The holidays have different meanings to everyone. For better or worse it’s usually a time for family. Now from Aardman Animations, the creator of WALLACE & GROMIT, comes a modern look at Santa and his family. What we find out is that even good ole Saint Nick has a dysfunctional family.

Being the big guy in the red suit is a Claus family tradition that has been passed down for generations. The current Santa (Jim Broadbent, IRIS), however, is more of a figurehead these days. The one-night present delivery enterprise has been streamlined by his heir apparent, his oldest son Steve (Hugh Lurie, TV’s HOUSE), a military type hunk with a Christmas-tree-shaped goatee. Steve has the elves working like special ops soldiers who can get a package in and under the tree in a matter of seconds.

Santa’s other son Arthur (James McAvoy, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) is the opposite of his older sibling. He loves Christmas like a child, but his clumsiness has relegated him to the letter response division. After the gifts have been delivered, he tries to get his family to play Christmas the board game and the fight over who will get the Santa player piece underlines the resentments between fathers and sons… and grandfathers. Grandsanta (Bill Nighy, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST) is over 130 years old and turns up his nose to the giant rocketship that passes for a sleigh these days. Mrs. Santa (Imelda Staunton, VERA DRAKE) calmly watches it all from a distance with the ability to take charge when called on.

When the elf Bryony (Ashley Jensen, GNOMEO & JULIET) finds a missed present during clean-up, she alerts Steve, who seems unfazed because one missed gift out of the millions of gifts properly delivered is a great success rate. But when Arthur finds out he is aghast. One little girl will wake up on Christmas day believing that Santa doesn’t love her. Grandsanta decides to break out the old sleigh named Eve and the reindeer and get that present under the tree with Arthur and Bryony along for the ride.

At its core the film addresses the loss of the Christmas spirit in the holidays, but it is never made too obvious or maudlin. Arthur is the one who keeps it alive and his simple joy is all we need. The others have other motivations. Santa likes being Santa because  of the status, even though he has long handed over the day-to-day operations to a younger guy. Steve is that younger guy who has lost the point of the family business at some point while patting himself on the back for being so much better than the older, out of touch guys. Grandsanta just wants to prove that the old ways are better. Arthur has to battle against these family conflicts and his own self doubts, but he gets some help from the plucky Bryony, who is the best gift wrap elf around. Her belief that there is always time for a bow is unflappable.

Coming from Aardman there is certainly a dose cheeky British humor, but this isn’t just for those who say happy Christmas. This is a film about the awe of gift giving and family.  For those who don’t even celebrate Christmas, they can relate to the family dynamics and how they come to a head during holidays. Humor is mined from this conflict much like A CHRISTMAS STORY or HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

As a new take on the Santa myth, Sarah Smith’s film does take ideas we have seen before, but does so in a fresh way. The elves slick operation and skills are unmatched in their ingenuousness. They really have a plan for noisy toys and their battery removal when a child is stirring and could blow the entire mission. The contrast of the modern military like operation and the magic-infused way of the past doesn’t seem more obvious then when you find out what Grandsanta used as primitive stealth mode in his time.

With a perfect voice cast, this animated adventure comes to life with characters we love and relate to. To its great credit, there is no bad guy here. There are only three men who have lost sight of the meaning of the season and need to start seeing it through the haze-free eyes of Arthur. As an unsentimental, and yet joyous, celebration of Christmas, this smile-inducing comedy has the ability to become a perennial must-see for the holiday season.

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If George Miller’s original dancing and singing penguins film has a happy surprise than its sequel is the opposite — nothing about it is surprising. The story borrows a little from the original and attaches it to a familiar family/action plot. The first incorporated popular songs into the fabric of its world and the characters, while the songs here are uninspired, obvious or just not that good. Not even two krill that sound a lot like Brad Pitt and Matt Damon can save the day.

Now Mumble (Elijah Wood, LORD OF THE RINGS) is a famed hero in the community and dance it embraced by all the penguins. However his son Erik (Ava Acres) doesn’t have the same dance prowess as his dad so he feels like an outcast (much like his dad did in the original because he couldn’t sing). Erik ends up following Ramon (Robin Williams, GOOD WILL HUNTING) back to his penguin colony where a strange big-billed “penguin” named Sven (Hank Azaria, THE SMURFS) has become an idol because he can fly. He tells Erik that whatever he wishes will come true, so to the chagrin of Mumbles, Erik believes that he can just wish his way into flying.

As Mumble is out in search of the runaway Erik, a huge piece of a glacier breaks off and traps his colony in their cove. Upon their return, Mumbles must find a way to help his people. Along the way there will be ice collapses, near misses with Erik hanging over ledges, a skua attack and a run in with an elephant seal named Bryan (Richard Carter, RABBIT-PROOF FENCE) who refuses to back up. Parallelling this story is the one of krill Will (Pitt) and Bill (Damon). The comic pairing is delightful as Will decides he wants to leave the swarm and become a predator. You have to evolve to survive he says. Bill doesn’t like to rock the boat, but he is too good of a friend to leave Will out their in the big ocean all alone.

The opening dance sequence is a medley of songs that cloys with adjusted lyrics to fit cute baby-voiced penguins. I felt I was drowning in syrup when the baby chicks started singing “I’m bringing fluffy back” as a fowl riff on Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack.” The late Brittany Murphy, who was fabulous in the first film, has been replaced by Pink as Mumble’s love Gloria. She isn’t given much in the form of a part or songs. Her one big ballad is nothing close to a showstopper or even an icebreaker. Even the dance theme is stretched to fit into the plot. How dance saved the day in the original was inspired, the second time around it feels desperate.

The plot isn’t just in search of Erik, but a purpose. All the themes don’t mesh. The outsider theme fizzles out before the end, while it never really connects with the themes o f fathers and sons and community. The latter two themes are choreographed using those Arthur Murray footprints on the floor, resulting in the audience knowing the steps before they come. I so often complain that poop jokes are a sign that a film is struggling for laughs. And trust me it doesn’t make it any funnier when bird poop drips in 3-D.

HAPPY FEET TWO reminds me of what happened to the SHREK franchise. The spark that made the original special is replaced with comfortable family-friendly sitcom material. Mumble’s confrontation with his society that hinted on conflicts of religion has been replaced with soft worries that his son will idolize a flying penguin more than him. The larger ecology message is a mere backdrop comparatively. The sequel is a simple family drama set against a large obstacle that doesn’t really pose much of an immediate threat. The timeline really doesn’t put the trapped penguins in any ALIVE situations, if you know what I mean. The original had a hip vibrant vibe, while this one is about as cool as a kid singing opera.

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Part of what made SHREK 2 work was the addition of Puss in Boots to the franchise. It’s not surprising that he would get his own film. Unfortunately some of the sharpness the character brought to that film has been declawed for this one. The irreverent take on fairy tales is gone. In its place — cat jokes.

Don’t get me wrong the cat gags are the funniest bits, but they don’t have the layers that made the first two SHREK films special. In this origin story, Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas, DESPERADO) is cast as an orphan who becomes blood brothers with fellow orphan outcast Humpty Dumpty (Zack Galifianakis, THE HANGOVER). They are in search of the magic beans of legend. The duo continuously get in trouble until one day Puss gets a taste of being a hero and vows to go straight. Bad blood forms and Puss is wrongfully believed an outlaw. Years later he is reunited with Humpty, who now has a female feline thief sidekick named Kitty Softpaws (Selma Hayek, DESPERADO). Humpty wants to put their past behind them and work together to steal the magic beans from the notorious murderers Jack and Jill (Billy Bob Thonrton, SLINGBLADE & Amy Sedaris, STRANGERS WITH CANDY).

The story kicks off with an exciting action sequence where Puss races across rooftops that really injects the film with energy and fun. For about half the film, the characters and gags are engaging, but then it falls into a conventional plot structure, leaving the rest predictable at every step. The plot borrows a great deal from Sergio Leone type films. There is also a reveal to start the third act that makes a lot that came before seem unbelievably complex. It’ll make you believe that Bond villains’ plots are sensible.

The repairing of the DESPERADO duo of Banderas and Hayek is one of the bright spots. The playful relationship that develops between Puss and Kitty is reminiscent of classic adversarial romances of the Golden Age of Hollywood. It’s like having a Spanish Bob Hope comedy… but with cats. Unfortunately again, their story takes a back seat to the relationship between Puss and Humpty. As the egg, Galifianakis sounds a great deal like Patton Oswald in RATATOUILLE. Where there is some spark between Puss and Kitty, there is a mismatch between Puss and Humpty. You know exactly how things will turn out the second the flashback to how the adopted brothers met ends.

Some of the fairy tale elements, like the combination of the Humpty and the golden goose tale, have some cleverness, but none of it has the edge that the early SHREK films have. Where those films felt like they were skewering sacred cows, this film, like the latter SHREK sequels, seems content with puns and easy gags. With great timing, the jokes so often do work. For the less discerning or younger viewer this might be enough. But the more familiar the plot gets the less fresh everything seems and I found myself laughing less and wanting more. It’s more of a disappointment than a failure. The production is as handsome as its lead character thinks he is, but the hairballs of an origin story get caught in his throat too often.

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Despite having the superhero in the title, this animated feature seems less like the Dark Knight’s story and more like that of James Gordon, who at this time is new to the Gotham police department. Based on what is hailed as a seminal comic series from writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli, the transition from the page to the screen is faithful, but also highlights the differences between mediums.

Bruce Wayne (Ben McKenzie, TV’s SOUTHLAND) was returned to Gotham from training abroad. He has begun the preparation for becoming the vigilante, but hasn’t found his identity yet. Jim Gordon (Bryan Cranston, TV’s BREAKING BAD) is the new lieutenant in town, having been exiled to the most corrupt city after smoking out police corruption in his last post. His wife Barbara (Grey DeLisle, TV’s THE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS) is pregnant and he is guilty to bring a new child into this dirty, grim world.

The stories of Wayne and Gordon cross over the course, but they don’t seem to have the same weight. Both are interesting, but Gordon’s seems the most original and nuanced. Cranston provides a wonderful voice performance, giving the tormented police officer a personality in turmoil. The corruption of the city starts to creep into his soul and that’s not good when your partner looks like the beautiful Sarah Essen (Katee Sackhoff, TV’s BATTLESTAR GALACTICA). He has the nearly impossible task of being true to himself, while navigating the twisted politics of the police department that is not beneath fire bombing innocent people. Now he is tasked with hunting down a giant bat.

McKenzie doesn’t have the weight of voice for the Batman role that others have, notably Bruce Greenwood from last year’s wonderful BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD. As the fledgling hero, he makes mistakes that get him hurt and trapped. You get a glimpse at him learning on the job. What I felt was missing was a more in depth look at his foreign training. It’s a problem that comes with being slavishly faithful to the source. Also it seems less fresh because we’ve seen Batman’s origin before and the struggling new hero has been handled in various versions before. The comic was first, but BATMAN BEGINS and the imitators have made it to film first.

The third most important character is Gotham. The story does a great job of setting the tone of hellish city. We really feel the great slope that Gordon and Batman have to climb. There isn’t one villain, but a city full of them. The corrupt police force is led by Commissioner Loeb (Jon Polito, MILLER’S CROSSING). He is just another dinner guest of gangster Carmine Falcone (Alex Rocco, THE GODFATHER). Prostitutes and pimps fill the streets. But the Batman inspires one to put on a cat suit and trade tricks for burglary. Selina Kyle aka Catwoman (Eliza Dushku, TV’s BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) seems crammed into the story a bit, but is interestingly recast as a black dominatrix.

For the most part, the comic was used as a storyboard start for the film. The pacing of a four-issue comic is so different than a film. At just little over an hour, more time could have been taken to create more tension. But one has to respect the devotion to the source and the quiet moments that are not common for animation made in the U.S. The origin of Gordon really makes him a true partner for Batman. They have the same goals and need each other. Gotham is not a place for angels… but these flawed men will do.

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This film is not based on Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. Now that we got that out of the way, we can find out what this film is really about. One could claim though that this film is based on a dozen previous boxing movies such as ROCKY and THE CHAMP.

Set in a future where robots have replaced humans in the boxing ring because people like the carnage more. Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman, X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE) is a former boxer who has become involved in the low-rung world of robot boxing. He gets a shock one day when he discovers that the mother of his son Max (Dakota Goyo, THOR) has died and that he needs to work out who will take the child. The 11-year-old’s aunt Debra (Hope Davis, AMERICAN SPLENDOR) wants to take him and Charlie sees her rich husband as a chance to make some money out of the situation.

As part of his deal with Max’s uncle, Charlie will take the kid for the summer. Having used the money to buy an older champion robot named Noisy Boy, Charlie wants to quickly get out on the road again. So he tries to dump the boy off on Bailey (Evangeline Lilly, TV’s LOST), the daughter of his former trainer. But Max maneuvers his way into tagging along. Up to this point the film goes through the paces of so many other films. Charlie is a rash, skuzzy know-it-all, while Max knows all the right moves to make.

However, once the training bot Atom is introduced the film improves. The old generation robot isn’t meant to compete, but Max has faith that he can take on all contenders. It’s not surprising that Charlie and Max bond over the training of the bot. But I’ll tell you it works. The reason it works is because it’s not maudlin and is presented from the point of view of Max, whose enthusiasm toward the robot-boxing world starts to rub off on the viewer. Young Goyo might look a lot like PHANTOM MENACE’s Jake Lloyd, but that’s all the comparisons you can make. Despite the fact that this is a PG-13 movie, it’s appeal will hit boys Max’s age like a swift uppercut.

Adults who know all the movies the film is pieced together from will be less engaged. The script lifts key moments from ROCKY, which do not work in context. The robots being in the ring and the humans controlling them from the outside lessens the jeopardy and the intimacy of the underdog underpinning. Atom is Max’s robot and I never saw him as an underdog. I never really saw Charlie that way either. He’s more of an impulsive type, not a lovable loser. The problem is you can’t just weld random pieces together and think you have a champion on your hands.

Additionally, many characters don’t have the investment in the story as they should. Lilly’s Bailey is a forced love interest. It would have been better if her dead father were in the film; he would have meant more. And I never bought the subplot about her trying to keep the gym open. It seems Charlie is the only member, so I think she has bigger problems than him not pay his rent. There isn’t a powerful bad guy either. The fair grounds boxing promoter Ricky (Kevin Durand, TV’s LOST) is wicked and is the catalyst for an important plot turn, but he isn’t involved in the climax at all. The owners of the undefeated bot Zeus — Tak Mashido (Karl Yune, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA) and Farra Lemkova (Olga Fonda, LITTLE FOCKERS) — are walking clichés and have no real antagonism with Charlie or Max, even though the little kid tries to start something.

Like I said once Atom gets in the ring, the film started to grab my attention. Director Shawn Levy (NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM) and writer John Gatins (HARDBALL) do a nice job of setting up the fights to maximize tension. The fights for the most part deliver strongly on the promise of epic robot on robot violence. But then the film lets you go with some stupid moves. When the film needs to soar, it just limps to a finish. On the way home, kids might be jazzed up to play the REAL STEEL videogame. Their parents will be wondering if that Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em set is still at grandma’s house. At least with that you never know when the head is going to pop off the robot. In the film it’s completely telegraphed.

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From the moment the sun rises over the savanna and we hear the African chant, THE LION KING grips the audience’s attention. Combining fable with Greek tragedy, this film has a serious undertone that many Disney animated features do not have. The studio dealt with the death of a parent before, but not like this. This is a world with real consequences, which is the basis to all classic children’s tales and what makes this film not just for the kids.

The opening calls together all the animals of Pride Rock to witness the presentation of the new male heir of the kingdom — the lion cub Simba (Jonathan Taylor Thomas as child and Matthew Broderick as adult). His father Mufasa (James Earl Jones, STAR WARS) teaches him to be a just ruler. He explains that the circle of life has the lion eating antelope and when they die they help the grass grow, which new antelope will eat. Simba hasn’t learned yet that there are creatures out who would kill for other reasons. This is the case with his scheming uncle Scar (Jeremy Irons, REVERSAL OF FORTUNE), who sees his nephew as the boulder in his way to the throne.

Scar conspires to kill off Simba by tricking him to go to the forbidden elephant graveyard where his hyena cronies wait to ambush him, two of which voiced by Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin. When that fails, he plans bigger and sets up Simba to believe that he is the cause of his father’s death. Disney broke hearts with the death of Bambi’s mother, but they tear it out with the death of Mufasa. Simba flees into the plains where he befriends the comedic duo of meerkat Timon (Nathan Lane, THE BIRDCAGE) and warthog Pumbaa (Ernie Sabella, MOUSEHUNT). They live a carefree life, so that Simba can forget his guilt.

Part of the joy of the film is the wide cast of characters. Zazu (Rowan Atkinson, MR. BEAN) is the hornbill who serves as Mufasa’s top advisor and sometimes babysitter to Simba. Nala (Moira Kelly, CHAPLIN) is Simba’s best friend and the lioness arranged to be his bride. Rafiki (Robert Guillaume, TV’s BENSON) is the baboon shaman. Sarabi (Madge Sinclair, COMING TO AMERICA) is Simba’s mother, who suffers greatly under the rule of Scar.

These characters are brought to life through spectacular character animation. Watch how Scar walks. He almost slithers like a snake. It’s in perfect contrast with Mufasa who walks tall and encapsulates leadership and power. Part of the reason the hyenas make the audience uneasy is because they move in twitches and low prowls like they might pounce at any time. The wildebeest stampede is intense, creating a frightening sense of chaos. A fight scene between lions is clearly not based on a Snagglepuss cartoon, but a nature doc. And try to keep a dry eye as Simba confronts the death of his father.

Directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff find the perfect balance between drama and comedy. Taking a page from Shakespeare, they even mix in the high and the low comedy. It takes great skill to make an epic film about regicide and incorporate a flatulent warthog in it to lighten the mood. In addition to the crop of amazing young animators they collaborated with, they received an Oscar-winning score from Hans Zimmer and Oscar-winning music from Elton John and Tim Rice. “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” won the Oscar, but “Circle of Life” and “Hakuna Matata” were nominated as well. Each was as memorable as the next and serve as emotional highlights.

With the recent theatrical re-release in 3-D taking the box office crown, the last appeal is evident. Parents are taking a new generation to see this modern classic. They only reason I bring this up is because it says something about quality. When you tell a story that doesn’t talk down to children then you are truly making a family film. It also proves that animated films create a perfect avenue to explore difficult life tragedies. People were up in arms over the death of Bambi’s mother’s death, believing their children would be traumatized. The generations raised on that film didn’t have the same problem with Mufasa’s death. In no way do I suggest that one film created such cultural shifts, but it’s something to think about. Kids are stronger than you think. Just take Simba for instance.

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The economy of storytelling is the most impressive element of this slight animated feature. Following the poor performances of PINOCCHIO, BAMBI and FANTASIA, the lavish production values were toned down. Less spectacle but not less character. This story of an elephant with jumbo ears fills the big top with emotion in only 64 minutes.

When the stork delivers Mrs. Jumbo’s baby son, her fellow elephants label him with the name Dumbo, because of his giant ears. The ridicule he receives only makes the shy little pachyderm even more bashful. Like any good mother, Mrs. Jumbo defends her child from tormentors, but her actions are not taken favorably by the circus management. Dumbo, whose real name in Jumbo Jr., is now left to fend for himself as the circus decides to put the silly looking animal in the clown act, so people can laugh at him more.

The story is instantly recognizable to the inner awkward child in all of us. The naive elephant is presented as eager and inquisitive, but also clumsy. Those ears do get in the way. He gains a guardian in the tough Timothy Q. Mouse (Edward Brophy, FREAKS), who serves as the film’s Jiminy Cricket. As is the case with many awkward children, Dumbo needs to find his talent. For those who know isn’t his talent a nice dose of ironic justice?

The character animation is such an essential part because two of its primary characters do not talk. But much is communicated in the body language between Mrs. Jumbo and her son. The trunk touching scene is full of emotion and we only see Mrs. Jumbo’s trunk. We’ve seen countless numbers of similar scenes in live-action films set at prisons where a parent is separated from their child, but do any of them carry the same emotional charge as this scene from DUMBO?

There is overblown controversy associated with the film as well. The crows Dumbo and Timothy encounter have been looked upon as offensive depictions of black people. They’re stereotypes at worst, but not blackface buffoons like some would make them out to be. In the end, they serve a key role in giving Dumbo the courage to embrace his unique gift (that they know something about) and get the best song in the film, “When I See an Elephant Fly.”

While one might have to bare through the dated music of the now cliche stork delivery scenes that start the film, once Jumbo Jr. arrives the film hits its stride. The pink elephant parade (a sequence that wouldn’t fly in children’s entertainment today) seems a bit like padding, but it does allow for some nice experimental animation to creep in. It’s this kind of free-form fantasy that animation does best.

Who hasn’t been self conscious about something in their appearance at some point in their lives? This universal emotion is what is at the core of this simple story. Those big ears are a big metaphor for a big part of the human condition.

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A little gnome comes out at the start of this film and tells us straight out that we’ve seen this story before. This sets the tone for the entire film. This animated musical rendition of Shakespeare’s most well known tale has fun with the plot of the romance and it also has fun with garden-themed gags.

Neighboring garden gnomes have been at war. Gnomeo (James McIvoy, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) is the heir of the Blues. He is in a one-upmanship battle with Tybalt (Jason Statham, SNATCH), who is the heir to the Reds. One night on a secret mission to infiltrate the Reds’ lawn, Gnomeo meets Juliet (Emily Blunt, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA), the daughter of the Red leader Lord Redbrick (Michael Caine, THE DARK KNIGHT), who is own her own secret mission to snatch a rare orchid from a neutral garden. Well it’s love at first sight.

Sir Elton John took this film on as a pet project, first at Disney and then independently through his Rocket Pictures. His music is infused throughout with and without lyrics. Gnomes don’t break out in song, but there are musical montages.

Much of the humor is based around the garden. Gnomes, such as a sunburned sunbather who always has his towel attached, a fishing gnome that always seems to catch the same fish and Benny (Matt Lucas, ALICE IN WONDERLAND), Gnomeo’s sidekick with the tall hat, provide ample sight gags. Juliet doesn’t get a maid for advice, but a talkative water-squirting frog named Nanette (Ashley Jenson, TV’s UGLY BETTY). A supped up lawnmower plays a destructive role. And what’s up with using discarded household items as garden decorations? Does a commode really make a better flower pot?

Like in TOY STORY, the gnomes freeze around humans. The human owners of the gardens have been at odds wrongfully thinking the other is sabotaging the other’s green thumb projects. The Reds have an inferred security system in place to protect their tower, which at a push of a button puts on a backyard light show.

This version of the bard’s tragic romance takes a cute and sometimes campy approach to the material. It wrings every joke it can from its premise that at first just seems like a film based on a word play on the title. The romance is nothing special (like the film warns us, we’ve seen this done before), but it takes enough turns from the play to make us wonder where they might end up. I mean do you really expect a family animated film to end with Juliet stabbing a blade into her ceramic skin?

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Narratively the original HOODWINKED was a mess, but there were moments of general inspiration within cliché and tired routines. The sequel is just cliché and tired routines. The original was done independently on the cheap and looked it, but this one feels cheaper because it has no purpose other than to cash in on the surprise success of the original.

Unlike the mysterious RASHOMON-like plot of the first film, this picture is pretty straight forward. It’s perfectly structured as a “good” screenplay is supposed to be structured, but leaves no surprises along the way. Red (Hayden Panettiere, TV’s HEROES) is off training with the Sisters of the Hood, while Wolf (Patrick Warburton, TV’s SEINFELD) is manning the spy agency they now work for. After Red’s Granny (Glenn Close, FATAL ATTRACTION) is kidnapped by Verushka the witch (Joan Cusack, WORKING GIRL), Red is called back to investigate.

The plot moves along standard detective movie clichés from asking an informant and a gangster questions at the night club to the tradition of guess who really the bad guys are. Red is given a female empowerment storyline, which is tied into a working together theme involving Wolf. The entire idea of all the characters working for the spy agency waters down them all. The witty puns and riffs on fairy tales are replaced by punchlines that are just “throw out pop culture references” or gags that are so telegraphed that they cease to be funny. The singing goat suffers a great deal not from getting run over, but from really bad timing.

Warburton is still good as Wolf, but he is given far less to work with. Edwards’ Twitchy is more manic than the last film, which makes him far less appealing. Too much of a good thing syndrome. Anne Hathaway voiced Red in the original and Panettiere doesn’t bring the same pluck that the “now too big for cheap animation” Oscar nominee brought to the role. Nice additions are SNL’s Bill Hader and Amy Poehler as Hansel and Gretel. Their over-the-top German accents are funny in and of themselves.

The fact that the film was taken away from its original directors Corey Edwards, Todd Edwards and Tony Leech and handed over to Mike Disa might be part of the problem. Instead of being a passion project it became a work for hire project. And you can’t even blame Disa, because I’m sure he was working under tight constraints. This was a film that The Weinstein Company lost faith in somewhere during production and it shows on the screen. The film has a fitting title.

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I watched the animated SMURFS TV series religiously as a child. I was like many kids who grew up in the 1980s. Outside of the general facts – they’re blue, they’re names match their personalities, there is only one girl in the whole village – I don’t remember their adventures at all. For this live-action/animation feature, I wasn’t expecting much going in and I didn’t get much coming out. Like the TV series, I won’t remember much about this film either.

The Smurfs live an idyllic life in their magically protected village. The wicked wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria, MYSTERY MEN) wants to steal their essence in order to increase his magic powers. Clumsy Smurf (who looks a lot like Dopey Dwarf) is left out of the Blue Moon festivities being planned because of what his name implies. In trying to help out, Clumsy (Anton Yelchin, STAR TREK) inadvertently leads Gargamel and his cat Azrael right to their village. On the run, Clumsy and four other Smurfs end up getting sucked through a vortex and land in New York City.

The three-apple-tall blue guys — including Papa (Jonathan Winters, IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD), Brainy (Fred Arminsen, TV’s SNL), Grumpy (George Lopez, RIO) and Gutsy (Alan Cumming, X-MEN UNITED), — and gal Smurfette (Katy Perry) wind up at the apartment of marketing exec Patrick Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris, TV’s HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER) whose boss Odile (Sofia Vergara, TV’s MODERN FAMILY) has threatened to fire him if he doesn’t come up with a stellar new cosmetics ad campaign in two days. Making matters more stressful for Patrick is that his wife Grace (Jayma Mays, TV’s GLEE) is pregnant with their first child.

There is not a moment in this film that hasn’t been seen before. Every moment seems manufactured not inspired. The Smurfs’ conflict has no connection to that of their human friends and visa versa. The only time the two plotlines really cross is when Gargamel uses his powers to make an old woman look young and Odile wants to exploit his magic, but it’s all set-up and never developed. So many family films have the same conflict of the busy parent. THE SMURFS nor the Smurfs have anything to add to this issue. And one might think the humans were added to reduce the sugary effect of the cute blue creatures, but it’s actually the human story that gets stuck in sappy goo.

The writing is just going through the motions of a family film. Potty humor check. Pop culture references check. Self referential jokes to curb the silliness of the source material check. Family bonding check. The potty humor is as lame as it always is and actually elicited zero laughs from the crowd full of kids I saw it with. But smacking the bad guy in the face still works with the little ones. The script goes to that well to the point where Gargamel must have brain damage. For the dialogue for course Smurf is the most used word, but so much of the cliched dialogue is there simply to have the characters say something instead of having silence.

Voice work, for the most part, is one the film’s successes. Yelchin gives Clumsy the right innocence and Winters provides Papa with a dignified voice. But it is a crime to give the comedy legend the least funny role in the film. However, Lopez is wrongly cast as Grumpy, whose inane dialogue could make his name Bad Sitcom Smurf. For the live actors, Harris is good at physical humor, but he’s not given much to work with. Azaria is simply in family film villain over acting mode.

The saddest part is that so much talent was wasted on this product. The Smurfs are very well animated and look great in CG. The film would have been somewhat better if it didn’t send them to NYC. There has never been a live-action version of an animated show where they sent the cartoon characters to the real world that has ever worked, so why do they keep trying? Seeing real humans acting cartoony rarely works either, so why do they keep trying? This didn’t bring back fond memories of my childhood, because it didn’t make me give a smurf about any of it.

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