Smurfs: The Lost Village

image for Smurfs: The Lost Village

Short takes

Parental guidance recommended to age 7 (Scary scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Smurfs: The Lost Village
  • a review of Smurfs: The Lost Village completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 8 April 2017.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children aged 5 to 7 Parental guidance recommended due to scary scenes
Children aged 8 and over OK for this age group

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Smurfs: The Lost Village
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: Very mild themes. Some scenes may scare young children
Length: 90 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Smurfs: The Lost Village is an action-packed animated adventure film that is based on the original Smurfs comic book series. The Smurfs live in a peaceful village in the forest. Smurfette  (voice of Demi Lovato) is the only girl in the village, and is not sure what her purpose in life is supposed to be. One day, when she is out Smurf-boarding in the forest with her four friends, Clumsy Smurf (voice of Jack McBrayer), Hefty Smurf (voice of Joe Manganiello) and Brainy Smurf (voice of Danny Pudi), Smurfette is captured by the evil wizard Gargamel (voice of Rainn Wilson).

Gargamel has a plan to catch as many Smurfs as he can to harness their magical powers for his own evil deeds. Smurfette and her friends manage to escape back to the village. Although they are home safe, they feel it is their duty to go on a mission to the Lost Village to tell the other distant Smurf community that they may be in danger. They’ve never travelled so far. It is a perilous adventure and a big surprise awaits them when they finally find the Lost Village.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

This movie has a strong theme of female empowerment and there are some good female characters, however it is very gender stereotypical (Smurfette takes on the whole adventure in her high heels, for example).   Other themes include not fitting in to your community and being different

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some animated, slapstick violence in this movie including:

  • Jokey Smurf has a fake, boxed present. When another Smurf opens it, a boxing glove pops out and punches him in the face. This happens repeatedly.
  • Smurfette kicks another Smurf in the groin (martial arts style) and the Smurf says ‘high-heels hurt!’
  • Clumsy Smurf is repeatedly punched in the face by an oversized flower in the forest.
  • Gargamel picks up a fish and slaps it violently in the face. The fish then does it back to Gargamel.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Gargamel, although comical, is a very threatening, mean and scary character. His castle is dark and foreboding and he talks about ‘dark magic’.
  • Gargamel has a pet vulture which has crossed-eyes. He gets it to chase the Smurfs and swoop down upon them as they run away.
  • When the Smurfs come across some beautiful big flowers in the forest, they are delighted, but the flowers pick up the Smurfs in their petals and shake them around violently.
  • The Smurfs need to navigate a very dangerous river on a raft boat. The river has strong currents and twists and big cliff drops.
  • The Smurfs are chased across a rope bridge over a deep ravine. The rope bridge snaps and they hold on to it as it falls into the ravine.
  • The Smurfs get chased by some fire-breathing dragonflies.
  • There is a very emotional scene at the end of the film where one of the main characters dies – however this is resolved happily.  
  • Smurfette is left on her own and told that she is an outsider, not part of the Smurf community. She cries and it is a very emotional scene but is resolved happily
  • Gargamel is attacked in a swamp by some flesh eating fish with glowing red eyes. .

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Younger children in this age group may also find some of the above scenes scary or disturbing and parental guidance is recommended.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Nothing of concern

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Nothing of concern

Product placement

Nothing of concern in the movie, but plenty of associated merchandise.

Sexual references

There are some mild sexual references and innuendo in this movie as well as some mild crude humour, including:

  • Hefty Smurf (who is strong and lifts weights) is romantically interested in Smurfette and makes mildly flirtatious comments to her.
  • When Papa Smurf and SmurfWillow are trapped in a cage together, Papa Smurf says, “let’s get this cage rocking!” and SmurfWillow replies “Don’t get weird.”
  • Brainy Smurf writes some mathematical equations on a blackboard to impress some of the girl-Smurfs, but when he turns to them, Hefty Smurf quickly draws a puff of wind coming out of his bottom.
  • When Gargamel is bitten on his bottom by a fish he says, “I didn’t know they were bottom feeders!”

Nudity and sexual activity

None of concern

Use of substances

Nothing of concern

Coarse language

Nothing of concern

In a nutshell

Smurfs: The Lost Village is an enjoyable action adventure with a strong female empowerment message. The animation is colourful and visually exciting. There are some scary scenes and characters, so it is not recommended for very young children and parental guidance is recommended for children aged 5 to 7.

The main messages from this movie are that it’s OK to be different, the importance of team work and looking out for your friends and community.

Parents may wish to discuss the gender stereotypes portrayed in the film.