My 5-year-old son doesn’t like going to the movies. He thinks they are scary, dark, loud places and reasons that we can just as easily get popcorn and sit in the van and watch DVDs. My wife and I love movies and have been waiting for him to finally get old enough that he would want to go and sit and watch them with us (even if it was just to watch kids movies). Well, that hasn’t happened yet so on Saturday night we worked out a compromise. We went to a drive-in to see The Smurfs.

I will be very honest with you. I am reviewing this movie just because I want to use this cool “movie review” template again. Watching a movie at a drive-in with a 5-year-old and his 2-year old little brother is an interesting event. It is fun, but it isn’t the best way to really absorb a movie. I honestly spent about 15 minutes watching the movie in the side view mirror because my little one was playing in the passenger’s seat.

With all of that said, The Smurfs is exactly what you would expect. It is a family based movie featuring the animated little blue guys. It has a relatively positive story line about family and sticking together. There are side plots about becoming Neil Patrick Harris becoming a father and the sort of picked on smurf becomes the hero. Like I said, it is what you would expect from a movie adaptation of an 80s cartoon.

For parents of very young kids there are some parts that may be a little slow and may not hold your child’s attention (while at at the same time being a bit too syrupy to hold yours) and there is more crude humor than I would like in a G rated picture. Most of these are all in good fun like fart and puke jokes, but some of the laughs come from substituting ”smurf” for bad language. There is also a scene where Smurfette acts out the Marilyn Monroe on the steam vent scene followed by the new “Scottish” smurf letting it blow his kilt up so you can see his bottom (well, not his blue bottom, but his white one so I guess it is just his pants).

There are some shining moments. Hank Azaria is spot on as Gargamel. He takes on the role without a hint of irony or winking at the camera and really brings the bumbling evil wizard to life. Some of the new smurfs also add welcome bits of comedy, my favorite being “Narrator” smurf who does the voice over for the story.

All in all this is what you would imagine. A nice movie to go see on a rainy Saturday afternoon. As a parent you will like the nods to the classic smurfs and your child will like the little blue guys and potty humor. There are worst ways to spend your money.