The Smurfs 2-A Screenplay That Failed to Explain, A Humdrum Animated Film That Confuses.

PIC of the Day

It was my DAUGHTER who requested we go see the movie "The Smurfs 2". Now if my daughter were around ten years old, that would not be all that odd. My daughter is, well she's over 35, let's leave it at that. HER daughter, my granddaughter naturally, is nine years old and she was, of course, delighted at the prospect of seeing this Smurf movie with her grandmother and mother.

Oh yes I do recall my daughter watching Smurf cartoons during her formative years. I never much paid attention to the cartoon because, frankly, I thought a cartoon about little blue people to be quite dumb.

But the 36-year old daughter wanted to see the Smurf movie and granddaughter was happy to tag along.

The movie was okay, hardly any paragon of animation that Disney or Pixar would put out.

There was one major problem with this movie and heed the laments of one viewer who had no idea what the Smurfs were all about or what quite a few of the characters in this film had to do with the price of eggs in China.

First, why do the Smurfs live in mushrooms? Second, is Smurfette the only female Smurf? If so, how did the other Smurfs get here? Are Smurfs hatched or something?

Gargamel is, of course, the Smurf villain, along with his nasty cat. Why? Did Gargamel somehow create the Smurfs as the storyline of the movie seems to indicate.

For evil Gargamel kidnaps Smurfette to steal her "essence" and create more blue people, only Gargamel wants his new Smurfs to be bad Smurfs. The viewer is to understand that Smurfette was also a creation of Gargamel but an originally evil Smurfette was brought over to the light side by Grandpa Smurf.

The really bizarre part of this movie, at least to THIS Blogger Reviewer, is the entrance of human characters into this movie.

Neil Patrick Harrison plays a character that seems to be known by the Smurfs though the movie story does not really tell how this human family (including his wife and step-father and kid named, of all things, "Blue") is known by the Smurfs.

I ASSumed that this family was part of the first Smurf's movie but I still don't know why they were in this movie save to move the storyline along.

Part of the movie storyline was advanced by this human family in that Harrison's character had a wild and wooly stepfather who interacted with Harrison's character to bring it despair, exasperation and eventually, love and a lesson learned.

It's not that this movie was disappointing in terms of entertainment. But it's hardly rocket science or even for children much above the age of 10.

Daughter liked it, granddaughter liked it, hell I liked it.

Maybe they should have hired me to write the screenplay. I'd for sure have included a small scene explaining the human family and why that little boy was named Blue.

Ending With a Smile