The Smurfs

Directed by Raja Gosnell

(PG)

*

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The Smurfs is little more than a cynical attempt to capitalize on the lingering notoriety of a 1980s cartoon franchise, said Christopher Lloyd in the Gainesville, Fla., Sun. “There was no muse whispering into anyone’s ear about why this story had to be told; the only sound was the cha-ching of cash registers.” In a kiddies’ movie that mixes animation with live action, the minuscule main characters are transported from their magical woods to Manhattan, where they hide out from the evil wizard Gargamel by attaching themselves to a marketing exec played by Neil Patrick Harris. The live actors take some of the sting out of the proceedings, said Ty Burr in The Boston Globe. Harris, it seems, “manages to class up whatever he touches.” The very look of this film is cheesy, though, with “the most headache-inducing, blurry 3-D” of the year, said Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. Your children might be clamoring for you to take them to this movie. “But be warned that if you do, in the film’s words, you’ll be ‘up Smurf creek without a Smurfing paddle.’”