Culture

Director: Raja Gosnell (3.5/5)
 
It started off as a smurfing good afternoon. With a Smurf combo in hand, we barged small children out of the way to get the best seats. A cool kids movie for the start of the holidays, young and old alike will be entertained by these little blue men (and Smurfettes).
 
The festival of the Blue Moon is about to begin, and things are going smoothly for the Smurfs. However, Papa Smurf sees a vision of the future that is quite disturbing. The vision begins to play out in real life, as Clumsy Smurf inadvertently leads the evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria) to the Smurfs' secret village. As they scramble to get away from the bumbling wizard, Clumsy goes the wrong way. Papa, Smurfette, Brainy, Gutsy, and Grouchy follow after him, and they all stumble upon a mysterious portal that sucks them away to a different realm. The evil wizard Gargamel chases the tiny Smurfs from their magical world into the middle of New York. From here the adventure begins with Smurf stargazing, Smurf rockband, Smurf M&M love, and every freaking Smurf thing you could think of.
 
By the end I was sick of hearing the word “Smurf”, and dammit I still have the tune stuck in my head. “La la lala la laaa, la la lala laaa.” Neil Patrick Harris made the movie entertaining, and that weird chick from Glee (Jayma Mays) also had some good one-liners.
 
My favourite character by far was Grumpy – angry people are just funny! It was a definite winner with the kids, with one 4 year old roaring every time the Smurfs were in trouble. Katy Perry’s voice as Smurfette made for some wittiness “I kissed a Smurf and I liked it”.
 
The storyline must have been written by some trippy bugger, as it floats along in search of the Blue Moon with not much substance. All in all, it’s not too bad to sit through, and if you want a simple movie to take your mind off exams, I’d recommend it.