Columbia Pictures
Starring: Hank Azaria, Frank Welker
Also Starring: Mr. Krinkle, Cheetoh, FG: The Riddler
Directed by: Raja Gosnell
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: The Smurfs again find themselves in our world after Smurfette is kidnapped by Gargamel (Hank Azaria) with the aid of his new creations, the Naughties.
Featured Feline: Azrael returns as Gargamel’s sidekick and again steals the show from the self-involved wizard.
The movie picks up from where the first one left off with Gargamel and Azrael still in the modern day world. Gargamel has become a worldwide phenomenon after a being featured in a viral video in which he uses magic to lift a New York taxi cab in the air, only to have it land on him when it falls. This affords the opportunity for Azreal to repeat the “Are you dead?” joke picked up from the last film before he falls apart laughing.
Because of his fame, Gargamel has taken his show to Paris and he and Azrael are worshipped celebrities, riding in an expensive coach and staying at the fanciest hotel. But they still squabble as before.
Azrael even has his own Facebook page and states that he is more popular than Gargamel. Again Gargamel can understand Azrael, whose speech patterns are even more like human speak.
When they return to the hotel Azrael finds a box crudely addressed to him. Inside he sees a little green dot and chases it. As it turns out, Gargamels new creations, The Naughties, have baited Azrael and end up catching him in a net.
Gargamel wants to go over his plan in which he hopes to capture Smurfette to get the formula Papa Smurf used to turn her into a Smurf so he can create Naughties to turn into Smurfs to extract their essence. He’s a bit thrown when Azrael explains they have “gone digital” and shows him his plan on a tablet.
Hoping to rescue Smurfette, some of the Smurfs travel to the modern world and meet up with their friend Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris) and his family. They go to Gargamel’s magic show where the wizard has made Azrael gigantic.
Recognizing Patrick from before, Gargamel almost succeeds in feeding him to the giant cat.
After the show, Gargamel and Azrael are in their carriage arguing. Azrael spots Smurfette and the Naughties and tries to tell Gargamel but he just gets frustrated and throws Azrael from the carriage.
Azrael chases the three but they manage to escape on storks.
Azrael returns to the hotel when the other Smurfs arrive and tries to catch them but fails.
When Gargamel comes back Azrael tells him about the Smurfs, as he has been trying to do all day. When Gargamel asks why he didn’t tell him Azrael gets so frustrated he pounds his head on the floor.
Eventually Gargamel catches the Smurfs and puts them into his Smurfolator. Even though he promised Azrael he could push the button Gargamel does it himself.
Interference by Patrick and his stepfather cause the machine to explode, sending everyone flying in a haze of Smurfness.
After one final battle Gargamel ends up getting sucked back through the vortex and makes sure he drags Azrael with him. Needless to say Azrael is not happy to be back in medieval time with no room service or pampering and he lets Gargamel know by jumping on him, claws unsheathed.
Returning to play the lead cat was Mr. Krinkle backed by Cheetoh and FG: The Riddler, all of whom also worked on the first movie for Birds and Animals Unlimited.
Sony Pictures posted a really interesting behind-the-scenes piece of an animation shot build for Azrael, featuring Mr. Krinkle who was used as the animators’ reference for the digital Azrael.
Unfortunately for fans of these cat actors it was decided the third Smurfs movie would be all animation, but the characters of Azrael and Gargamel do appear in that film as well.
Final Mewsings: Kudos to the filmmakers for doing such a good job bringing Azrael to life in these films!
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