REVIEW: 'Smurfs' Lacks Flavor And Fails To Revitalize The Little Blue Man Group

Smurfs, directed by Chris Miller — no, not the one behind Sony's Spider-Verse trilogy — follows the little blue bundles of joy and chaos, led by Smurfette, on a rescue mission into the real world after Papa Smurf is kidnapped by the evil wizard brothers, Razamel and Gargamel who have a plan to destroy all things good.

Paramount, for the longest time, hasn't quite got it right with Smurfs; their two live-action adventures from the early 2010s are fun but flawed and forgettable. Then the fully animated 2017 counter-piece Smurfs: The Lost Village, unfortunately, did not take off in the way they had hoped. A different fate does not seem to be in the cards for the 2025 iteration and third attempt at creating a flourishing franchise around the blue flowing IP.

Big Talent Behind Little People At Least Tried

Smurfs is an overly generic, forgettable flat family film where even its strengths don't reach too high heights, but there are a few worth mentioning. The animation is visually and stylistically vibrant with colors that truly look great, especially when experienced on the big screen. It feels inspired by Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. The aesthetic of the movie is a platter of respectable and clean cinematography sprinkled across the movie.

Accompanying the choice of artistry and admirable cinematography is a serving of strong voice talent, though it's more so a plate of lovely-looking food with bland or mixed results. Besides the casting of Papa Smurf, brought to life in a very great choice of the amazing John Goodman, the majority of everyone else is just rather forgettable in their performances. Even James Corden and Rihanna, both stars in their own right I admire for different reasons, coming across as very monotone and uninspired.

They Smurfed This One Up

© Paramount

The story of the movie is one that's been tread on 1000 times before and will likely be 1000 times again in other various projects we've yet to see. It's the typical evil bad guy wants to harness a powerful object to destroy all good — just...because, no other reason given. There is no substance to it whatsoever, no motivations, no originality, it's just reheating an already reheated piece and the results speak for itself. It's unengaging and never remotely gets off the ground. What's worse is the humour, which not only undercuts any slightly serious or emotional beat the screenplay attempts to inject into the film, but is also just dry and unfunny, even for the kids in my showing. The film's best joke comes at the very end of the 90-minute running time, where a 'sound effect Smurf' (in another joke we've seen done in a lot of prior projects) censors a piece of dialogue. But at least it worked, unlike 90% of other gags throughout.

By the time its credits roll, Smurfs, though stylistically pleasing, stumbles. Where many family movies are good, some great and others not so much, this is one of those others.

Let them Smurf or Rest

The overly generic story is unengaging to begin with: a flat voice talent, humour as fun as a funeral, and a screenplay far too silly even for its smurfing good don't help. There's not a singular reason for this to be set largely in the real world. With this being the third Smurf movie to do that gimmick, maybe now someone at Paramount will realize it just isn't interesting.

It'll probably pass the time for kids and there are certainly much more offensive pictures out there, but even as a blatant and glorified 90-minute music video for Rihanna and James Corden, it's not very good. Watch Smurfs: The Lost Village instead, as that's genuinely a good, vastly underrated Smurfs movie.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

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About Smurfs

Premiere Date: July 18, 2025

Executive Producers: Jay Brown, Ryan Harris, Rihanna, Tyran Smith

Writers: Pam Brady, Peyo

Director: Chris Miller

Production: Paramount Animation

Distribution: Paramount Pictures

Cast: Rihanna, James Corden, Nick Offerman, JP Karliak, Dan Levy, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Jimmy Kimmel, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Alex Winter, Maya Erskine, Billie Lourd, Xolo Maridueña, Kurt Russell, John Goodman

Synopsis: When Papa Smurf is taken by evil wizards Razamel and Gargamel, Smurfette leads the Smurfs on a mission to the real world to save him.