Film: Smurfs
Cast(voice): Rihanna, James Corden, John Goodman, JP Karliak, Nick Offerman, Alex Winter, Kurt Russell, Xolo Mariduena, Hannah Waddingham, Sandra Oh, Jimmy Kimmel, Rylan Clark and Jon Richardson
Director: Chris Miller
Rating: 2.5/5
Runtime: 92 min

The last ‘Smurf’ movie was released in 2017 worldwide, so it’s taken quite a while for this new rebooted ‘Smurf’ to take shape. Rumour has it that Rihanna was instrumental in getting this movie kick-started and she also plays an important role in the film. She lends voice to the only female humanoid, Smurfette, one of the crucial characters in the movie.

The animated narrative begins in interesting fashion. Evil space wizards Razamel & Garganel (both voiced by JP Karliak), looking for a book of magical spells which will enable them to remove all the good in the world, kidnap Papa Smurf (John Goodman), the boss of  the smurf communities.The Smurfs who rush to the rescue include Smurfette, Jaunty, Hefty, Vanity, Worry, Brainy, Grouchy (Chris Miller), No Name smurf (James Corden) desperate for his own moniker, sound effects smurf’ and a Turtle (Marshmellow).

Their bid to rescue Papa smurf takes them into the real world and the inter-dimensional one. The live action/ animation hybrid makes good use of Claymation, 8-bit graphics, anime, plasticine stop motion and kids drawings to create some interesting sequences in the film.