Smurfs
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: July 18, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
31
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 27 Critic Reviews
Positive:
2
Mixed:
8
Negative:
17

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
RogerEbert.comNell MinowJul 16, 2025
The message about never confusing kindness with weakness is a valuable life lesson and a reminder of why the Smurfs are so enduringly beloved. Read full review
70
The New York TimesGlenn KennyJul 17, 2025
It’s refreshing to see children’s animation makers use surrealism, instead of winking pop-culture references, to charm adults. Read full review
60
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaJul 18, 2025
A movie that’ll just about keep young viewers’ attention, Smurfs is part Rihanna jukebox musical, and part flimsy attempt to give the little blue critters an identity that’ll stick. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanJul 17, 2025
“Smurfs” might be the best of the Smurfs films. It’s an amiable diversion for kids. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJul 17, 2025
Smurfs may be all over the multiverse, but it doesn’t land anywhere worth writing home about. Read full review
50
ColliderJeff EwingJul 17, 2025
Smurfs is better than its maligned predecessors, but it's still an absolute mess. Read full review
50
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJul 16, 2025
An odyssey that—weird characterizations notwithstanding—is tiresomely unexceptional. Read full review
43
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeJul 16, 2025
Every few scenes, there’s a chuckle-worthy bon mot or sight gag, or the animation style will alter radically for some plot-driven reason, but there’s far too much downtime between Smurfs’ sporadic delights. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 16, 2025
This very uninteresting and uninspired story plods along for an hour and a half, though there are some almost-interesting surreal scenes when our heroes find themselves in weird alt-universe dimensions. Read full review
40
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiJul 16, 2025
The script has its moments, and I chuckled a bit at a few points. But what the film lacks is genuine heart and warmth. Read full review
38
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerJul 21, 2025
Who could have guessed that a simple Smurfs reboot would constitute such an unholy mess? Read full review
38
Boston GlobeOdie HendersonJul 16, 2025
Your kids will probably love this movie, which means you’ll be watching it often. Excuse me while I giggle with unSmurflike malice. Read full review
38
The Associated PressJake CoyleJul 16, 2025
Rihanna voices Smurfette and supplies a new song, giving a half-hearted injection of star power to an otherwise uninspired, modestly scaled, kiddo-friendly cartoon feature. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineTaylor WilliamsJul 16, 2025
Its pastiche of Into the Spider-Verse is revealed to be nothing more than window dressing. Read full review
32
PolygonOli WelshJul 16, 2025
Smurfs is garbage. It’s a randomized assortment of Stuff That Happens in Kids’ Animated Movies. . . It’s mostly meaningless, or occasionally mildly offensive, if you stop to think about it. It’s also blandly drawn, stiffly animated, and maddeningly inconsistent in its visual design. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithJul 17, 2025
The several mediocre songs seem like filler intended to pad out the running time to 90 minutes, but then again, everything else seems like padding too. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreJul 17, 2025
It’s when the music stops and the movie is forced to contend with the mishmash of recycled elements it’s trying to use as a plot that it really flounders. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckJul 16, 2025
This latest incarnation represents the sort of charmless, wildly chaotic animated effort that has the unintended effect of reminding us why cutting publicly funded children’s television is such a terrible idea. Read full review
28
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJul 16, 2025
If you can’t Smurf anything nice, then don’t Smurf anything at all. Such is the key lesson to be taken away by discerning parents this weekend after being dragged by their children to yet another big-screen adaptation of everyone’s second-favourite blue-man group. Read full review
25
IndieWireWilson ChapmanJul 16, 2025
Somehow, in a movie about finding your niche, the Smurfs are more generic and indistinguishable than ever. Read full review
20
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleJul 21, 2025
Everything about the story, from opening to closing dance party, feels like it was made up on an especially unimaginative playdate by bored kids who’d rather be watching TV. Read full review
20
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyJul 18, 2025
The characters are presented in the of-the-moment style of CGI rendered to look like hand-drawn animation, but with a scarcity of detail and a flatness usually associated with preschool television. Read full review
20
EmpireJohn NugentJul 16, 2025
A big old pile of Smurf. Read full review
20
The TimesKevin MaherJul 16, 2025
The two Spider-Verse movies proved that brash and branded Hollywood entertainment does not have to sacrifice novelty and innovation. Smurfs, on the other hand? Profoundly, oppressively empty. There’s no reason to see it. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJul 16, 2025
It has all the charm and personality of a dented traffic cone and features perhaps the single most tin-eared screenplay – in which Papa Smurf is kidnapped by the villainous wizard Gargamel, and Smurfette leads a globe-trotting mission to free him – that I have ever encountered in my two decades as a critic. Read full review
20
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsJul 16, 2025
The plot is slipshod, the jokes are weak and the animation style offers very little to lodge into the memory. Read full review
0
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJul 17, 2025
I Smurf-ing loathed it. Read full review
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