Honestly, I’ve lost count of how many Smurfs movies Hollywood has gone through already, but 2017’s Smurfs: The Lost Village, the one modern entry which actually committed strictly to animation, didn’t exactly light the box office on fire. That said, with a budget of just $60 million, it made just enough money to justify more big-screen flicks. And that’s exactly what we’re getting with Paramount’s new take on the blue characters.
‘New’ might be too generous of an adjective here, as the first trailer is just going through the motions and feels like more generic live-action/animation hybrid slop that the whole family can enjoy and forget about in less than 24 hours. Sure, this might work when it opens this summer on July 18, but both the franchise and moviegoers deserve more.
Paramount’s marketing efforts are being spearheaded by Rihanna, who’s no stranger to promoting movies at this point, few of which are any good. Regardless, there’s some spark to the refreshed Smurf designs and this would actually look pretty cool had the powers that be committed to another ‘just animated’ entry. Instead, the characters are once again thrown against their will into the boring, daunting world of regular humans. Hijinks ensue, and you know how the rest will play out. Gargamel’s brother is showing up for this one too, so maybe an unexpected dynamic could blossom on that front.
You can watch the first-ever trailer, filled to the brim with popular songs and the usual mind-numbing gags, below:
John Goodman plays Papa Smurf, which, in all honesty, is pretty inspired casting. He’s mysteriously taken by the evil wizards Razamel and Gargamel, so “Smurfette (Rihanna) leads the Smurfs on a mission into the real world to save him.” The rest of the voice cast is equally packed, including James Corden, Nick Offerman, JP Karliak, Daniel Levy, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Alex Winter, Maya Erskine, Billie Lourd, Xolo Maridueña, and Kurt Russell. Something tells me the production budget will be much higher this time around.
Smurfs will have to compete against Jurassic World: Rebirth (July 2), Superman (July 11), and The Fantastic Four: First Steps (July 25) for box office supremacy unless the release plans for any of them change. Good luck to everyone involved.
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