Prime Just Added One of the Biggest Animated Flops of 2025

Animation was the big winner at the box office in 2025. While other genres had massive hits, Disney’s Zootopia 2 and the animated fantasy adventure film Ne Zha 2 absolutely dominated global sales to become the highest-grossing films of the year, solidifying animation as a powerhouse genre. But not every movie in the genre was a hit, and one of the biggest animated flops of 2025 just started streaming on Prime Video.

The Smurfs has been a major, long-running media franchise, but the latest entry into the series wasn’t anything to brag about. With just a $124 million box office haul, Smurfs was one of the biggest animated box office disappointments of 2025 and fell significantly short of expectations given the bigger box office hauls of other recent Smurfs movies. The film, which started streaming on Prime Video on January 16th, follows the Smurfs as they embark on a mission into the real world to save Papa Smurf after he is taken by the evil wizards Razamel and Gargamel.

Smurfs Was One of 2025’s More Forgettable Movies

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Smurfs wasn’t just a box office disappointment, it also failed to rally much love from critics. The movie only earned a rotten 21% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Although the movie had some good vibrant visuals, it landed as one of the most disappointing and forgettable entries not just in the franchise but in 2025’s animation slate.

The movie was described as being “creatively bankrupt” by critics and fans alike and really didn’t provide much to hold interest. Smurfs had a desperate reliance on its IP and star power, but even that couldn’t make up for its messy, unfunny, and confusing multiverse plot, awkward mix of animation and live-action, and unimaginative retread of previous adventures. Smurfs was described by Should I See It’s Michael Ward as “the cinematic equivalent of ‘this meeting could have been an email’” and by The Outside Scoop’s Scott Mendelson as “IP for IP’s sake.” Joshua Mbonu wrote for InSession Film, “It’s a forgettable trash heap that offers nothing new, funny, or interesting to the average viewer, that isn’t executed infinitely better elsewhere.”

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Smurfs did manage to perform significantly better with general audiences, scoring a fresh 64%, but it still largely landed as a disappointment that was unfunny and generic. Even the audience consensus states that the film is “thin on plot.” But that hasn’t stopped Smurfs from finding some streaming success. The movie hasn’t broken into the Top 10 overall films on Prime Video, but it does rank No. 9 in kids’ movies on Prime in the U.S.

What’s New on Prime Video?

Smurfs is one of the latest arrivals to Prime Video’s library this January. The Amazon streamer began the month with a wave of arrivals that included fellow animated movie The Angry Birds Movie, as well as other movies like Final Destination: Bloodlines, Straight Outta Compton, The Breakfast Club, and Zombieland: Double Tap. Movies including Kung Fu Panda 4 and Spring Fever have been added in the days since.

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