Rihanna who featured heavily in the marketing of the film—”Rihanna Is Smurfette”. It’s not everyday that we get new content or music from the makeup and beauty mogul, so you can bet the world is waiting with bated breath.
So are RiRi’s star power and voice enough to make this film a joy to watch? Unfortunately, no. As a fellow Barbadian, I would love to rave about our national hero’s performance in the film, but Rihanna as Smurfette feels all wrong from the very beginning. It’s not that she’s not a capable voice actor. She has some good moments here are there. It’s that that sonically, she doesn’t sound like a good fit for the Smurfette character. The casting of Rihanna as Smurfette is clearly all about marketing and getting bums in seats. Unfortunately, her superstardom looms so large over the film that it eclipses the story itself. I mean, Rihanna is Smurfette, but Smurfette doesn’t even feel like Smurfette.
For most of the film, the story feels a bit flat, perhaps leaving the viewer wanting more, although it does redeem itself a bit in the end. At times it fills as though the film is doing too much by telling too many stories at once. Smurfette, Papa Smurf, and No Name Smurf each feel like the central character at different points in the film. The most compelling and universal story is that of No Name Smurf who is searching for his purpose, something many can relate to, but his story gets lost. If the film focused more of this story and character, the film would’ve been much more enjoyable to watch.
The music is also underwhelming given the musical talents and charisma of Rihanna and Corden. The original music is far from bad, but it failed to deliver a memorable song compared to other animated films in recent memory.
Among the few bright spots in the film were Corden’s performance as No Name Smurf and JP Karliak‘s performance as Gargamel and Razmel. The film also did a good job of going into the origin story of Papa Smurf which was interesting, although a Papa Smurf prequel should be a separate film. But that’s about it. Smurfs is overly marketed and overly produced, bucking the trend of award worthy animated films returning to good old storytelling.
Overall, Smurfs is underwhelming and falls flat with very few high notes. Time to go back to the drawing board, folks.
Kevin Bourne is SHIFTER’s Toronto-based editor and Senior Entertainment Reporter focusing on Black music and film & TV. He was named one of 340 international voters for the 81st and 8nd Golden Globe Awards and a Tomatometer-Approved Critic by Rotten Tomatoes.
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