Mihai Toma
Grouchy hates a lot of things. Unfortunately, one of them is Christmas itself. To teach him a couple of things about this wonderful event, he is to be visited by three Smurf spirits (of past, present and future) which will take him on a trip he will never forget.It's emotional but also funny. A remake of the original Christmas Carol made with Smurfs. I'm glad they decided to use the cartoony Smurfs as the animated ones look in comparison a lot worse. Make sure you watch it!
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
This is the Smurfs' take on Charles Dickens' famous Christmas Carol. It was made 4 years ago and first let me say that regardless of what you think of the recent Smurf movies, but putting a 22-minute short film on the DVD as an extra is amazing with all the mediocre DVD extras that are usually included. So thumbs up for that. This little movie is, so far, the only directorial effort by Troy Quane. The protagonist in here is Grouchy (voiced by George Lopez) and he is obviously the perfect choice for the grumpy anti-Christmas character. There are more known names in the voice cast such as Fred Armisen, Anton Yelchin and Hank Azaria, who is Gargamel just like in the movies.The best thing about this short film was probably that it had 2 styles of animation. Really nice idea to use the traditional one for the dream sequence. Everybody knew it was a dream or dream-like sequence anyway, so no point in trying to hide it. And there is also some nice heart in here. This story definitely works with Smurf characters. I must say I enjoyed the watch, liked the Christmas music and totally preferred this one to the Sleepy Hollow Smurf movie that came out a couple months later. Check out this little movie here during the upcoming holidays. If you like the Smurfs, you will not regret it. Thumbs up.
Prismark10
It's the spin on Dicken's 'A Christmas Carol' Smurfs style.Grouchy Smurf is sick and tired of getting the same stupid present from Papa Smurf every year and is unhappy that he does not get the present he really wants.This leads to Grouchy Smurf to behave badly to the other Smurfs and refuses to celebrate Christmas. The Smurfs of Christmas Past, Present and Future appear to teach him to appreciate Christmas. The Smurf of Christmas Future shows Grouchy a future Christmas where all the Smurfs will wander into the forest and get captured by Gargamel. The film is book-ended with CGI animation before going to the traditional animation for the bulk of the story. Kids who enjoy the Smurfs film will appreciate this cartoon the most. At least its spirit is true to the Dickens story.
Gordon-11
This short animation is about how the Smurfs make Grouchy like Christmas again.After watching "The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol", I find myself in a rather gloomy mood. The story is dark, with lots of grumpiness, antagonism and dissatisfaction. Even though they say "don't be grumpy", the brain picks up "grumpy" at a subconscious level, so there is a constant stream of negative words and negative themes. The constant negativity gets viewers down. And there is even a scene about captivity! Even though the ending contains some positive scenes, it is far from enough to lift the gloomy mood the film spent 20 minutes to create. I cannot see how this animation can make people feel merry and joyful.
AD
