By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Kelly Ashbury
Cast (Voice): Demi Lovato, Rainn Wilson, Joe Manganiello, Jack McBrayer, Danny Pudi, Mandy Patinkin, Michelle Rodríguez, Ellie Kemper and Julia Roberts.
Rating: Poor
Sony Animation Pictures, brings “Smurfs: The Lost Village”, another film of the blue creatures and again the results were disappointing.
A completely animated film, the movie tells the story of Smurfette (Demi Lovato) the only female Smurf in the village that has a lot of questions that go beyond her existence. One day after she is captured by the evil wizard and her creator Gargamel (Rainn Wilson) she will see a map that contains “The Lost Village”, which is one of the major secrets of The Smurfs.
A determined Smurfette is willing to go to the village and she will be joined by Hefty (Joe Manganiello), Brainy ( Danny Pudi) and Clumsy (Jack McBrayer). The four of them will embark a journey to the Lost Village.
The problem is that Gargamel and his cat Azrael are in the same quest and want to capture all the smurfs. Now Smurfette and her friends are in a race against time to make a major discovery or else they will be history.
The main problem of this reboot of The Smurfs is the story. I was seeing an exact same episode of the cartoon show from the eighties but in a ninety minute film. The reference of the episode is “The Smurfette”, which tells exactly the same origins of where Smurfette comes from.
The screenplay was too predictable and there wasn´t any humor in it. In fact there was a moment that I just wanted the film to be over and was too long unnecessary.
I might sound harsh but this movie shouldn´t have been made in the first place since the other previous Smurf movies where a major disaster.
The animation of the film was not that bad and it had some similarities with the animation of the cartoon show from the eighties which made it interesting. Yes, there was improvement compared to the other two films but still this wasn´t a good reason to have a better reaction towards the film.
The problem is the story that it was weak and I couldn´t care less about The Smurfs.
One rule for this genre is beside having the comedy in it is that you don´t have to make it predictable and this movie crossed the line to the fact that instead of making the film a good and entertaining film the result was the opposite.
I´m surprised that one of the writers Pamela Ribon who wrote last year´s “Moana” which was a very good movie and had a lot of heart. Here I can see that Ribon and her cowriter Stacey Harman didn´t care about the project and just wrote pages randomly.
This movie could have not only a good story but also heart which I never saw. One of the things that I noticed is that they watch the episode from the show many many times and just made it longer but it never worked.
The casting choices were interesting in voices like Mandy Patinkin, Joe Manganiello and Julia Roberts but unfortunately the cast cannot save a movie when you have a weak screenplay and story.
This movie for sure is going to entertain kids but it will lead to boredom to some adults
“Smurfs: The Lost Village” is one of the worst animated films from this year and honestly it´s better to have a good memory from the show than investing ninety minutes of your time with this movie.