Motivating Mum UK

We were given tickets to attend the premiere of the Smurfs Movie last weekend at Vue in Leicester Square.  The whole family was very excited as we had never been to a premiere before. My children, daughter aged 8 and son aged 6 are just the perfect age for this – they understand what is special about a premiere, but are still young  enough to be amazed and impressed with the goodies on offer.

The promoters didn’t disappoint.  We were treated to a spectacle of fun things to do in the foyer for 45 minutes before the show started.  The children “met” the Smurf characters, received balloon models, had their faces painted, and my daughter tried out the new Wii game where you get to dance with the Smurfs.  This is definitely going to be one of the hits of the summer and autumn in our family – she didn’t want to leave this game alone, and has been begging me to get it so that she can invite her friends around for a dance party.

I think the highlight of the pre-show experience for my son, was getting to his seat, and discovering a drink and blue popcorn already in place  (this after his dad had said that they had eaten enough junk food already, so we weren’t going to take snacks into the cinema).  The combination of the food being blue and getting one over on his dad was almost too much for him to bear!

I did wonder whether the film was going to live up to expectations, as the children had been so thoroughly excited and warmed up beforehand.  But I needn’t have worried.  The Smurfs movie is perfect family viewing – a fair bit of slapstick and visual comedy for young people to enjoy, a great plot line for the children to follow, with a villain as incompetent and funny as he was nasty.  My son particularly enjoyed the bits where the villain gets his come-uppance – great feelgood comedy.

There is also a nice little back story going on with the human characters in the film.  I expect that sailed over the heads of a lot of the children, but soppy romantic fool that I am, I did find myself caught up in it and enjoyed it.  And, as in all films these days it seems, there is a moral to the tale – this time its that clumsy uncoordinated people can still do great things and be heroes too.  This really sank in with my son, who has put Clumsy the Smurf on his heroes and role models list.

Even my husband, who has had more than his fair share of the cares of the world on his shoulder just recently came out of the film with a big silly grin on his face.  We went off for a family lunch, humming a silly song, clutching balloons.

I would definitely recommend this film to all parents over the summer holidays.  Even without the blue popcorn and the balloons, it is still a Smurftastic  day out.

The Smurfs is being released on DVD, BluRay and 3D on 5th December. You can pre-order your copies here:

The Smurfs [DVD]
The Smurfs (Blu-ray + DVD)[Region Free]
The Smurfs (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD)[Region Free]

If you would like to be kept informed when I review future children’s films, books and DVD releases, please click here. The next one is The Lion King in 3D which I have reviewed – out in cinemas from 7 October and on DVD and BluRay in November.