Smurfs: The Lost Village (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)
Well, here we go again. Another Smurfs movie put out on 4K Ultra-HD, and another task at hand for me. As you’ll recall, I thoroughly enjoyed my last experience just a couple months ago (Sarcasm font). The Lost Village is the third film in the ongoing Smurfs cinematic franchise. I didn’t see the second one, so there’s a gap in the middle for my watching, but something (and someone, Brian) tells me I’m going to be okay by having missed the sophomore outing. At least if there is a fourth one, I have some time to have a break as all of them are on 4K Ultra-HD now and don’t have it coming on the horizon. You can find this one in stores now, as it was already released on July 11th. If you love your kids, this probably makes for a good treat.
Film 
A mysterious map sets Smurfette and her best friends Brainy, Clumsy and Hefty on an exciting and thrilling race through the Forbidden Forest filled with magical creatures to find a mysterious lost village before the evil wizard Gargamel does. Embarking on a rollercoaster journey full of action and danger, the Smurfs are on a course that leads to the discovery of the biggest secret in Smurf history!
Yes, I indeed love my children as they are the sole reason I take on reviews like this. And that first Smurfs film was brutal. I’m not a hater, I grew up really liking the Smurfs a lot. I enjoyed going on their ride at King’s Island. The ride which was kind of haunting and the same style as It’s A Small World with the little boat in the water in the dark rooms. The one with the signs that, to a kid, make you think if you touch the water you’re going to be electrocuted. King’s Island also boasted a Smurf soft serve ice cream cone flavor. It was blueberry and friggin delicious. See? I’m not a complete hater.
This third film in the series is the first one to be 100% animated. There are a lot of changes to the voice cast as well. In a way its pretty much an attempt to reboot the series. I don’t know why it was this way from the get go, but I suppose they were going for that Garfield approach? Everything works so much better here like this. Smurfs was always a fantasy type tale with many magical aspects and it all just fits and has consistent look and never feels sloppy or hokey. Everything is on the same page in terms of looks, reactions and placement. Its just a much smoother thing to look at for starters.
Not that there was much before, but some of the more adult-end of things are swept away because of this. But, its rather honest in being something aimed more squarely at the children. With it also embracing being a fully animated feature, and feeling like it was just being its own thing rather than falling into the familiar trappings of the animation/live-action hybrid, it felt new. Nope, I’m not high praising, but I have to say I enjoyed this one a lot more than the first. I still don’t think its anything special or very good, just if my life depended on picking a favorite Smurf film, it would be this one.
Video 
Encoding: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Layers: BD-66
Clarity/Detail: Smurfs: The Lost Village has a beautiful looking 4K picture, making good utilization of its HDR advantage. It is one of those films that sports a little darker look to it, but that’s the territory with natural blacks. Its a sharp image and has a nice, crisp and detailed look on the animation. Hair follicles, rope, wood grain and such all look very intricate. Water (something I always compliment, but honestly) looks quite, smooth and lovely with no issues at all. Too no surprise, this is a really good looking picture.
Depth: Of course, since this is a modern cg animated film, it naturally gives off a really good three dimensional vibe. Spacing is excellent and movements are very confident and smooth with no problems in the blurring/jittering sharp movement department.
Black Levels: Blacks are deep and keep that naturally dark HDR look. Dark scenes and ones in the shadows retain all detail while helping to sharpen in others. No crushing was witnessed during the viewing for this review of the movie.
Color Reproduction: Well…blues look really good. LOL. Also there are some really neon colors in a segment that look nice and vivid but harnessed. Purples look great. Its a friendly film, so all of the coloring really reflects that on a good primary animated palette.
Flesh Tones: I’m blue da ba dee da ba daa Da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa Da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa, da ba dee da ba daa
Noise/Artifacts: Clean
Audio
Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, Catalan 5.1 Dolby Digital, Cantonese 5.1 Dolby Digital, Danish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Dutch 5.1 Dolby Digital, Finnish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Flemish 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, French (Canadian) 5.1 Dolby Digital, German 5.1 Dolby Digital, Korean 5.1 Dolby Digital, Mandarin 5.1 Dolby Digital, Norwegian 5.1 Dolby Digital, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Swedish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Thai 5.1 Dolby Digital, Vitenamese 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Indonesian, Korean, Malay, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese
Dynamics: WOW! Wow! Wow! Wow! This Atmos track is KICKING. Its loud, all around the room and in your face. Its crazy to be saying this about a kids’ animated Smurfs movie…but damn. Give credit where credit is due. The effects in this track are extremely well rounded with a lot of layers and depth to them, making it sound lifelike and really intricate in its design. There is a good balance between the music, said sound effects and vocals that has them all taking center stage but playing fair and nice with one another. Once again, this track is extremely impressive and should be one to use in stores for the time being to sell home theater sets, promoting and convincing people to upgrade to Atmos.
Height: There are plenty of fun moments on things like bunnies, rocks crumbling, wooshing magic and more that passes by overhead.
Low Frequency Extension: Rolling giant rocks, knocking, hard landings, galloping animals, explosions/bursts and much more really shake and pound the room.
Surround Sound Presentation: Impressively, every environment gets a wonderful 360 degree realization for your viewing area. Each little corner of a room, cave, village are pinpointing and nailed down to however its best represented in the speaker of the perfect trajectory. Again…I can’t believe this much accuracy, dedication and top notch engineering has been done for this damn Smurfs movie.
Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are very crisp and clean, featuring every little piece of vocal diction emanating from the performances.
Extras
Smurfs: The Lost Village comes with the Blu-ray edition and an UltraViolet digital copy. Aside from the commentary, all bonus material is found on the Blu-ray disc.
Audio Commentary
- Director Kelly Asbury, Animation Supervisor Alan Hawkins, and Head of Story Brandon Jeffords
Blu-ray Disc
Emoji Sneak Peek (HD, 2:05) – Pretty much just the trailer
Deleted Scenes (HD, 7:35)
The Lost Auditions (HD, 4:14) – The actors read and perform for characters which they did not play.
Kids at Heart! The Making of Smurfs: The Lost Village (HD, 9:12) – A loose making of that doesn’t take itself too seriously that does its best to go through the whole process from animation to voice acting.
Lost Village Dance Along (HD, 3:10) – I guess you dance along with the people on the screen as the music plays.
Demi Lovato Meets Smurfette (HD, 1:01) – Smurfette interviews Demi Lovato, who actually is the person who voiced Smurfette in the film.
Smurfify Your Nails (HD, 2:23) – Paint your nails to look like scenes from the movie.
Music Video (HD, 2:48) – “I’m a Lady” by Meghan Trainor.
Baker Smurf’s Mini Kitchen (HD, 4:07) – Some snack making.
Making the Song “You Will Always Find Me In Your Heart” (HD, 3:00) – The composer talks of this song and its place and weight it carries in the film.
The Sound of the Smurfs (HD, 3:44) – Focuses on the sound engineering and design used in the film.
Draw Your Favorite Smurfs (HD, 7:42) – Like the subject says.
See More Smurfs! (HD) – Trailers and commercials for other Smurfs movies and games.
Summary
Well, I’m still no fan of these films, and felt my time could have been utilized better with something else…but this is probably the best Smurfs film. It comes to 4K Ultra-HD with a lovely picture and an Atmos track that is so good I can’t believe its on a damn Smurfs movie. There are a lot of kid friendly extras to accompany. Pick it up for your kids at a nice discounted price.
