SOS please! Rihanna's Smurfs outing is 50 shades of blue
After two underwhelming live-action/CGI hybrids - The Smurfs (2011) and The Smurfs 2 (2013) - failed to charm audiences, Sony and Columbia Pictures went back to basics with 2017's fully animated Smurfs: The Lost Village. Though visually more faithful to the original comics, it didn't spark the franchise revival fans hoped for.
Seeking a fresh direction, The Peyo Company - the Belgian guardian of the Smurfs legacy - handed the reins to Paramount Pictures for a brand-new reboot.
The change in studio and style does little to help director Chris Miller's (Puss in Boots, Shrek the Third) CGI iteration of the blue mushroom-dwellers, which buckles under the weight of its own ambition.
Screenwriter Pam Brady's (South Park) script takes aim at fantasy tropes with a familiar premise: evil wizards, once again obsessed with world domination, who kidnap Papa Smurf (voiced by John Goodman) in an effort to unlock the secrets of an ancient magical book.
With their leader gone, the responsibility of launching a rescue mission falls to Smurfette (voiced by Rihanna, who also serves as a producer). She's joined by a team of familiar faces: the strong and dependable Hefty Smurf (Alex Winter), the ever-anxious Worry Smurf (Billie Lourd), and the flamboyantly self-absorbed Vanity Smurf (Maya Erskine), each perfectly embodying their names. Then there's No Name, a Smurf voiced by James Corden, who's deep in the throes of an identity crisis. Unlike his companions, he has no defining trait, no clear purpose, not even a gimmick, making him oddly the most relatable of them all.
The film's overcrowded subplots jet-set from Paris to Australia and beyond, while its jarring mix of CGI, traditional animation, and Claymation results in a visually chaotic and disjointed jumble. The story quickly becomes tangled and unnecessarily complex. It's confusing for adults, and downright baffling for kids.
The characters, despite the star power of Nick Offerman, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh and Jimmy Kimmel, never get beyond shallow caricatures.
The one saving grace? Daniel Pemberton's energetic score and Rihanna's catchy song Friend of Mine, which will have your little ones dancing down the aisles.
By the credits, you'll be channeling your inner Grumpy Smurf - frustrated, disappointed, and wondering why this reboot couldn't smurf its way to better.
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CIAN DUCROT Little Dreaming ★★★★☆ 4 Little Dreaming is an album of self-discovery from an artist unafraid to dream big Credit: Supplied
