Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017)
Reviewed By: Sal Sabila and Randall Perando
Smurfs: The Lost Village is a computer-animated adventure comedy movie. It was released on April 7th, 2017. The movie features celebrities who are the voices behind the animated characters. Some of these stars include Demi Lovato, Rainn Wilson, Joe Manganiello, Jack McBrayer, Danny Pudi, Julia Roberts, and more. The movie was directed by Kelly Asbury and produced by Jordan Kerner and Mary Ellen Bauder Andrews. The Ontario movie rating for Smurfs is G, which means the movie is appropriate for all audience. The general age of people in the theater was mostly 3-8 years old.
The smurfs are small, blue, and human-like creatures who live by their moral values of honesty and helpful nature. They live peacefully in Smurf Village surrounded by mushroom-shaped houses and big trees. One of the protagonists is Papa Smurf who is the leader of the village. He is wise, elderly, and loving despite his overprotective character. Some of the main characters include the Clumsy Smurf who is easily afraid of a lot of things yet still determined to help a friend in trouble. The smurf “frenemies”, Brainy Smurf and Hefty Smurf, added more fun in this reboot movie. The dynamic between the tech geek, Brainy, who relies his survival strategies on books versus Hefty who mostly cares about his muscles was definitely entertaining to watch. The only girl in the Village and blonde beauty, Smurfette, was created by Gargamel. Gargamel is the antagonist of the movie whose purpose is to capture all smurfs and become the most powerful wizard in the world. If you are wondering how can Gargamel become powerful from smurfs then you need to watch out for that part.
We found the movie heartwarming and uplifting because the movie sends an inspirational life motto: It doesn’t matter where you come from, what matters is what you choose to be. We would definitely recommend this movie for the smurf fans, the young, and the young at heart.
Was there smoking in this movie?
Did the absence of tobacco affect the plot or quality of the movie? The absence of tobacco did not affect the plot at all. Smurfs is an adventure movie for children. Adding a smoking scene for this movie would be unnecessary and unhelpful in telling a better story.
Did the characters appear less believable/realistic because they did not use tobacco? The characters did not appear less realistic because of the absence of tobacco use. Throughout the movie, Brainy has scenes where we could see him reading books and using gadgets. Like the rest of the smurfs, Brainy’s character is very straightforward. So, adding a scene of a smurf smoking tobacco would be inconsistent with any character. But if the movie had Gargamel smoking then the message would be also harmful to children and inconsistent to his character. Gargamel is resourceful and is not as glamorous as Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians. In addition, smoking as part of his character is contradictory to tobacco industry’s glamorization of smoking.
Why do you think the movie-makers chose to keep tobacco out of this movie? The movie-makers chose to keep the movie tobacco-free for the target audience who are children. The most audience for this film is under the age of 10. The movie focuses on the altruistic behavior of smurfs and Gargamel’s obsession with power. Tobacco use on the movie would show glamorization of smoking which is unfitting for any character.
What are the benefits of not having tobacco present on the screen? One of the benefits is that anyone can watch it and parents would not have to worry about their children getting influenced by tobacco use after watching this movie.