Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017)
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Smurfs: The Lost Village Movie Review
Smurfs: The Lost Village is a 2017 animated family fantasy film directed by Kelly Asbury from Sony Animation. It’s one of their most underrated flicks.
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“Stupid reverse psychology.
It never works“
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Gargamel as well as the Smurfs race to find a hidden village full of female Smurfs while Smurfette gets to be the hero in this installment for the franchise. Let’s first get this out of the way – the critics apparently hate the Smurfs. They are bluephobic or something. Yes, both of its predecessors deserved all those negative reviews, but this one was harshly judged.
Because it’s simply a solid movie when all is said and done. Finally, the franchise is back to its basics which is the animated medium and I was more than happy for it. Yes, there are some very unfortunate overly modern aspects to this movie as well – the soundtrack is too hip again and the jokes about smurfing got on my nerves – but for the majority of its runtime it’s actually more focused on the adventure and the more classic approach to telling its story.
And yes, the story is very clichéd and done so many times before in animation. The entire finale was way too similar to both ‘Snow White’ and ‘Frozen’, but at least the movie means well, and it’s got those female Smurfs which was a nice twist to the formula while it never got too preachy with the feminism angle which I appreciated.
I really liked how the movie is about Smurfette as she has always been underutilized in this franchise, and now she got her moment to shine without sacrificing the guys too which was great. I loved her backstory with Gargamel and how he created her while her relationship with everyone is very sweet and you can see how much she loves them and they love her. And how she saved the day was expected, but cool nonetheless.
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Speaking of Gargamel, I adored him here. He’s so much fun as he always is. He’s a goofy, over-the-top villain and I love him for that. He’s well voiced, very well designed and actually rather smart and competent here which caught me by surprise. I also loved his comedic interactions with Azrael as the two are always great together.
The other Smurfs also get their moment to shine. Papa Smurf is wonderful per usual, but Hefty and Brainy are great together and I really dug their opposing relationship. I also really liked the female Smurfs, but they did feel underused given their short screen time which was unfortunate.
Smurfs: The Lost Village actually looks awesome. Some have criticized its animation, but to me that’s a baffling choice to criticize given that it’s the clear highlight of this picture. They thankfully ditched the live-action medium for this one and it couldn’t have been better for it.
Not only is the animation incredibly polished and colorful, but simply pleasing in its traditionalist approach and execution. It’s CGI and modernized, but still at its heart classical and reminding me of the original TV series very pleasantly. The designs are all terrific as well.
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As I have already stated above, the music is terrible and overly loud and modern. The pacing is also so-so and the same goes for the dialogue. But the adventure is wonderful and the film is very spirited, fun and constantly endearing. It’s thus hugely underappreciated.
The critics apparently hate the Smurfs as it’s baffling to me that they gave such harsh reviews to Smurfs: The Lost Village when in reality it’s a huge improvement upon its two deservedly judged predecessors. Yes, the story is clichéd and once again the soundtrack is loud and obnoxious, but the animation is colorful, polished and pleasantly traditional in designs, the adventure is spirited and fun plus the characterization is pretty good. It’s a very underrated, solid Sony flick.
