It’s smurfing dire, but might be enough to keep the knee-highs quiet for an hour or so.
This wholly animated franchise reboot features a meagre plot, some bad puns and too much sappiness.
The storytelling style here is far less zany and irreverent than in the typical Pixar film or Lego Movie.
A microwave meal of a kid’s film, consisting of tired tropes and bland platitudes. This particular village should have stayed lost.
The best that can be said about Smurfs: The Lost Village is that this latest CG animated reboot for the oddball blue Belgian comic strip characters isn’t quite as mind-numbingly awful as the last two.
Colourful settings and fantastical beasts might appeal to young ones but the bland plot and awful puns make this an ordeal for grown-ups.
The smurfs, led by Julia Roberts, must defeat an evil wizard and learn about gender politics in this ho-hum adventure risking little in terms of story, script or animation.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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