Smurfs (2025)

A spy base hidden inside a disco ball, a tribe of hairy multiverse pickpockets in the Australian outback, a talking book named Jaunty, and somehow Smurfs is still a snooze. No Name, voiced by James Corden, is the one Smurf without a name or a thing, so he wishes for magic, and his showing off tips off Razamel, Gargamel’s brother, who snatches Papa Smurf through a portal. The gang hops from Paris to the outback to Munich to get him back, and every stop is a new idea that gets dropped before it goes anywhere. Critics called the story plodding and the songs out of place, and the flashy, comic-book look mostly works as window dressing. A couple of the surreal dimension-hopping bits are fun to look at, and the disco-ball hideout is a good gag. It still made $124.2 million worldwide on a reported $58M budget. A 2.4 because it’s loud, busy and weirdly sleepy all at once. $9,459 says your kid asks to put on Trolls instead before the gang even reaches Paris.

What works: A few surreal, dimension-hopping sequences look genuinely inventive, and the disco-ball spy base is a fun gag.

What doesn’t: The plot plods from city to city with no momentum, and the songs feel dropped in from a different movie.

Who it’s for: Very young kids who just want blue characters on screen and parents who need a quiet afternoon.