Smurfs (2025) Film Review: A Big Blue Mess

Despite the cute blue and universally known titular characters, Smurfs (2025) does not quite manage to dazzle or impress.

Smurfs is set in Smurf village, where the main characters live: Smurfette (Rihanna), the only female Smurf; No Name (James Corden), who has yet to find his purpose and role in the community; Vanity Smurf (Rylan Clark); Brainy Smurf (Xolo Mariduena); and Worry Smurf (Giovanna Fletcher). When their location is discovered by two evil wizards, Gargamel (JP Karliak) and his brother Razamel (also JP Karliak), and Papa Smurf (John Goodman) is mysteriously kidnapped, the Smurfs will have to embark on a mission that takes them to the real world in order to save their home and their people. 

Unfortunately, Smurfs easily becomes forgettable. As the plot goes on, it increasingly feels like this is a story we have already seen many times before. The themes of finding yourself and your purpose are certainly important to showcase in children’s movies, but this one doesn’t even do it right, nor does it give them the proper space they would deserve to be thoroughly explored. Instead, it almost parodies the uplifting and feel good narratives we are so used to seeing in media today. It becomes immediately clear that the villains are the most interesting, and funniest, element of the film, so much so that I was almost rooting for them at one point. 

For a film that relies so much on its protagonists’ character development, Smurfs also doesn’t do a great job at exploring its characters. Much like its story, they mostly remain surface level, without there really being any depth to the narrative, the relationships between them, or the characters themselves at all. This is a shame, because their stories could have been relatively interesting on paper, especially when it comes to No Name, who spends much of the film looking for a purpose in a world where everyone else seems to have already found what they are good at. Instead, the film treats these themes in a very clichéd and predictable way. 

The animation does not particularly stand out either. The style itself is not groundbreaking and the very medium of animation is not used to bring anything new to the setting and worldbuilding of Smurf village. The movie also tries to include the visual style and graphics typical of comic books. This could have been interesting to see on screen, but the film does it in such a sporadic way that it does not justify its existence at all. The contrast between the Smurf world, portrayed through animation, and the very real visuals of our world also doesn’t work, as it seems jarring and distracting more than anything else. The musical numbers seem out of place and unnecessary too. In this sense, they almost feel more of a commercial tie-in to later sell the music of the film rather than having musical numbers for narrative purposes. 

In terms of comedy, Smurfs is also not as funny as it thinks it is. Some of the jokes and humour admittedly work – the running gag with Sound Effects Smurf is especially amusing throughout the film – but the movie often drags them out for too long, making even the funnier moments lose their charm. For example, the very use of the word smurf in the script could have been amusing, but it easily becomes overused and quite frankly painful to sit through halfway through the film. While many other movies, especially when it comes to animation, manage to create an impressive mix of humour that can work for both the younger and older audience, this film fails at doing that on all fronts, making its 92-minutes runtime feel incredibly long. 

Overall, Smurfs feels like a disaster waiting to happen, with its incredibly general and overused plot lines, characters that are barely explored or given any depth, and unimpressive use of the technical elements. 

Smurfs will be released in US & Canadian theatres, in UK & Irish cinemas, and globally in theaters on July 18, 2025.