Fridae

The previous works from Smurfs director Raja Gosnell will tell you exactly what you need to know. The go-to guy started his directing career with a Home Alone sequel, helmed two live action adaptations of the Scooby Doo cartoon series, was responsible for gems like Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and his edgiest work happens to be Big Momma’s House. It seems almost natural that he’d be asked to direct another live-action adaptation of an 80s animation franchise.

As expected from his resume, Gosnell’s The Smurfs is pitched to very young children who delight in seeing adults on screen (notably, openly gay actor Neil Patrick Harris here) react badly when faced with magical blue critters who turn their lives, apartments, careers, and self image upside down.

For adult viewers, the nostalgia factor consists of seeing the bumbling wizard Gargamel (played by a scenery chomping Hank Azaria) chase a group of little blue men and one blue girl around. This nostalgia factor is acknowledged but abandoned to a certain extent when the script plucks the Smurfs from their vaguely mediaeval European setting and hurls them via a magic portal into the modern world.

Peyo’s original communitarian ethos and humour is replaced by a generic fish out of water situation comedy where the laughs are generated by the Smurfs and Gargamel by thinking they’re in their usual setting and getting into mishaps due to their faulty assumptions of life in modern society. There is potential here for a more engaging meta-commentary about fairy tales or Peyo’s work but the scriptwriters’ overwhelming interest in the generic comedy ensures this remains a potential.

With the company of a young niece or nephew, The Smurfs is a pleasing enough distraction that is designed to please enough people, though not exactly wow them.