Smurfs: The Lost Village Gets, Well, Lost Trying To Tackle An Interesting Idea

The old axiom "third time's the charm" has been run into the ground as an axiom used in movie reviews to signify that the third entry in a certain movie franchise is the best movie in said movie franchise, but for Smurfs: The Lost Village it's kind of true, though it's more like "Fourth time's the charm" since the Smurfs did have that one animated movie back in the 80's, The Smurfs and The Magic Flute (which I have not seen). Having seen the 2011 Smurfs movie but not its 2013 sequel, I can say that Smurfs: The Lost Village is an improvement over that Raja Gosnell directed motion picture, though it's still got some seriously Smurfed up qualities to it as well.

First Footage From The Upcoming CGI Popeye Movie Is Here

In the pantheon of American animation studios, Sony Pictures Animation Studios is somewhere near the bottom of the barrel. The first Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs film is fun, and both of the Aardman movies they helped distribute were fantastic, but the rest of their output (namely The Smurfs) isn't so good. At least they're giving consistent employment to animation titan Genndy Tartakovsky, the man who helmed the harmless but forgettable Hotel Transylvania and is now in charge of a new CGI Popeye feature. A video containing some test footage for the feature and some thoughts from Tartakovsky is now online. Check the video and my thoughts on it below.