Seeing I was such a massive Smurfs fan when I was a kid (I watched the cartoon before going to school each day and had all the figurines from the Petrol Station) Smurfs 3D was either going to leave me overjoyed that they did such a fine job with one of my childhood memories or leave me shattered as Hollywood once again managed to violate something that I held so dear to me. Luckily, it did the former and once again it seems that The Smurfs are going to be loved by an entire generation.
Like The Smurfs of old we once again find the lovable blue creatures under attack from the evil wizard, Gargamel (Hank Azaria – TV’S The Simpsons & Free Agents) and his cat, Azrael as they put together another scheme. Only, problem is that this time around Gargamel knows where The Smurfs live, and in a bid to escape his clutches Papa (Jonathan Winters – Cattle Call, Swing), Gutsy (Alan Cumming – TV’S Web Therapy & Mystery!), Smurfette (Katy Perry – Get Off Me, Kathy Beth Terry Talks 6th Grade), Brainy (Fred Armisen – Easy A, Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell), Grouchy (George Lopez – Rio, Marmaduke) and Clumsy (Fright Night, The Beaver) fall into a vortex and into a world. Here they find themselves with Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris – Beastly, Company) and Grace Winslow (Jayma Mays – Marcy, TV’S Glee), and with Patrick desperate to impress his boss, Odile (Sofia Vergara – TV’S The Cleveland Show & Modern Family) to keep his job the last thing he wants is a group of Smurfs hanging around.
Director, Raja Gosnell (Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Yours, Mine And Ours) must have breathed a sigh of relief when he first read the script of Smurfs 3D. The idea of bringing The Smurfs into modern New York City must have been a bit frightening for some of the people involved, but so good is the screenplay that the story actually works really well. The 3D work though is once again a bit of a let-down though, despite the fact that the early ‘flying’ sequence promises so much.
The voice casting works well and even though I was originally a bit skeptical of Katy Perry voicing Smurfette she actually did a really good job. But the standout is Hank Azaria as Gargamel, despite the fact he is playing the bad guy and that some of his lines are well and truly aimed at children, he manages to really standout, and never misses a laugh line. He is also well supported by Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays whom remind all the TV Producers out there that they have the skills to also make it on the big screen.
As far as family movies go Smurfs 3D is a real standout as it easy to see that it will make adults and children laugh alike. This is one time that Hollywood has taken an old-time favourite and made it look classy on the big screen. A great film for the whole family.
Year: 2011
Director: Raja Gosnell
Stars: Hank Azaria, Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Sofia Vergara, Jonathan Winters, Alan Cumming, Katy Perry, Fred Armisen, George Lopez, Anton Yelchin
Classification: G
Runtime: 103 mins
Rating: 
Available on DVD from 5th January, 2012