We began, in 2011, with the pop singer-songwriter Katy Perry getting into the pearly-white high-heels of that almost all coveted position on the earth of animated voice-acting: Smurfette. She managed to retain the position for the 2013 sequel, however then misplaced it to pop singer-songwriter Demi Lovato, who took the reins for 2017’s Smurfs: The Misplaced Village. And now, in 2025, we have now one more pop singer-songwriter lending their dulcet tones to essay the one feminine Smurf in existence.
Just like the vaunted roster of well-known actors who’ve performed Hamlet, we are going to quickly be capable of namecheck that superb lineage of actors who’ve tried their hand at Smurfette, with Rihanna stepping as much as the plate for this newest incarnation. “I liked your Smufette,” individuals will name from the jostling throngs exterior a gala première, or from the entrance rows of a stadium live performance. We solely should think about who subsequent can be tapped as much as play animation’s most iconic lone feminine?
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We point out this as a result of the tagline “Rihanna is Smurfette” seems to be the only advertising technique for this new piece of acquainted filler fodder, its distributors clearly satisfied that that is the one piece of data that potential viewers might want to know as a way to convert them from “Smurf curious” to “Smurf shopper”. It’s attention-grabbing to see that many of the response from her followers to this headline star casting is a few variation of, “Rih-rih, why are you doing this as a substitute of going again to the studio? It’s been 9 years because the final file!”
Unhappy to say, nevertheless, that her voice performing in Smurfs isn’t going to scratch that specific itch, as she and her brethren head off on a standard-issue inter-dimensional journey to forestall a magic e book from slipping into the fingers of Gargamel’s even-more-evil brother, Razamel. The plot is slipshod, the jokes are weak and the animation model gives little or no to lodge into the reminiscence. It has all of the traits of a kind of films – which have change into fairly a common prevalence now – the place the one motive for its existence is to fulfil a contractual obligation and justify additional retention of IP rights.
Not like the unique Katy Perry-era movies, which positioned the animated Smurfs towards live-action backdrops and alongside human actors, this one has occasional scenes of our lil’ blue friends wandering by way of the streets of Paris or London, nevertheless it all appears to be like like nameless inventory footage. It’s such a unusual and alienating inventive choice, and virtually lends the movie an experimental edge.
Elsewhere we’ve acquired some weak, showtune-esque musical numbers, some wacky various animated inserts, and a “cease the dangerous man from getting the factor” storyline that even nearly all of its pre-teen viewers could have seen a billion occasions earlier than. That is so sub-par that it even had this reviewer secretly craving for the Wildean-wit (comparatively talking) and toe-tapping musicality of the Trolls films. And James Cordon, fittingly, offers his voice to a Smurf who has no objective within the world.
