Smurfs (the 2025 one) - Trailer Analysis (from a confused individual)

 What the heck did I just watch?

Smurf’s Time the Charm? – Trailer Analysis

"Okay but who is Rihanna?"

The Smurfs are one of the few Franco-Belgium comic series to manage to garner a sizeable popularity in the US. From the iconic 1980s series produced by Hanna-Barbera that ran for 9 seasons to the 2011 feature that reignited said popularity in spite of the critical lashing – Look you can hate on a movie all you want, but it still made over 550 million at the box office, the studio won here.
Even as the film series experienced diminishing returns – right down to the point that this is the third reboot of the feature film series in 14 years – the franchise still maintained a ton of popularity with video games and the current (surprisingly well animated) CG series that pulls in a ton of views on YouTube alone. Now we have Paramount finally stepping up to the plate for their own Smurfs feature after losing the chance in the 2000s to Sony and…first impressions…..are absolutely baffling…..

Not sure if bad marketing or if someone is trying to Spongebob my Smurfs. Either way there's shenanigans afoot.

So lets get the big positive out the way first – I absolutely adore the animation and the visual look the movie is going for. As part of the ongoing trend of animation execs allowing their studios to go for a more stylized approach – to a degree – we now have a Smurfs feature following in the stylized CG approach.

To the point that this is probably the best the characters have looked on the big screen period. It may not be a 1 for 1 interpretation of the original comics, but it feels as if it is. It looks lively, the expressions are great without relying on overly bouncing CG visuals. Same goes with literally adapting some elements of the original Franco-Belgium comic (explanation bubbles and so forth, bonus points if they go all the way and include a Smurf cursing with colorful dialogue boxes).

Cursing in symbols is a creative choice that needs to make a comeback

Now that we have the big positive out the way….now for the “what the heck is the rest” bit. I saw a description that summed it up best, it’s as if they had smashed the live action movie with the 2017 Lost Village feature. For me it feels like we’re getting an odd mixture of different ingredients to this Smurf concoction – the different Smurf universes makes me think of SpiderVerse and the multiverse shenanigans, the sudden jump to the live action environment feels more akin to how it was done in the Spongebob features than the prior Smurfs movie.

But that’s the thing isn’t it, it’s a weird mixture of different things that are entirely different being smurfed into a blend.


This does leave me curious to check the movie out, but it doesn’t make me feel confident on it actually being good.


 

Every scene I look, it's animation, then live action, then stylized CG, then live action again. I look at the synopsis of the movie and it's vague. I look at what the writers and Paramount's previous outputs are but I get no answers. I look at SpongeBob and try to find a connection there. But all  I see is Rihanna, Rihanna, Rihanna is Smurfette. No one is giving any real answers

With that said, Paramount Animation need to do something about their marketing department – from the weirdly late marketing campaign for Sonic 3 to the abysmal trailers for Transformers One, TMNT Mutant Mayhem and now this, it absolutely feels like someone is actively dictating the worst trailers possible.

From the weird focus on just Rihanna being the face of the movie – look I get she’s the producer and all but even Seth Rogen wasn’t plastering himself over the entire movie and cast call, they highlighted their celebrity cast the old fashioned way, by slapping it in your face at the end of the trailer.

(Maybe they’re embarrassed they have James Corden in the cast? This is a joke but who’s still casting him in crud in 2025?).


Secondly the humor, there are bits that did amuse me, be it how daft it is like Nick Offerman’s gag as Ken (…who…is the most mundane named Smurf in the franchise) – but I can’t tell how much of that is just me who finds anything Offerman says in his dry humor amusing at the very least. That said, gotta say, they really opened themselves up to all kinds of jokes with “Influencer Smurf”….which yeah no there is no excusing that, that is just a terrible creation.

If anything, you’d think that Influencer Smurf would be the villain, don’t think I’ve heard the term “influence” be used in positive connotations lately.

Rihanna’s Smurfette….is something I’m mixed on , some clips released have her sound fine, others make her voice feel mismatched. The fact that I don’t really see her as the character doesn’t help, be it the marketing wanting to plaster this as a Rihanna vehicle so bad, to the fact that just voice wise, all I can see is her in a recording booth. Which is odd, because you have John Goodman being John Goodman but ya know what, at least his voice suits Papa Smurf.

I am surprised however that for Gargamel and his brother (surprisingly not named Rizzamel but rather Razamel), they opted for a proper voice actor rather than a big named celebrity. While the trailer doesn’t reveal his performance as the former, if it’s the same voice he uses for Razamel, I’m going to be a little disappointed, especially since ever since Hank Azaria nailed the role in the live action features, the vocal performance for the character has been very subpar at best in successive Smurf titles.


And now for the elephant in the room – the live action bit. The trailers focus heavily on the Smurfs coming to our world, but I’ve noticed some inconsistencies, one that some bits of the ”real world” segments seem to be animated as well and the bit where it’s clear that they seem to be multiverse jumping. Now whether this is poor marketing (again, Paramount), or the actual plot of the feature, it’s honestly hard to tell. It makes sense from a corporate vibe to evoke the vibes of the first movie, what with it being 14 years old now and the biggest Smurfing hit. But that’s  from a corporate standpoint, I doubt anyone marketing the feature really cares about the franchise beyond the “brand” part and the trailer definitely feels that way.


So end of the day, rather than outright hating it, I feel…entirely confused. There are stuff I like, things that seem promising, things that have my curiosity (for better or worse). But gosh there are a lot of red flags that signify this could be utter garbage – and again, this is the one Smurf feature that is really pushing itself as a feature vehicle for one particular celebrity which….I don’t know how to feel about. It’s not a guarantee that it’ll be bad, but when something is pushed as a product for a celebrity, it does carry the feeling that quality control isn’t on the mind.


Will I see it? Probably, if only to cover different animated features of 2025 – both western and eastern wise.

But whether I see it in theaters is another story, especially with how packed July is with Fantastic Four and Superman (and Jurassic World 4 I guess).



But hey I guess it wouldn’t be a Paramount Animation product if it didn’t underperform at the box office ayyyyyy.