Smurfs: The Lost Village

Cast (voiceovers): Demi Lovato, Rainn Wilson, Joe Manganiello, Jack McBrayer, Danny Pudi, Michelle Rodriguez, Ellie Kemper, Ariel Winter, Meghan Trainor, Jake Johnson, Mandy Patinkin, Julia Roberts

Rated: 5/10

Was there something wrong with the 3D glasses that PVR provided or was the movie shot in another dimension? Really, this time the Smurfs were not as arresting, funny or even action oriented. And the fairytale locale they inhabit may have been a riot of colour and imagination but it comes across as too busy to give you that gossamer touch with which you can go the whole hog with an animation film, especially if you are not a gullible child and an adult wanting to go to an animated film.

Other than the fact that PVR has gone on a fleecing spree, discontinuing the already barely affordable popcorn combos to sell corn and cola separately at a steeper price (small corn Rs200 and Pepsi Rs220!), there was also the fact that the largely unhappening smurfs stretched for a longer time than usual.

Actually, it is all about Smurfette, a girl Smurf created by the evil wizard Gargele to draw the Smurfs into a power begetting potion, the film ambles along to reach a lost village where the Smurf men are missing and the Smurf girls are smart, cute and happily lost in the middle of nowhere — till they are discovered and trapped for the potion.

Phew! Perhaps, Smurfs need a magic potion themselves — of humour and happenings before they can come up to the gold standards of captivating animation.

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 23 April, 2017