I Puffi: Viaggio nella foresta segreta

I don't know what people are expecting from a kids movie. Its the smurfs. Its not like they were going to come out and make a new take on a classic. My son, who just turned six, said he loved it. The animation was beautiful. There were parts that did seem truly original. I enjoyed it and Frank Welker did an awesome job as always. I don't want to spoil anything, but the end credits scene was really funny to me. None of the recent kids movies I've seen have been all that original except Kubo and it was special in its blend of traditional and CG animation. See the Smurfs, or rent it, your kids will love it.

Smurfs: The Lost Village tells the story of the tiny blue creatures, known as Smurfs. Some of the Smurfs are, Smurfette(Demi Lovato), Hefty Smurf(Joe Manganiello), Clumsy Smurf(Jack McBrayer), Brainy Smurf(Danny Pudi) & the Smurfs' leader, Papa Smurf(Mandy Patinkin). The Smurfs are always running away from the evil wizard, Gargamel(Rainn Wilson). Smurfette discovers something strange. Smurfette takes Hefty, Clumsy & Brainy on an adventure, to find out what exactly she thinks she discovered.

Smurfs: The Lost Village is a good film. However, director Kelly Asbury has made this movie only keeping in mind its target audience, children. There is nothing in the film, that the adults can take away. The animation is beautiful. The highlight of the movie is the 3D effects. Every other scene in the film, is duck-worthy in 3D. The humor in the movie, is mainly slapstick & very childish. The soundtrack of the film is memorable. The voice-over work is great. Demi Lovato is spectacular as Smurfette. Rainn Wilson is outstanding as Gargamel. Joe Manganiello is brilliant as Hefty Smurf. Jack McBrayer is hilarious as Clumsy Smurf. Danny Pudi is superb as Brainy Smurf. Mandy Patinkin is impressive as Papa Smurf. Dee Bradley Baker & Frank Welker are amazing as Monty & Azrael, respectively. Michelle Rodriguez, Ellie Kemper, Julia Roberts, Ariel Winter & Meghan Trainor are excellent as SmurfStorm, SmurfBlossom, SmurfWillow, SmurfLily & SmurfMelody, respectively. Smurfs: The Lost Village is not a must watch. However, watch it with your little ones, who I can guarantee will love every minute of the movie.

The Smurfs - The Lost village is a tribute to Peyo and his artistic ability in 1958 in creating the Smurfs. Great work to the director, crew, stars and of course Sony Animation to creating a lost village like no person not even some Smurfs has ever seen before. Avatar had loads of colour. The Lost village is that and more. Great movie for everyone.

Britons of a certain age will remember the Smurfs via a very annoyingly memorable song by Father Abraham which once heard is never forgotten no matter how hard you try. In other words I'm not a fan of the blue ones but since I want to expand my film watching experience I thought I'd see what the mainstream audience are watching at the multiplex. On top of that II did read the synopsis on this site:

In this fully animated, all-new take on the Smurfs, a mysterious map sets Smurfette and her friends Brainy, Clumsy and Hefty on an exciting race through the Forbidden Forest leading to the discovery of the biggest secret in Smurf history

Reading that I was instantly reminded of Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS . a film trilogy that I didn't expect much from but was totally blown away by this cinematic masterwork. Again I should guard my back by saying I wasn't expecting all that much from the Smurfs but went in with an open mind If I have a problem with SMURFS THE LOST VILLAGE it's that I found it totally forgettable. Of course it's difficult to empathise with blue dwarfs but even so I found myself wishing I had a better connection with the characters. It's also not helped by much of the story not taking part within the forbiddingly named "The Forbidden Forest" and wished the story elements had been much darker . That said the film is made as family friendly fare and that's the target audience rather than me

Once again from Sony Pictures Animation movies - the animation is fantastic with great character designs that stay faithful to Peyo's comic series of the same name and does a great job bringing them alive in 3D form, but the hard work from the animators is once again wasted, because all of previous works by the same studio suffer the same problems like the story, characters, dialogue and especially the music (being very bland and forgettable and putting very famous songs has become a tradition for Sony) and all of the weak aspects combined together makes Smurfs: The Lost Village look very beautiful, but unfortunately it feels very mediocre at best and yet at the same time i still consider it an improvement over the awful live-action/animated hybrid Smurfs movies.