{"id":12574,"date":"2025-07-19T12:22:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T16:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12574"},"modified":"2025-09-05T15:23:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T19:23:26","slug":"smurfs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/07\/19\/smurfs\/","title":{"rendered":"Smurfs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Smurfs<\/strong> (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Comedy-Musical-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 92 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (action, language, some rude humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Chris Miller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Pam Brady\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Henry Jackman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Lyons Collister\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 18, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Rihanna, James Corden, John Goodman, Nick Offerman, JP Karliak, Dan Levy, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Jimmy Kimmel, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Alex Winter, Maya Erskine, Kurt Russell, Xolo Mariduena, Hugo Miller, Chris Miller, Billie Lourd.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *<\/p>\n

\u00a0Some movies aren\u2019t meant for adult eyes and ears. Smurfs<\/strong> is one of them. It\u2019s painful. I still can\u2019t believe I willingly sat through it. WTS (What the Smurf)?!<\/p>\n

I probably shouldn\u2019t be reviewing Smurfs<\/strong>. It wasn\u2019t made for me. It\u2019s not for anyone who has advanced beyond first grade. I get that. In a futile attempt to make my viewing experience less painful, I tried to imagine what a 6YO would think of it. Why 6? It seems to be the maximum age for this movie. Now here\u2019s the weird part. There were a lot of young kids at the showing I attended and none of them showed any reaction, at least none that I heard. I\u2019ve never seen it that quiet at a kid\u2019s movie before. Again, WTS?!<\/p>\n

\u00a0ANYWAY, so why exactly am I reviewing Smurfs<\/strong>? Because I don\u2019t know any young children to write a review for me. My two nephews, Christian and David, the ones I took to see the two live-action Smurfs films in 2011 and 2013, are grown now. All of my grand-nephews and nieces are too old. I don\u2019t really know any other little kids. I\u2019m on my own with kid\u2019s movies now. Sure, I could have skipped it altogether, but I thought it might be fun to take a quick trip down nostalgia lane. Boy, was I ever wrong! There is NOTHING fun about this incarnation of The Smurfs. It almost makes the live-actions ones look like quality cinema. I said, almost.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I don\u2019t really have a history with The Smurfs. The animated Saturday morning TV series premiered in 1981 when I was 13. We didn\u2019t have cable in my house back then so my viewing options were limited. I watched it a few times during that first of nine seasons. I didn\u2019t hate it, but I didn\u2019t love it either. It was just something I watched to make the time pass on Saturday morning. As I mentioned, I saw the live-action ones from the 2010s. That\u2019s it. I\u2019ve seen no other versions of The Smurfs until now. It\u2019s a choice I\u2019ll regret until the day I die.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let\u2019s briefly talk about the plot now, not that it\u2019s of any importance. There\u2019s trouble in Smurf Village once again. The evil wizard Razamel, baby brother to Gargamel (both voiced by JP Karliak), wants to acquire a magical book being protected by Papa Smurf (Goodman, The Conners). He wants to use it, along with three other magical books, to get rid of all the good in the world.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Razamel manages to locate Smurf Village when one of its inhabitants, No Name Smurf (late night talk show Corden), shows off newly acquired magic abilities to the whole village. The wizard\u2019s intern Joel (Levy, Schitt\u2019s Creek) uses a beam to open a portal and Smurf-nap Papa. A few of the others, led by plucky Smurfette (R&B singer Rihanna), embark on a quest to rescue him and stop the wizard siblings from enveloping the world in evil and darkness. To do that, they have to first find Papa\u2019s brother Ken (Offerman, The Great North) to lead them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0And now a few words about No Name. He\u2019s new to the village and the franchise. He\u2019s undergoing an existential crisis of sorts. As you know, the Smurfs are named for a sole defining characteristic- e.g. Brainy Smurf, Baker Smurf, Hefty Smurf, etc. No Name doesn\u2019t have a \u201cthing\u201d hence he doesn\u2019t have an identity. He anguishes over it. He goes off into the woods and makes a wish within earshot of the magic book. Next thing he knows, he can shoot light beams from his hands. Now he has purpose. Oh yeah, he also has a thing for Smurfette.<\/p>\n

\u00a0No Name isn\u2019t the only new thing in Smurfs<\/strong>. They are helped in their mission by the Snooterpoots, a group of cute fuzzy creatures with a penchant for mischief. Their leader is, of course, Mama Poot (Lyonne, Poker Face). I\u2019m going to stop here and say what we already know to be the case. The Snooterpoots exist for one reason and one reason only, the desire to create a new line of plush toys that will hopefully become the next big thing. Yeah, that\u2019s not likely to happen.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can\u2019t remember the last time I hated a movie as much as I hate Smurfs<\/strong>. It\u2019s the closest thing to torture this side of the Inquisition. Directed by Chris Miller (Shrek the Third) and written by Pam Brady (Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken), it\u2019s neither fun nor funny for grownups. At times, it\u2019s downright annoying. The original songs are terrible and not likely to chart. I suppose we can be thankful for that. It\u2019s a complete waste of the talented actors, which also include Kurt Russell (The Christmas Chronicles) as Ron Smurf and Sandra Oh (Killing Eve) as Moxie Smurf, providing the voices. Rihanna is the absolute wrong choice to voice Smurfette, still the only female in the village. She has a too-cool-for-school quality that just doesn\u2019t fit the character.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The animation is strictly assembly line. It\u2019s bright and colorful yet still dull and unimaginative. The only time the makers do somethin interesting is near the end when some of the characters travel through different dimensions including one that resembles the home video game from the 80s. I liked one other thing in Smurfs<\/strong>, the one named Sound Effects Smurf. He makes sound effects (No DUH!). He always seems to show up at the right time. I found him mildly amusing. It\u2019s the only time in all of the film\u2019s 92 minutes (still feels too long) I didn\u2019t grimace.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I pity the poor parents that will be forced to accompany their little ones to this cinematic hell on earth. That is, if they\u2019re interested at all in Smurfs<\/strong>. They\u2019re not as popular as they were once upon a time in the 80s. Also, they\u2019re more popular overseas than they are here in the US. In any event, this is one of those when parents ought to urge their kids to wait for it to come on streaming. It doesn\u2019t need to be seen on a big screen (SMURF THAT!). It\u2019s cheaper all around (no admission, no concession stand) and you don\u2019t need to stay in the living room with the kids. Why would you? Smurfs<\/strong> is insufferable as SMURF.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smurfs (2025)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Comedy-Musical-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 92 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (action, language, some rude humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Chris Miller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Pam Brady\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Henry Jackman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Lyons Collister\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 18, 2025 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Rihanna, James Corden, John Goodman, Nick Offerman, JP Karliak, Dan Levy, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Jimmy Kimmel, Octavia Spencer, Nick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Smurfs-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12577,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12574\/revisions\/12577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}