Mini rant here: I saw both the new trailers of the new Smurf film and Shrek 5’s cast reveals.
I personally have no hope for Smurf because (1) you have Rihanna as Smurfette — and it does not work at all! Love Rihanna, but her voice isn’t her. Not even pitching in the sound booth would help! And (2), there’s an Influencer Smurf… Need I say more? I haven’t caught up with the Smurf films since the start of them, with Neil Patrick and Sofia Vergara, so finding out about this is disappointing.
Shrek 5?! I have mixed feelings on this.
At one point, we got the original cast (unsure about Antonio playing Puss again) with Zendaya included as Felicia, Shrek and Fiona’s only daughter out of the triplets. At the other hand, the animation… Like, it’s them but also not them, you know? And especially Donkey! Dude is seriously old now like he had a difficult life with Dragon! It’s kind of heartbreaking when seeing him despite him having that same chaotic energy we all know and love. Not to mention how we see original Shrek in a photoshop pic, and then see the Shrek they made today. I rather copy the original and just age it up a little (I’m not expert in this kind of technology, so I’m assuming it’s possible and effective than AI).
To get my point across, what really pissed me off is the inclusion of modern exposure within these films.
A Smurf being an influencer, while also living in the woods where satellite let alone WiFi doesn’t even exist? (I never saw any live action films before this new one, so correct me if the technology is now included in the village.)
And the magic mirror displaying random videos and photoshop pics of Shrek as we would see on our social media apps, swiping up to see each post?
Like, this is what really pissing me off about certain film making like this. There’s a point in the universe of a story, regardless that it’s fictional, where today’s modern life is unnecessary to an extent! Films like Hotel Transylvania is an exception; it was made to have fictional story characters to be included in the modern life, advancing while also sticking with their own universe’s exposure that is present in their personalities. (Once Upon A Time, a former ABC tv show and something to watch if haven’t seen it, was the same except the fictional characters lost their memories.) The live action Smurf films, at least the ones that started out, had also an exception as they were transported into our modern world.
How did similarities of social media get into Shrek’s universe?! May I remind you of Shrek the Third, where we had Merlin, Arthur, and such involved? I don’t need to know the time difference to be aware that if somehow, someway our exposure to modern life gets into Shrek’s world… He’d be dead by now.
Honestly, unless it was planned to have fictional characters “act” like they’re aliens in our modern world – any sense of our modern life shouldn’t be in these films! I don’t care if it’s supposed to “relate with the new generation” and have them feel more “connected” with the films by having them less attentive to the apps and more on the films again by having these social media concepts shoved in.
That new Megamind sequel pretty much did the same thing, didn’t it? How did that go…? 🤨
Anyway, to sum things up, I don’t have hope for the Smurfs. And while I do prefer the original concept work of Shrek, I am hoping for the best on the fifth film, even though I’d rather have this franchise concluded with the fourth film as it was intended.
Movies before social media were at a strong connection with storytelling. Wicked (while based of a book-turned-play) and Sonic (based off a video game franchise) held their own sense of storytelling, and one had exposure to modern life in the correct way. Smurfs and Shrek, however, got work to do.
I won’t be surprised when Shrek gets more money than Smurfs, though. I just won’t.
(There’s some hope for this.)
