I'm Afraid of the Smurfs Movie

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I'm Afraid of the Smurfs Movie
By Hervé St-Louis
August 3, 2011 - 08:28

Studios: Columbia Pictures, Kerner Entertainment Company, Sony Pictures Animation
Writer(s): Peyo, J. David Stem
Starring: Hank Azaria, Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays
Directed by: Raja Gosnell
Running Time: 103 minutes
Release Date: 29 July 2011

I'll spare you the I grew up with the Smurfs as a kid line and go right to the core. The new 3D models of the Smurfs don't look all that good and they have a Scottish Smurf too. Yeah, a Scottish Smurf.

The Smurfs were created by Peyo - a pen name for Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford appearing in a Johan and Peewit story in 1958n and quickly gaining their own comic book series in 1959 due to their popularity.

The Smurfs have been adapted as cartoons by Hanna-Barbera with great success in the 1980s and that's where most of the parents taking their kids to the just released movie will remember from.

The Smurfs are small elves chased by the evil Gargamel and his cat. In the film they are chased from their village by Gargamel and somehow brought to New York City where they apparently befriend a local man.

The roundness of the Smurfs is lost in these designs where you see the stitches on their costumes and they have big bulging blue eyes like they've never had before. The film's director Raja Gosnell (Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Home Alone 3)is not known for quality material, but fillers films that still happen to gross a lot of money.

I'll find out soon whether The Smurfs' movie is closer to Ratatouille, which was a great children's film that Adults could enjoy or if it's closer to Alvin and the Chipmunks, an annoying adaptation that we'd all like to forget.