How Smurfs: The Lost Village Does a Good and Bad Job at a First Impression

(If you like what you see, you can go to camseyeview.biz to see more of my work on video game reviews, editorials, lists, Kickstarters, developer interviews, and review/talk about animated films. If you would like, consider contributing to my Patreon at patreon.com. It would help support my work, and keeps the website up. Thanks for checking out my work, and I hope you like this editorial!)

Heads up!: I had to use concept art for the new movie due to the limited images available for the teaser. Enjoy the editorial!

I am going to keep saying this again in the future, but I’m going to say it here, because it’s important. You only get one first impression, and if you mess it up, it’s never going to undo itself so you can start over. Why do I bring this up? Because Sony recently released a new trailer for the upcoming Smurfs: The Lost Village film. After two pretty lousy and rancid live-action films, they are going back, rebooting the whole film series, and making it animated. Because you know, they probably should have done that in the first place! All we knew was that it was going to be closer to the source material and be fully animated. We only got some pictures for what they were going for, but no actual footage. Then, they released a teaser for the film showing off some of the characters and the overall tone. Let’s say that they did a good and a bad job with their only first impression of showing off this new movie.



Now, you could say this is harsh in terms of criticizing the movie for one teaser trailer, but these days, and especially during 2016, marketing has been horrible for many movies that were hidden gems, not that bad, or were legit bad, but made all of them look unpleasing due to bad marketing and edited trailers. I feel like this generation doesn’t get that you will never get a second chance in terms of a first impression. You need to hit it out of the park first and foremost. You could improve in the future in terms of marketing and trailers, but it will still be tainted by that first misstep. Let’s break down the teaser, shall we? By the way, I’m going to be talking about the international and the US version of the trailer.



When the trailer starts up, the international trailer is 30 or so seconds longer than the 34-second US trailer. So, let’s start with that first part. I will give credit that how they start the trailer with a static shot of the rating and general audience warning section, and then catch the crowd by surprise with the Smurf on the other side of the screen pushing against it. The US one just skips to Clumsy Smurf pushing the rating label, and has the rest of them breaking the fourth wall by looking down at the audience. The international version throws in a few seconds of the characters talking, and including a butt joke for immature reasons. Listen, I’m not a super-uptight prude, and can enjoy a stupid crass joke or stoner comedy, but since this is an animated film aimed at families, crass butt jokes are scapegoats for lazy writing and sloppy jokes that the higher-ups came up with, instead of the actual writers. People aren’t as dumb as you make them out to be, Sony!



Anyway, once the fourth wall has been broken, one of the positives come up, the animation. It looks beautiful, energetic, the colors are vibrant, and the Smurfs look like Smurfs. You know, unlike the two live-action films, and the humor is not super cringe-worthy, with Brainy trying not to get eaten by a flower. Granted, it leads to another lazy burp joke, but then the animation ends shortly after.



Now then, we get to the point that annoyed most of the viewers that saw this teaser, and the biggest difference between the two teasers. The international trailer uses a more indie pop rock song that, while I don’t think it fully fits the setting of the Smurfs, at least they weren’t dumb enough to put a rap song in the US trailer. Oh wait, they did! It’s so jarring, cynical, and pandering to think “let’s throw a rap song from a rapper people haven’t heard of in years because kids like rap these days!” Yes, I like a few rap songs, but I’m not into rap, and a rap song doesn’t fit the tone of The Smurfs.



Now, of course, this could just be the horrible marketing team putting in these jokes, bits, and rap music that won’t be part of the main movie, but knowing how this is Sony, I won’t hold my breath and be shocked if they do somehow shove rap songs into a film that takes place in a fantasy world.
Listen, I get it, this is probably chalked up to bad marketing and notes from the executives, but it’s so annoying that studios think the public is stupid. Yes, sometimes the public will, from time to time, support films and shows that have no quality to them, but they aren’t that dumb to think “oh hey, this Smurfs film has butt jokes and rap! I love it!” Instead, most of the comments and reactions I have seen were “the animation looks great, but that teaser was terrible and vapid.” In 2016, so many films have failed because of bad marketing. I’m still going to wait and see how this film looks, but in terms of first impressions, it did a good and a bad job all at the same time. We will have to wait and see if the marketing learns their lesson in terms of how to promote this movie.