Smurfs: The Lost Village English Movie

The Lost Village is the reboot nobody asked for and does nothing to prove us wrong. Apr 22, 2017 By Vighnesh Menon

In this heyday of unnecessary prequels, sequels, remakes and reboots, the release of Smurfs: The Lost Village won't come as a surprise. The immediate animation reboot to the not-so-old Smurfs franchise has no reason to be in theatres but all is fine as long as kids and parents fill the seats and buy its merchandise, isn't it?

Smurfs: The Lost Village might be a reboot but the only real change we feel with it is in the switch from live-action/animation to pure computerized animation. Its narrative is too childish for adults and too ancient for the current crop of children. Painstakingly re-introducing and establishing its main set of characters who had last shown up on the big screen merely 4 years ago, it tells a story not any different from the rehashed bedtime stories you, your parents and your grandparents had consumed as children. The Lost Village borrows the same recipe, like a creatively exhausted parent would to put his/her child to sleep. As a formality, it inserts its own characters into the mix and rearranges the formula to not look too cheap, although with questionable success. To keep up with the times, it has a staple female character who faces identity crisis and whose questions have to be answered first and foremost in the film.

The blue, bubbly creatures and their voice acting counterparts do a decent job of being adorable, innocent and virtuous. But the central character, Smurfette, is a far cry from the strong animated female characters immortalized by the likes of Disney, Pixar and Studio Ghibli. This is a work of Sony Pictures Animation, who are relative newcomers and hitherto have only had sporadic success in the field of animation.

If The Lost Village had a standout performer, it would be Joe Manganiello, who voices the role of Hefty Smurf, the fitness freak. That said, the rest of the cast, including Demi Lovato, Mandy Patinkin, Danny Pudi, Rainn Wilson and Julia Roberts, do well as a voice-acting unit.

Smurfs: The Lost Village is a film which takes the optimism of children and the patience of parents for granted. By the mid-way mark of its bland adventure, it literally turns into a bedtime story for viewers of all age-groups. Now you know where to go if you are sleep-deprived.