On one level, it’s silly to get annoyed by a drooling mediocrity like The Smurfs 2. Designed mostly to keep six-year-olds distracted, the movie is harmless, disposable and utilitarian: It would make as much sense to expect art from this de facto babysitting tool as it would be from your kid’s stroller. But while it was hardly great, the first Smurfs was not without its charms, dispensing syrupy life lessons with a bit of a wink courtesy of Neil Patrick Harris’s sharp-yet-sincere lead performance. Two years later, the follow-up simply goes through the motions. Art was never in the cards, but even basic competence is up for grabs this time around.
tBased on the comics of Belgian artist Peyo, The Smurfs 2 (like its predecessor) takes us to the mystical animated land of Smurf Village, where wise old Papa Smurf (voiced by the late Jonathan Winters) watches over a cacophony of personalities, including the narcissistic Vanity (voiced by John Oliver), grumpy Grouchy (voiced by George Lopez) and befuddled Clumsy (voiced by Anton Yelchin). But when Smurfette (voiced by Katy Perry) begins to worry that her friends have forgotten all about her birthday—actually, they’re just planning a surprise party—she wanders away from the village and walks right into the trap of the Smurfs’ longtime nemesis, the wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria), who has created a portal that transports her into our live-action world and into his clutches.
Thus sets in motion a rescue mission led by Papa that sends the Smurfs to Paris, teaming up once again with their human friends, Patrick (Harris) and his wife Grace (Jayma Mays). But returning director Raja Gosnell doesn’t so much assemble a narrative as he establishes a collection of slapstick sequences interspersed with teachable moments. This structure isn’t that much different than the original movie’s, which at least got some comic mileage out of no-nonsense Patrick’s disbelief at these tiny, obnoxiously adorable little blue critters running amok in the human world. But The Smurfs 2 doesn’t even have mild fish-out-of-water humor to give it some oomph: Instead, there are jokes about Facebook.