2011's big screen outing for Belgian artist Peyo's most famous creation, The Smurfs, was the predictable kiddie fare people were expecting, if a bit more tolerable for the adults in the audience, thanks to some one liners aimed far over the smallie's head, and a scene stealing turn from Hank Azaria, hamming it up big time. Making $563 million worldwide, it was inevitable we would get a sequel, and here it is. Director Raja Gosnell seems to approaching this from the standpoint of "it ain't broke, don't fix it", meaning again the kids will lap it up, while the accompanying adults won't be squirming too much in their seats.
The focus here is Katy Perry's Smurfette, and her identity crisis of sorts since she was created as an evil spy of Azaria's Gargamel, turned to the Smurf's side by their overpowering goodness (of course). Kidnapped by Vexy (Christina Ricci), an evil, monotone Smurf, or Naughty, and brought to Gargamel, now a world famous magician about to put on a massive show in Paris. The villain tries to make her remember her roots, and win her loyalty in an effort to discover the secret formula to turn the Naughties into real Smurfs, and harvest their essence to power his magic. This sends Papa Smurf (the recently departed Jonathan Winters, who voiced the character in the original cartoon), and a group of other Smurfs to our world to rescue her.
The main plot, and a sub plot which has a returning Neil Patrick Harris, as the Smurf's ally Patrick, dealing with his step dad Victor (Brendan Gleeson), carry a unique message, that family is what you make it, making for a surprisingly emotional punch between the scenes of little blue dudes gallivanting around Paris. Much of the humour here is recycled from the first movie, namely the individual Smurfs wringing laughs from the characteristics they are named for (I will admit to laughing a bit too much at Passive Aggressive Smurf), meaning this may not engage the kiddies as much as the first one, with some scenes losing the kids present at my screening entirely, but still leading them to something enjoyable. This may also add up to harder sell for adults, but the snarky one liners and the lowest common denominator humour will warrant a chuckle, even a throaty laugh, from time to time. The CG effects also seem recycled, not adding much in the way of innovation, but the 3D conversion is a good one, adding a lot of depth to proceedings, and quite a number of scenes make good use of the gimmick.
Azaria is again doing the most work here, donning a bunch of prosthetics and flexing his comedic muscles, in everything from slapstick to wordplay, big time. He is by far the most enjoyable aspect of the movie, and also seems to have inspired Gleeson, who hams it up to the same level, but is no less endearing. The other human actors, Harris and Jayma Mays, are pretty much relegated to the sidelines, and the one note Smurfs, especially John Oliver's Vanity and George Lopez's Grouchy, wear out their welcome quickly.
More of the same is pretty much the safest way to sum up The Smurfs 2, but it is still mostly enjoyable family fare, and a good way to pass the time with the kids as the Summer season starts to wind down.
