Divalicious Review! Is Smurfs Still Trying To Make Smurfing A Thing?
By Caroline Cao | July 17, 2025 | Celebrity & Culture
Smurfs isn’t high art, nor does it need to be. But neither does its latest 2025 animated film transcend the question “Why?” Why those blue little creatures of the mushrooms? You get the inkling that Puss in Boots director Chris Miller (not to be confused with the other animator, Christopher Miller) yearned to do something more with this latest Smurfs material written by Pam Brady.
I admit that I have not kept up with the times with Smurfs, other than the CGI-film 2017 Smurfs: The Lost Village reboot (with Demi Lovato as Smurfette). Prior to this, I am also aware of Sony’s attempts to assimilate them into live-action.
Smurfs is based on Belgian artist Peyo’s comic, which was adapted into the Hanna-Barbera Productions cartoon (the iteration I grew up with). I am also aware of the cinematic attempts to assimilate them into live-action (critical consensus doesn’t appear happy with them).
Now that the Smurfs are in the hands of Paramount, the 2025 film follows a familiar formula: an ordinary guy who wants to discover his talent and identity. A No-Name Smurf (James Corden, despite what online reputation tells you, is otherwise decent) wants to find his thing. He only has his friend Smurfette (Rihanna). But wait; there’s a whole prologue of evil wizards, J. P. Karliak having fun with Gargamel and Razamel, and a sentient magic book (Amy Sedaris) that ran away into the secret care of Papa Smurf (John Goodman), leader of the village. The attempt to expand the lore and give Papa Smurf a backstory is more headscratching than enlightening, and it leads to convolutions, the kind of forced, not fun ones. Yes, this is a Smurfs film with a multiverse.
One thing I did know about the Smurf lore was that Smurfette, the lone female Smurf who led to essayist Katha Pollitt coining the term “Smurfette Principal, was often a puzzle and a fodder for gender critiques. This film has one interesting choice to cast female voice actresses, Maya Erskine and Billie Lourd, for otherwise male-presenting Smurf. (The 2017 film opted to have a village full of female Smurfs.)
To the credit of the 2025 film, it makes a well-intentioned attempt to play with the lore that has followed Smurfette (made of clay by their wizard arch-nemesis as an infiltrator among the Smurfs) since her 1966 comic debut. Still, it fails to transcend its manufactured execution. At least, Smurfette—ahem, her voice actress Rihanna—gets one wonderful song, though the sequence doesn’t earn emotional resonance.
Most of Smurfs drama and supporting characters hit as one-note. After all, what more colors can be found with Grouchy Smurf (Miller) or Brainy Smurf (Xolo Maridueña)? Certainly, the original Disney’s Snow White succeeded at a compelling Grumpy Dwarf, but Smurfs doesn’t prove its chops.
I only got hearty laughs near the end of the film when it dives into some bold verbal gags. For about two minutes, I saw a Smurfs that was truly an animator’s playground.
Smurfs is in theaters beginning July 18.
Photo credit: Paramount
