A 'Smurfs' movie: Good idea?

What happened

Columbia Pictures announced on Tuesday that it has obtained the movie rights for an adaptation of The Smurfs, the popular Hannah-Barbera cartoon series that was a staple on NBC’s Saturday morning lineup during the ’80s, but whose characters originated in Belgium 50 years ago. The movie will be a mix of CGI and live action, and critics are debating whether or not making the film is a good idea. No release date has been set. (Reuters)

What the commentators said

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“Is nothing from our childhoods sacred?” said Ian Dransfield in the blog Heckler Spray. And making the movie part-live action is just “plain ridiculous.” How are they going to make this work? “Have tiny CGI Smurfs invading a human-populated locale? Are they going to use midgets? Is Lindsay Lohan going to put on a blue costume and slut it up with all the other blue horndogs?” Let’s hope this movie turns out to be an “incredible failure.”

Actually, the Smurfs movie could do quite well, said Alex Billington in the blog FirstShowing.net. Last year’s Alvin and the Chipmunks movie was a mix of live action and CGI, and that took in $217 million. Based on the success of that film, “Sony decided that there was definite potential to turn the Smurfs into a similar kind of family film.” Adults may not be interested in the movie, but it’s sure to “be a huge hit at the box office with the kids.”

Don’t be so sure, said TheMovieBlog.com. The guys that wrote Shrek 2 and 3 have signed on to write the script for the Smurfs movie. “Both of those films were brutal,” and “the third one made even the second Shrek film look good.” Hopefully, they’ll do a better job with this project, because “the Smurf’s first big screen outing” is a big deal.