I took our children to see the Smurf movie on Saturday. I was dreading it. I’m not entirely sure why I guess I saw this as yet another Hollywood rape of a perfectly good memory from my childhood.
I’m not sure if other people’s memory of the Smurfs is the same as mine, but in the UK they were given away at petrol (gas) stations owned by Esso. My family didn’t fill the car up at an Esso station, so we never had any. I remember friends at school having them.
I’m digressing already.
I took all of our children to see itchiefly to get them out of my better half’s hair for the day. Kitted out with snack boxes for each of the kids (popcorn, chocolate, and a drink, if you’re wondering), we wandered into an almost empty theater.
I liked it.
I never expected to like it. It caught me by surprise. Most of the movie was the typical slapstick stuff you expect to make kids laugh (and ours didlouder than the rest of the people in the cinema), but there were some really lovely moments. I’ll admit to having to wipe away a tear more than once. If you’ve seen itit was the scenes pushing the message about parenthoodparticularly the one where the lead character watches a young child with it’s mother in the street.
It’s not a greatmovie by any means. It’s not bad either though. I guess my bar is incredibly low when it comes to being entertained, but if you’re a parent and are looking for something to distract the kids for an afternoon this summer, you could do far worse.
On the way out of the cinema, all three of our girls were humming the Smurf working song (if you know it, I’ve just infected your brain with it toohah).p.s. there’s a wonderful scene in a bookshop where the Smurfs find their original cartoons from the 1970s