Being Dutch and living close to the Belgian border I grew up reading the comics about The Smurfs, called De Smurfen over here. When I saw the first posters for this film I was thinking it was going to be a disaster - there had been animation films with the smurfs before and none of them came close to the level of the comics and this wasn't even going to be animation, it was going to be half-and-half. When I then saw the first trailers and how the characters looked much like the "new smurfs" that were made years after the original series the fear for a disaster got even bigger.
I went to see it anyway because the kid wanted to see it and to my great surprise the film really wasn't half bad. They kept enough of the original theme and characters to bind to the original comic and added enough human interaction to make it funny. Having the story take place in a place and time that is completely unlike the one in the comics makes for a big difference and gives space for extra easy cop-outs to keep the story rolling.
I guess the film isn't any good if you're not known to the original series and aren't a kid, but for my kid and me it worked.
8 out of 10 cats with a piece of ear missing
I went to see it anyway because the kid wanted to see it and to my great surprise the film really wasn't half bad. They kept enough of the original theme and characters to bind to the original comic and added enough human interaction to make it funny. Having the story take place in a place and time that is completely unlike the one in the comics makes for a big difference and gives space for extra easy cop-outs to keep the story rolling.
I guess the film isn't any good if you're not known to the original series and aren't a kid, but for my kid and me it worked.
8 out of 10 cats with a piece of ear missing