Roger Moore of the "Orlando Sentinel" gave it two out of four stars saying, "The good news about the big-screen 3D version of "The Smurfs" that's opening at your neighborhood multiplex is that it’s not the insipid and some say "socialist" "Smurfs" you remember from 1980s TV". He called the slapstick "very small-kid friendly" and considered the adult-friendly jokes "pretty mild stuff". He closed his review saying, "Yeah, the Smurfs are still sickeningly sweet and upbeat. But if you've got kids, it's not nearly as torturous to sit through as you might have feared". Justin Chang of "Variety" described the film as "adorable and annoying, patently unnecessary yet kinda sweet" and calling it "a calculated commercial enterprise with little soul but an appreciable amount of heart". He said, "The script does wink knowingly in the direction of attentive adults".