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The Smurfs | 2011 | PG | - 2.3.3
A middle-aged wizard (Hank Azaria) and his cat (voiced by Fred Welker) find the Smurfs' village and chase six Smurfs into the forest and through a vortex to 21st-century NYC. Clumsy Smurf (voiced by Anton Yelchin) gets lost and Papa Smurf (voiced by Jonathan Winters) finds him and tries to create a way back to their village by using blue moon magic. The six Smurfs hide in the home of a man and a woman (Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays), but the wizard and his cat find them. Also with Sophia Varga and Tim Gunn, and the voices of Katy Perry, Alan Cumming, George Lopez, Fred Armisen, Jeff Foxworthy, Paul Reubens, Gary Basaraba and Kenan Thompson. Directed by Raja Gosnell. [1:42]
SEX/NUDITY 2 - A wizard points magic extract at a woman from a ring and changes her into a younger woman with larger breasts (we see cleavage), darker hair and flatter buttocks; this new woman faints at her image in a mirror. Three scenes feature a well-endowed woman wearing a low-cut dress that reveals significant cleavage. A woman wears a short skirt that reveals most of her legs. We see several women wearing short shorts that reveal their full legs. A female cartoon character pushes down her Marilyn Monroe type dress as it begins to rise while she stands over an air grate (we see no nudity).
► A man and a woman kiss briefly twice.
► A man says sarcastically that there is nothing wrong with one girl living with 99 boys. A female cartoon character tells a woman that a stork delivered male Smurfs, but a scientist in a lab created her to distract the 99 boys, although it did not work. A female Smurf says, "I kissed a Smurf and I liked it." An animated character stands on an air grate in an apartment and says the wind feels good on his giblets (implying testicles) and his enchanted forest (implying pubic hair); we see that he is wearing long pants under a kilt. A wizard with a cat lying on his head asks the cat, "You're a boy?" and the cat hisses. In a toy store, a grouchy Smurf falls in love with a plastic Ms. Green M&M; later, he sews a doll of her likeness to stand in his house.
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VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A Smurf consults an enchanted vision that shows ghostly images of Smurfs in cages, and monsters and a dragon-wand chasing them.
► 3D effects contain blue lightning streaks aimed toward the audience, such as toys in a toy store falling forward, Smurfs falling toward the audience, an eerie blue moon and a vision wafting into the viewers space.
► A wizard fights with a dragon-wand and electric essence against a human with a crowbar and Smurfs with silverware and rocks; a slingshot is rigged with an apple full of nail spikes and it is shot into a wizard's buttocks (we hear him scream, and no blood is visible), he uses his wand to create a large blue tornado, he loses his wand, and is thrown over a wall and into a pile of trash bags on a sidewalk.
► A wizard tosses a cat through a magic wall and asks if he is dead; the cat hisses, runs into the back of a stopped taxi, hits the street and gets up unharmed. A bus hits a wizard and a cat asks if he is dead; the wizard's nose and one cheek are red, but he is otherwise unharmed. In a fall, a wizard's nose breaks to one side (there's no blood or swelling) and he straightens it out in his hands. In a toy store, a wizard sucks up Smurfs and a cat in a leaf blower, and then reverses the suction and blows them out into shelves (no one is hurt).
► A wizard is tasered by police into convulsions and is taken to jail. A swarm of flies carry a man out of jail after accidentally slamming him into a basketball backboard and some razor wire on a fence (he is uninjured but yells Ouch!). A log swinging on ropes strikes a wizard; his face is reddened, but he is unhurt. Smurfs kick one another in the rear several times when events do not occur quickly enough; no one is hurt and we see no physical damage. Smurfs kick and tie up a man, but let him go after one threatens to make haggis out of his innards. A wizard and a cat chase Smurfs and humans through streets and buildings several times; they, fall, crash into things and knock people down without permanent injury. Five Smurfs are chased by hordes of children that want to buy the "blue dolls"; one child kicks a man in the shin for getting in his way, toys fall from shelves and break, displays fall over and a wizard falls on spilled toy pieces.
► A wizard experiments with potions and blows his house up, but is unharmed. A wizard steps on small houses and breaks them. A wizard steps on his cat's tail to quiet him. A wizard captures a Smurf and makes an essence from his beard. A Smurf works on a spell to open a vortex.
► A woman faints at her image in a mirror. Magic spells and potions are mentioned and used, a glowing blue essence is extracted from Smurf hair distilled in lab machines and poured into the mouth of a dragon-wand (it creates electricity that blows people across a room and explodes walls).
► An accident-prone Smurf continually falls, trips, knocks people off ladders, hits people in the face accidentally, steps in pies, overturns dinner tables and creates a mess everywhere he goes; he knocks 50 dancers off a platform into a creek running beside it. A husband and his wife each discover Smurfs in their apartment and everyone screams.
► A man argues with his female boss several times and feels he'll lose his job for disagreeing with her. A man and six cartoon characters argue many times loudly about interrupting his work. A husband and his wife argue about him working too much. A woman yells at a man. A man insults an older woman. A man tells a woman that to win in a business environment against the competition they will need knights, armor, poisoned arrows and pikes to line up heads outside the company's entrance. A Smurf talks about the "business end" of a sheep. A Smurf asks who "smurfed" (farted) in a box where they are hiding.
► A wizard gets up at a restaurant, grabs an empty champagne bucket from a waiter, takes it behind a short wall and urinates into it (we can't hear it but he says he feels better), returns the bucket to the waiter and tells him to throw the contents out of the window. A Smurf mistakes blue M&Ms as Smurf droppings. A wizard mistakes a port-a-potty as a science lab -- he and a cat enter and exit, stumbling and complaining about bad magic in there. A cat licks its bottom and a wizard grimaces, asking if he needs a breath mint. A cat coughs up a slimy hairball containing Smurfette's hair and a wizard picks it up and plays with it. A Smurf drinks blue hand soap, burps, falls into a toilet and must be fished out.
LANGUAGE 3 - 4 anatomical terms, 6 mild scatological terms, 7 mild obscenities, blinkin', ear-damning (heavy emphasis on "damn" by a human), son of a Smurf, Smurfin' (understood as friggin'), I'll be Smurfed (I'll be damned or darned), you Smurfed with the wrong girl, Smurfity, smurf smurf, smurf (said by a human, then Papa Smurf says there's no call for bad language), name-calling (numbskull, crazy, idiot, lunatic, weird, moron, fool, freaky, creepy, eye offending dogfish, old hag, lying, deceptive, horrible, beasts, thief, bird brain, giant, behemoth, Garbage Man, little buggers, fancy-pants, whippersnapper, goody blue shoes), 6 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - At a party, a dinner, and a reception, men and women sip alcohol, wine and champagne. A man on a street tells a wizard who is asking for Smurfs to take his meds, and a homeless man with a shopping cart full of trash tells a wizard that little blue people are everywhere.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Personality labels, inappropriate nicknames, work/family balance, magic, power, fame, greed, trust, cooperation, having convictions.
MESSAGE - Don't miss a chance for magic. Be whatever you want to be.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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