If you grew up in the ‘80s, there’s a strong likelihood that The Smurfs were a part of your childhood, and there have been a couple of attempts to dip back into that nostalgia for the next generations. That latest effort, the new Smurfs animated movie, hits the 2025 movie calendar on July 18, and the critics are here to help parents decide if they should plan on taking the kids to the theater this weekend.
Directed by Chris Miller and written by Pam Brady, Smurfs features an ensemble voice cast and original music by Rihanna. The nine-time Grammy winner also stars as Smurfette alongside Nick Offerman, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Octavia Spencer and many more. Despite those collective talents, Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post gives the movie zero stars, calling it one of the worst movies of the year and saying: “I Smurf-ing loathed it.” The critic says of the animated musical:
Most of the numbers are uncomfortable club beats and eardrum-busting downers. ... [James Corden], as No Name Smurf, awkwardly pretends to be Sam Smith as he croons a sappy pop ballad called ‘Always on the Outside’ about his womp-womp search for purpose. The interminable dirge boasts such inspired lyrics as ‘Does happy ever after really ever happen?’ Answer: Not for anyone unlucky enough to have bought a ticket to Smurfs.
The above critic calls Smurfs one of the worst movies of the year, but Telegraph’s Robbie Collins one-ups him by saying it’s one of the worst films he’s seen — ever. He says the feature is “a colossal pile of ‘Smurf’ – and that’s putting it politely.” Collins writes:
It has all the charm and personality of a dented traffic cone and features perhaps the single most tin-eared screenplay – in which Papa Smurf is kidnapped by the villainous wizard Gargamel, and Smurfette leads a globe-trotting mission to free him – that I have ever encountered in my two decades as a critic. … But will it keep the kids quiet for an hour and a half? Probably not, though it is loud enough that you won’t be able to hear them complain.
Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence recorded her own unhinged observations on what she called a “clustersmurf” of a movie, and while Miller says she’s seen worse children’s movies, she says she may not have agreed to see Smurfs if she’d realized James Corden voiced the lead role. The critic concludes:
This movie definitely feels aimed at its target audience [under the age of five] and no one else — there are lots of scenes where the characters slide down a ramp or slide, lots of dancing, lots of silly jokes. And I have, in my time, seen far worse kids’ flicks. But if I were a parent, would I be looking forward to hearing this movie play on repeat for the month-plus my kid would fixate on it? Smurf that.
Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent gives Smurfs 1 star out of 5, calling the upcoming kids' movie an “unfunny and often inexplicable disaster of a movie.” The critic says she was horrified by the Addison Rae-esque gyrating and for the high quantity of jokes centered around weight. Loughrey writes:
This Smurfs might just be the worst of the lot, because it’s simultaneously derivative and so crammed with new Smurfs lore that it may make you yearn for the comparatively humble hijinks of Marvel’s multiverse.
Wilson Chapman of IndieWire says the flick is a “resolutely safe, profoundly boring first draft” that lacks any of the whimsy that drew children to the ‘80s cartoon. The critic gives this “charmless, generic” movie a D, writing:
At 90 minutes, Smurfs somehow still feels too long, blatantly stalling for time with long pointless chase sequences and diversions rather than hurrying up its extremely barebones rescue mission plot: There’s no less than two poorly integrated musical numbers that are so out of place in the film they have a jumpscare effect.
John Nugent of Empire rates the animated movie 1 star out of 5, writing that it’s a tedious entry in a tedious series with more than a whiff of corporate mandate. Nugent continues:
A wiser, wittier film might have found an interesting angle for No Name’s identity crisis. Instead we have James Corden singing an interminably earnest ballad about ‘trying to find a reason to be strong’, a sentiment we can sympathise with while watching this film. Yes, in addition to their signature ‘Sing A Happy Song’ (which even the Smurfs themselves here acknowledge is annoying), there are songs in this one. God speed, parents.
Well, there’s no sugar-coating how critics feel about this movie, but anyone who’s interested in seeing Smurfs should absolutely feel free to draw their own conclusions. The new animated flick is in theaters Friday, July 18.