The movie poster asks "Where the smurf are we?" I'm inclined to ask "what the smurf was that?"

Like many people I grew up with the Smurfs and the little blue creatures were a big part of my childhood. So an entire movie dedicated to them can't go wrong can it?

Especially when you throw in entertainment man-of-the-moment Neil Patrick Harris.

Well to be brief: they smurfed it up.

Don't get me wrong - the young kids will love it. My nieces came out mega-excited. My dad and I were left a little flat.

The story is relatively simple - a small group of smurfs (mostly our favourites) fall through a portal while being chased by their enemy Gargamel. Of course they end up in New York City (where else) and set out to find their way home.

Along the way they encounter a marketing VP Patrick Winslow (Harris) and his expectant wife Grace (Jayma Mays). The sub-plots of Winslow having concerns about fatherhood and keeping his job are more distracting than anything.

Director Raja Gosnell has a lot to answer for by not respecting our childhood memories here. Either he failed to have a solid vision or was bullied by the studios. Either way we're left with a movie that seems to spend more time trying to appeal than actually being an engaging story.

Instead of giving us a fun romp we're exposed to a series of obligatory fish-out-of-water scenes that rely more on slapstick than intelligent interaction. And even the "will I make a good dad" subplot talks with Papa Smurf is undermined by the fact that Clumsy Smurf is constantly left behind be the others.

It should be noted that Clumsy and Smurfette are the real stars and the two smurfs that the children relate to, so underplaying Clumsy's involvement for the majority of the film is bewildering.

Don't get me wrong - there are a few cool moments and some genuinely funny references to the original (Gargamel mocking Papa Smurf: "I have 98 sons and one daughter - no, nothing weird there") but adults will leave the cinema feeling a bit cheated.

Even Neil Patrick-Harris delivers a bland performance; a sure sign the script was nowhere near par. In fact only Azaria as the bad guy and Anton Yelchin (Clumsy) come out of this looking good. Though Katy Perry's voicing of Smurfette is a little endearing as well.

Take the kids but take your ipad or a book for yourself or you'll be smurfing disappointed.