FILM PERSPECTIVE ON SMURFS
A Critical discussion of the Smurfs and its attempt to Deconstruct Colonial Narratives
Film Perspectives is a monthly conversation between Film Scholars, Enthusiasts, and Critics. That goes deep into film.
This month’s Panel Dr. Benjamin Crawford, Cultural theorist Professor Sarah Martinez, and 8-year-old Tommy Flint.
DR. CRAWFORD: I need to get this off my chest. This film's use of the water bear as Razamel's prison is clearly invoking Tarkovsky's obsession with elemental symbolism.
PROF. MARTINEZ: Ben, your Tarkovsky fixation is showing again.
They Laugh
PROF. MARTINEZ: But seriously. I had issues. No Name Smurf gaining power from the book Jaunty? That's classic orientalist narrative structure. The Western protagonist acquires mystical Eastern knowledge and uses it to "save" everyone. The White Savior but in blue!
TOMMY: I liked the turtle. He was funny, and the part where they went whoosh through the portal!
DR. CRAWFORD: Yes, the geographical progression is fascinating - it's essentially a tour of former colonial powers, isn't it?
TOMMY: The Snooterpoots. They were fuzzy.
PROF. MARTINEZ: Fuzzy logic indeed. Mama Poot becomes the moral center of the film after portraying the other Poots as savages,that didn’t sit right with me. You can embrace Classic colonial propaganda about native peoples being thieves and savages in one breath and then make them a moral compass in the other. The directors can’t have it both ways.
DR CRAWFORD: The movie thrives in embracing and critiquing every target they seemingly want to comment on. What did you think of The International Neighborhood Watch Smurfs? Is clearly a take on BIG BROTHER. But why was it housed in a disco ball?
MARTINEZ: It felt like a bold choice, a mirrored ball reflects everything but fragments reality.
TOMMY: Cause it’s pretty? And made the room look sparkly and made me want to dance!
Tommy jumps up and dances
CRAWFORD: Touche. Hiding the resistance movement inside disco culture is actually brilliant. It's saying that joy itself is revolutionary.
MARTINEZ: Was anyone else bothered by the fact, Garamel and his brother were pale imitations dare I say a rip off of the fraternal conflict from EAST OF EDEN?
TOMMY: They were mean. I didn't like brother. His voice was scary, and he had too many teeth or something.
PROF. MARTINEZ: Yes, I loved the voice work. Nick Offerman's turtle stole the show for me. Here's a character who appears, offers cryptic wisdom. He's the film's spiritual guide. It was the first time I saw a film really capture what I felt reading Siddhartha for the 3rd time.
TOMMY: The turtle should have been in the whole MOVIE!! Why didn’t he tell us what turtle food tastes like?
PROF. MARTINEZ: Right? It's flawed, I agree but necessary cinema. Tommy, did you feel the film was a treatise on the dual nature of knowledge itself. We see Magic as morally neutral, but we learn that it’s how we use it that matters.
TOMMY: My Mommy is here. I gotta go.
CRAWFORD: We didn’t even discuss the anti-imperialist message.
TOMMY: Sorry, Mrs. Martinez.
MARTINEZ: Professor.
TOMMY: What’s a professor?
Crawford and Martinez laugh.
CRAWFORD: In this day in age. He’s got a point.
Next Week on Film Perspectives Bad Guys 2 and its complex portrayal of reformed criminals seeking societal acceptance. Professor Martinez dissects the all-female villain squad as either a manifestation of feminist empowerment or regressive gender essentialism, while Tommy discusses why his Tummy feels so-so.
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