Preparing for the Smurfs: Disliking the Trend in Comic Films

I do admit that coming up with original film ideas can be difficult. But has the creativity bucket become so empty that the only thing idea remaining is to turn cartoons and comic strips from our childhood into computer generated live action movies? With the trailer for The Smurfs just airing and getting over the trash that was Marmaduke, I can feel my childhood gradually getting sucked dry. Just because you have the technology to render the imaginative designs from said comics or cartoons and can do so, does not mean that you should. I can spray paint my social security number on a billboard just because a girl asks me to, but common sense tells me that is a bad idea.

It is a pity that common sense has not prevailed so easily in Hollywood. If memory serves me correctly, either Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Garfield was one of the first films to go with this trend. The fan an inner child in me got excited about seeing these grand productions brought onto the big screen in its comic glory. Then when it came time to actually watching them, the excitement turned to disgust as the films played out.

Probably the first issue about these comic movies are the depictions of the comic characters themselves. As hard as they try to realistically render them, they never look totally convincing. It has an Uncanny Valley effect where the closer they are to reality, the more obvious the flaws are. It just makes them look creepy. At least with cartoon and comic illustrations, the drawings allow readers to accept the visuals as imaginative art. It simply fits better on paper or as a cartoon.

But the bigger problem with these movie versions of beloved comics is the stories developed for them. It looks like most of the budget is spent animating the CG and casting A-list Hollywood celebrities to voice them while the screenwriters are forced to use monkeys with typewriters. While a roomful of chimps with typewriters and infinite time will eventually write the entire works of Shakespeare, the first few drafts are usually scripts for movies like Marmaduke and Garfield. Comics usually have a short story format with about four frames to set up a joke and deliver a punchline. Turning a few recurring jokes into a character and a movie is a rather difficult leap. Some will not even bother with such effort For The Smurfs, the original source material is quickly tossed and instead of Smurf Village, expect to see Papa Smurf, Smurfette, some other characterized Smurfs, and the villain Gargamel to wander the streets of New York. Was this not already done in Enchanted?

This is simply Smurfed up.