The Smurfs in 3D

I was a young child in the early 1980s when the Smurfs cartoon made its appearance on Saturday morning television, and I watched it every Saturday morning for most of its eight-year run.

I guess I was what you could call a Smurfs fanatic. I had Smurfs everything - cassette tapes (how many people know what those are anymore?), figurines, bedsheets, and I even had the Smurfs drinking glasses. I couldn't get enough of those little blue cuties!

So, imagine my joy when I found out that director Raja Gosnell was going to be making a Smurfs movie - in 3D, even! Maybe you've heard about it?

You can view the movie trailer below. Sadly, it doesn't really look like this movie is going to be anything like the Saturday morning cartoon. I'm a little disappointed. Most of the same characters are in it, but their attitudes and actions have been "updated" to appeal to today's culture - at least, I guess they think this will be appealing to today's culture. Personally, I prefer the old cartoon!

Here's the basic plot of the movie:

Gargamel (played by Hank Azaria) is after the Smurfs once again. This time he actually finds their village and chases them into the woods late at night. The Smurfs get separated and Clumsy Smurf bumbles his way into a forbidden cave, taking a few of the other Smurfs with him.

On this particular night, there is one of those rare smurfy blue moons, so a magic portal opens up and zaps the medieval Smurfs right into the middle of today's Central Park in New York City.

Somehow they manage to seek shelter with Patrick Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris) and his pregnant wife, Grace (Jayma Mays). The couple tries to help the Smurfs get back to their village before Gargamel catches them and uses them in a potion to increase his evil powers.

The film is scheduled to be released in the U.S. and Canada on July 29th of this year. By October 6th, everyone in the world will have had a chance to see the film.

If you're anything like me, you're wondering if it's worth paying all that money to go and see this movie in the theaters. Movie tickets are so expensive now, not to mention the popcorn, candy, drinks, etc.

And, as much as I used to love the Smurfs, watching this trailer has really turned me off, although I am still a little curious about how Gosnell's going to transfer the television cartoon to the big screen. And it would definitely be interesting to see what three-dimensional effects they're going to use. Little blue creatures popping out at you from the movie screen? Or maybe Gargamel and Azrael will. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

I think I'll just wait for the DVD - or stream it on Netflix. I don't know if the 3D effects will be visible in those forms, but that's really the best way to see a movie when you have an infant and a two-year-old who won't sit still for more than thirty minutes.

I, for one, love that McDonalds is promoting the movie in their Happy Meal toys. And I think all the "green initiative" messages all over the boxes are simply smurfy. My daughter doesn't really understand it all yet, since she's only two and a half, but we try to teach her some beginning messages about not littering and not being wasteful.

Of course, the plastic smurf toys in the plastic bags kind of go against the green initiative, but who am I to judge? They are really cute, and so far we've collected two of them! I think I'll hide them away and keep them. Maybe, in 30 years or so, they'll be valuable collector's items.

Which reminds me: Does anyone else remember the Smurfs glasses McDonalds gave out in the '80s? I loved those glasses, and I think we had the whole set - or nearly the entire set. I think Mom and Dad still might have them somewhere in their basement. I might just have to go and dig those out!