
Movie Review: ‘Smurfs' has Rihanna but not much else
But first we have 'Smurfs,' which, like 'Trolls,' gets as much mileage as it can from its pop singer-voice actor. Rihanna voices Smurfette and supplies a new song, giving a half-hearted injection of star power to an otherwise uninspired, modestly scaled, kiddo-friendly cartoon feature.
'Smurfs,' directed by Chris Miller ( 'Puss in Boots,' 'Shrek the Third'), cribs heavily from the 'Trolls' playbook. Both feature brightly colored little forest creatures that like a good tune. In the opening of 'Smurfs,' Papa Smurf (John Goodman) is DJing for a dancing Smurf Village.
As the many Smurfs gyrate next to mushroom houses, you might find yourself wondering how we got here. And what, exactly, is a Smurf, anyway? It's been nearly 70 years since Belgian comic artist Peyo created 'Les Schtroumpfs,' though most of those still familiar with the little blue fellas remember them from the 1980s Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
The Smurfs have never really transcended their Saturday morning cartoon origins. Neither a pair of live-action hybrid movies in the early 2010s or a 2017 animated release have done much more than keep us vaguely aware of what a Phrygian cap is.
And 'Smurfs' is unlikely to change that. The best thing that can be said for the latest attempt to reboot the blue Belgian beings is that it maintains the light feel of a morning cartoon. Even with a brief SpongeBob SquarePants short running ahead of it, 'Smurfs' — seemingly designed to be the least ambitious of all possible parent-child outings — passes in about 90 minutes.
The pressing issue in Miller's film is that one Smurf, No Name Smurf (James Corden), lacks a defining feature. There are so many other labels already taken that all that's left for him are Clog Making Smurf and Shark Taming Smurf — and neither of those is promising, either.
When No Name Smurf suddenly grows magical powers, he gets a boost in confidence but inadvertently sets off a dangerous chain reaction. The burst of magic reveals the location of Smurf Village and a long-hidden magical book that, if reunited with three others, confers world domination. (Fun fact: This is also what happens if you reunify all first editions of James Joyce's 'Ulysses.')
The outburst brings the attention of the evil wizard Razamel, brother of Gargamel. (Both are excellently voiced by JP Karliak.) And the Smurfs are cast into a chase through dimensions to rescue the kidnapped Papa Smurf and prevent Razamel from seizing the fourth book. The trip takes them through Paris, Munich, Australia and, briefly, Claymation.
The zaniness is often forced. There are also Koosh ball-like creatures named Snooter Poots with a leader named Mama Poot (Natasha Lyonne). And if you were ever hoping to hear Rihanna sing, as a Smurf, from the seat of a kangaroo pouch, your movie has finally arrived.
But any expectations of something more quickly dissipate, despite the fact that 'Smurfs' was scripted by Pam Brady, the screenwriter of 'Hot Rod' and co-writer of 'Team America: World Police.' Most of the attempts at adult-winking gags are hackneyed jokes about Zoom, podcasting, spam filters and LinkedIn.
You can almost feel IP-rights pressures animating the entire enterprise. See, there are other Smurf names out there. What about Corporate Mandate Smurf?
'Smurfs,' a Paramount Pictures release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for action, language and some rude humor. Running time: 92 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
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- CTV News
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Winnipeg Free Press
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Toronto Sun
19-07-2025
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REVIEW: 'Smurfs' get surreal, which might be lost on the kids
Published Jul 19, 2025 • 4 minute read No Name (James Corden) and Smurfette (Rihanna) in "Smurfs." Photo by Paramount Animation / Paramount Animation Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. The biggest surprise about the new 'Smurfs' movie was the smattering of applause that bubbled forth in the darkness of a recent, kid-friendly preview screening as the credits began to roll. But the animated film – a complicated portal-hopping adventure set in the (groan) multiverse that also incorporates a smattering of live action, mostly scenery and no actors – does have its moments. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account For instance, I briefly smiled when the titular blue 'rat-monkeys,' as the film's bad guy calls these troll-like imps, dimension-hop from one world to the next in an effort to save all that is good from the evil twin wizards Gargamel and Razamel (voice of JP Karliak). Each dimension is rendered, cleverly, in a distinct style of animation: stop-motion clay, a child's crayon drawing, 1970s-era 8-bit video graphics, subtitled Japanese anime and, for reasons I don't fully understand, one surreal undersea vignette featuring a talking tardigrade – a teensy creature that looks like a bug in a fat suit – voiced by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. The surprise is not that anyone liked the film. There's no accounting for taste, especially when it comes to offbeat fare like the Smurfs, an intellectual property that has it roots in Belgium, where, in 1958, comic artist Pierre Culliford, working under the pseudonym Peyo, created them as Les Schtroumpfs, but that the robust clapping seems to have come almost entirely from grown-ups. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. During the movie, their young charges appeared to fidget and shift impatiently, greeting their parents' ovation by sitting on their hands or, more likely, using them to scratch their heads in confusion. The reaction from the children in the crowd seemed to echo the closing words of Rihanna, who as the character Smurfette, articulates what I imagine more than a few in the theatre may have been thinking: 'Don't crunch our brains so much!' The script by Pam Brady (a 'South Park' producer and writer of the R-rated films 'South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut' and 'Team America: World Police') is all over the map, sometimes quite literally. Director Chris Miller ('Puss in Boots') opens the action amid the mushroom-shaped houses of Smurf Village before switching to Paris – then the Australian Outback, Munich and points beyond. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It begins by presenting a bit of lore that is easily the most unsettling thing about Smurfdom: the fact that Smurfette, the lone female among a host of males, was created from clay by the evil wizards specifically to lure the Smurfs into their clutches. More tedious scene-setting follows. Smurfette explains that all Smurfs, like Snow White's dwarfs, are named for character attributes: Hefty, Lazy, Handy, Grouchy, etc. All Smurfs, that is, except Smurfette – she's just a girl, it's implied, isn't that enough? – and one called No Name (James Corden), who hasn't yet found his thing, although he aspires to become a practitioner of the magic arts. No Name's search for identity is really what propels this overly busy story forward, in an otherwise perfunctory plot about good vs. evil that gets underway after Smurf patriarch Papa Smurf (John Goodman) is kidnapped by the wizards' factotum, Joel (Dan Levy). This precipitates a delegation of Smurfs to go on a quest, seeking help from someone named Ken – whoever and wherever he may be – as Papa urged them to do just before he got sucked into a black hole-like vortex in the sky. Other portals include the horn of a gramophone. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Yes, the story is hard to follow, and not just for youngsters. (I would urge you not to try.) It involves appearances by a Parisian neighbourhood watch group run by – well whaddya know? – a second female Smurf, called Moxie (Sandra Oh); a hairball-looking thing with the flatulent-sounding moniker of Mama Poot (Natasha Lyonne); and a magical talking book who goes by Jaunty (Amy Sedaris). Each of these characters has more or less zilch to do with the predictable message of the story, which is, as spelled out by Smurfette to No Name: 'You've got a lot more magic in you than you think. You've just got to let it out.' The more interesting question is 'Who is 'Smurfs' actually playing to?' On the one hand, its predictable reliance on naughty wordplay, inspired by the seemingly limitless meanings of the words 'smurf' and 'smurfy' (e.g., 'I think I smurfed my pants') would seem to suggest grade school. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. On the other hand, the movie really leans into the self-referential absurdism. After a scene featuring No Name riding in the pouch of a bouncing CGI mama kangaroo as Smurfette sings to him, 'Don't ever give up,' No Name breaks the fourth wall by saying out loud what the rest of us are thinking: 'That part with the kangaroo was a little weird.' True, but never quite weird enough. 'Smurfs' may be all over the multiverse, but it doesn't land anywhere worth writing home about. – – – Two stars. Rated PG. At theatres. Contains action, coarse language and some rude humour. 89 minutes. Rating guide: Four stars masterpiece, three stars very good, two stars OK, one star poor, no stars waste of time. MMA World Toronto & GTA Celebrity Tennis