The Smurfs

While fleeing from the ineptly evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria), a gaggle of those little blue people fall through a wormhole into modern Manhattan, where they invade the home of a young couple (Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays). I can’t believe I’m writing this, but you know, the thing’s not bad; it pokes knowing, gentle fun at the original in the manner of The Brady Bunch Movie, and some of the jokes are pretty funny. There’s the usual overkill of too many writers with too many bright ideas, and the movie is longer than this kind of silliness will support (a long sequence in FAO Schwarz stops the movie dead for 10 minutes and adds nothing to the fun). But the animation is smooth, the look bright and colorful, and Azaria provides a hilariously cartoonish link between the animation and live action.