Gargamel (Hank Azaria) is now a world famous magician. He has created two darker version of Smurfs called Naughties named Vexy and Hackus. Meanwhile Smurfette has doubts about her personality since she was originally created by Gargamel. Papa Smurf had changed her from a Naughtie to a Smurf with a secret spell. Gargamel needs that spell to create real Smurfs to harness the powerful Smurf essence. Gargamel sends Vexy to kidnap Smurfette. Papa Smurf and others return to the real world to rescue Smurfette with the help of Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris),Grace (Jayma Mays) and Victor (Brendan Gleeson).

It's marginally better than the first movie. I like that evil Gargamel is driving the story. Hank Azaria is a good Gargamel. I still wouldn't recommend this for anybody other than little kids. Also I'm not sure why Brendan Gleeson is in this. I would have thought they would add a broad comedian for comic relief instead and then they turn him into a duck. I still wish the Smurfs stay in the forest. They could make it a magical forest. The real world somehow diminishes them not just because of their size.

First of all, I'd like to say that I went into this movie thinking it was the first one from 2011 as it was declared on the theater's website. As my plan to watch both films chronologically within one or two days was not successful, please note that I have not seen the first film yet. Another thing I'd like to add is that it's always nice to see a sequel just picking the original title and add a "2". Most of the time when the makers play with numbers or add title additions, the result is nothing to be proud of...

Now, if they had asked me on 31st December 2012 which 2013 film will most likely be a huge flop with the critics, this very well could have been my response. The first was panned and is widely not even regarded as the director's worst effort. And so it happened. However, having watched the cartoon series occasionally in the mornings when I was a child, I don't find the 21st century version of Les Bleus that off-putting. I thought it was a good idea to have Gargamel return (I assume he was the main antagonist in the first part as well) and not sacrifice him for some new spectacular villain. Azaria and cat didn't blow me away, but were certainly one of the pros. That said, I wouldn't mind Hogatha the Witch for the third movie in 2015. This could be a great fun performance.

While I liked the animation and I really don't oppose the idea of mixing smurf world with the non-animated human world, I felt most of the smurfs were rather poorly written. It's hard to put a finger on it, but there was something missing about Papa Smurf despite his expected warmness and there was something extremely off-putting about Smurfette, which, at least for me, had a thoroughly negative impact on pretty much all her scenes and more importantly on the credibility of her inner struggle about where she really belongs. The intro about her "creation" was done well, but afterward it just didn't work for me.

There's not much to say about those smurfs that did not participate in the travel, but the Schtroumpf (I love that word!) company to Papa was the highlight this time. I thought Grouchy had a couple truly hilarious scenes and Clumsy and Vanity managed to light up the screen occasionally as well. Smurfy's Law? Oh no, you didn't. The two unevolved (okay you could guess that character development right away) Naughties were a nice inclusion and fun to watch, the girl more so than the ginger brute.

While I couldn't enjoy Smurfette's struggle of being lost as much as I wanted to, I felt that the parallel to NPH's character was extremely smart and well implemented highlighting in a moving balcony dialog between the HIMYM star and Papa Smurf. As was the bird allergy dialog scene between NPH and Brendan Gleeson. Wait... did I just say Brendan Gleeson??? That's right. And he's good as always sporting a smooth beard in this one. And that's not the whole story yet. Not at all. He's transforming into poultry. Believe it or not. Take that, werewolf Taylor Lautner. Brendan Gleeson is changing into a friggin' duck. The film's other visual highlight was the Roue de Paris breaking loose and mowing through the streets of Paris.

So go see the movie. It's not among the best of the year, not even among the very best animation movies of 2013, but it's not the damp squib people are making it out to be. And then show your children and grandchildren some of the 80s series episodes when you return home.

Smurfs 2 certainly isn't perfect and as almost every other review seems to be talking about how it does not cater to adult viewers particularly well. There are some references in there only the parents will get, but again, the other reviews I have read complained about them. As an adult it wasn't unwatchable, certainly acceptable to watch with the kids.

Without spoiling the story the film did repeat the moral of the story a bit but is a kids film, what do you expect? What I can say without spoiling the film is that is manages to avoid painting things as black and white like most films do. It explores the grey area and as a result it is much more enjoyable and better thought out than the usual rubbish that gets put into kids films.

Overall it is has more to offer than most children's films and while it does not hit the heights of a Pixar film it deserves credit for avoiding many of the worst tropes. They could have just made a thoughtless film and the smurfs name would have ensured a big cheque. Instead they actually made something worth watching.

Considering Pixar's offering for the year was below par and Dreamworks has had a dire year this should easily make the top 5 animated films for the year, only beaten by Frozen, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 and Monsters University.