Animated comedy by Raja Gosnell. With Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, and Sofia Vergara. Duration: 1 hour 44 minutes. Released on August 3, 2011 (Sony Pictures Releasing France).
After Tintin, and then Asterix and Obelix, the Smurfs leave the bubbles and frames of comic books behind. For the first time, the little blue characters have their adventures adapted for the big screen. A debut as hilarious as it is surprising.
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When creating The Smurfs in the late 1950s, did the late Belgian cartoonist Peyo ever imagine that his blue heroes would become good actors? Not so sure. Yet, that’s the gamble taken by Raja Gosnell, a former editor of big productions, such as Mrs. Doubtfire (1994).
Driven out of their village by the cunning Gargamel and his cat Azrael (whose behavior is humorously personified in the film at times), the Smurfs get lost in a magic portal that transports them to the chaos of New York.
Objective: leave the American city as quickly as possible. But that’s not accounting for the blunders of a clumsy Smurf who certainly lives up to his name… But above all, our little blue friends spend their time running from their worst enemy and his cat, whose whiskers quiver whenever he spots a white hat.
Jokes, love, action: a delicious mix that enhances the slapstick aspect of the heroes’ smurfy antics. To say this adaptation distorts their adventures would be a lie. On the contrary, we see life in blue. Just like the couple Patrick and Grace, to their misfortune.
