The Smurfs is a 2011 American 3D family film based on The Smurfs comic book series created by the Belgian comics artist Peyo and the 1980s animated TV series it spawned. It was directed by Raja Gosnell and stars Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Sofía Vergara and Hank Azaria. It is the first CGI/live-action hybrid film to be produced by Sony Pictures Animation and in The Smurfs trilogy.^[3] During early production the film was known as The Smurfs Movie.

The film tells the story of the Smurfs as they get lost in New York, and try to find a way to get back home before Gargamel catches them. After five years of negotiations, Jordan Kerner bought the rights in 2002 and was in development with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies until Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation obtained the film rights in 2008. Filming began in March 2010 in New York City.

After having the release date changed three times, Columbia Pictures released The Smurfs on July 29, 2011. Box office analysts initially predicted the film would tie with Cowboys & Aliens, but The Smurfs ultimately came in second grossing $35.6 million against Cowboys & Aliens' $36.4 million. Despite receiving mostly negative reviews from critics, The Smurfs has been a box office success, and CinemaScore polls showed a positive score from audience voters. The Smurfs reached the $500 million milestone in the weekend of September 23–25, 2011.

Plot[link]

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As the Smurfs get ready for the Blue Moon Festival, Papa Smurf sees in his cauldron a vision of Clumsy Smurf reaching for a dragon wand and the Smurfs in cages while Gargamel laughs. Not wanting this vision to come true, Papa Smurf refuses to allow Clumsy to pick Smurf Roots, but Clumsy disobeys Papa Smurf and ends up unintentionally leading Gargamel and Azrael to the village. The Smurfs all flee for their lives while Clumsy unknowingly runs towards the Forbidden Falls, with Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Grouchy, Brainy and Gutsy running after him. They find him at the edge of a cliff, and while trying to help him up, they are sucked into a gigantic vortex that spirits them to present day New York City. To make matters worse, Gargamel and Azrael follow and the Smurfs end up in the apartment of Patrick and Grace Winslow, a married and expectant couple and their Basset Hound Elway. After clarifying things, the Winslows befriend them and allow them to stay in their apartment. The next day, needing to find a "star gazer" (a telescope), the Smurfs follow Patrick to his work place at Anjelou Cosmetics, misunderstanding the previous explanation of his job as fortune-telling. He calls Grace to pick them up.

However, having extracted "Smurf essence" from a lock of Smurfette's hair, Gargamel also arrives and ends up being treated by Patrick's boss Odile upon using most of his acquired magic to turn her mother young. But Gargamel resumes his search upon recognizing Patrick and following him to the toy store where the Smurfs ran into after finding a telescope. The Winslows manage to save the Smurfs from both the children wanting them and Gargamel, who ends up being sent to jail before he manages to bust out with the aid of house flies. By that time, Papa Smurf manages to calculate the night he and the others can get home. But first, he must figure out the spell to do so. Patrick tells them that there is an old book store in the city near Anjelou Cosmetics as he bonds with the Smurfs after sending what he believed to be his finished advertisement to be published. However, the next day, Patrick learns that Clumsy accidentally attached a blue-moon themed side project and he loses his temper before walking out on both the Smurfs and Grace to save his job.

Forced to search on their own, the Smurfs find the store and find the book L’Histoire des Schtroumpfs by researcher Peyo, containing the spell to turn the moon blue. But learning of their location, Gargamel sneaks into the book store and finds a dragon wand, transferring his magic into it as he uses it to capture Papa Smurf as he sends the others to safety. Though the Smurfs promised Papa Smurf that they won't try to save him and return home, Clumsy and Patrick, having seen the error of his actions, convince them to plan a rescue. At Belvedere Castle, after increasing the dragon wand's power with bits of Papa Smurf's beard, Gargamel finds himself facing all the Smurfs, summoned to New York by Brainy conjuring the blue moon. As the Smurf army battles Gargamel, Smurfette fights Azrael and saves Papa Smurf before they join the fray. Though Gargamel attempts to break the Smurfs by killing Papa, Patrick saves him while Gutsy knocks the dragon wand out of the wizard's hand. Clumsy tries to catch it, and to Papa Smurf's surprise, manages to catch it and send Gargamel flying into a trash can and being hit by a bus with the advertisement "Blue Moon" with it before Papa Smurf breaks it. Soon after, the Smurfs take their leave as Patrick receives a call from Odile that he still has his job. Later, while Patrick and Grace have a baby boy, whom they name Blue to honor the Smurfs, who rebuild their village in the style of New York, where the Winslows reside.

Meanwhile, Gargamel and Azrael are still trapped in present day New York. However, Gargamel found and repaired the dragon wand, indicating he could get them home.

Cast[link]

Live action actors[link]

• Neil Patrick Harris as Patrick Winslow
• Jayma Mays as Grace Winslow
• Sofía Vergara as Odile Anjelou, a Latin American executive at Anjelou Cosmetics who is Patrick's boss.
• Hank Azaria as Gargamel, the arch-nemesis of the Smurfs who plots to use the Smurfs as part of a spell which would turn lead into gold. As opposed to the television show where Gargamel's goal is use the Smurfs as the key ingredient in an alchemical formula to create gold or eat them or destroy them, in the film he wants to capture them to serve as charms, "whose mystical essence will make his inept magic more powerful — and dangerous".^[4] To look the part of Gargamel, Azaria wore a prosthetic nose, ears, buck teeth, eyebrows and a wig (to make the process easier, he shaved his head). The initial make-up test took three hours, but by mid-production the process took 90 minutes to complete. Azaria was transformed over 50 times and spent approximately 130 hours in the make-up chair.^[5]
• Tim Gunn as Henri, Odile's executive assistant at Anjelou Cosmetics.
• Skai Jackson as Kicking Girl, In The Store

Joan Rivers, Liz Smith, Tom Colicchio, Olivia Palermo and Michael Musto make cameos in the film at a fictional Anjelou cosmetics product launch.^[5]

Voice actors[link]

Perry (pictured in 2008) was chosen by the filmmakers before ever auditioning for the role.

• Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf. Winters provided the voice of Grandpa Smurf in the 1980s cartoon series. He and Frank Welker are the only original cast members from the TV series who returned for the film.
• Katy Perry as Smurfette. About gaining the voice role, Perry said: "They had done a blind test where they took certain voices from previous interviews and matched them with the character. They liked my voice without even knowing who it was, and when they found out it was me, they thought that would work out. My personality was just a plus!"^[5]
• Fred Armisen as Brainy Smurf
• Alan Cumming as Gutsy Smurf, one of three Smurfs created specifically for the film and who is Scottish, wears a kilt, and has sideburns. The character is also described as the "action hero" of the film.^[5]
• Anton Yelchin as Clumsy Smurf. Yelchin commented on his character's personality change from the cartoons series saying, "I was familiar with Clumsy from the TV series, where he had that Southern twang. I went back and watched that, and then Raja, Jordan and I talked about it. We decided to make Clumsy a little simpler, a little sweeter. His voice is pitched higher than my normal speaking voice – it's full of joy, optimism, and enthusiasm for life. Clumsy isn't trying to mess anything up for anybody — he's just clumsy, and actually, he‘s tired of being clumsy".^[5]
• George Lopez as Grouchy Smurf. To prepare for his role of being "grouchy", Lopez did not drink coffee, made sure he had bad breath and picked the busiest time to get to the studio.^[5]
• Jeff Foxworthy as Handy Smurf
• Paul Reubens as Jokey Smurf
• Gary Basaraba as Hefty Smurf
• John Oliver as Vanity Smurf
• Kenan Thompson as Greedy Smurf
• B. J. Novak as Baker Smurf
• Joel McCrary as Farmer Smurf
• Wolfgang Puck as Chef Smurf
• John Kassir as Crazy Smurf, the second Smurf created specifically for the film
• Tom Kane as Narrator Smurf, the third Smurf created specifically for the film
• Frank Welker as Azrael, Gargamel's cat.^[6] Welker provided the voice of Hefty Smurf and other characters in the 1980s cartoon series. Four Orange tabby cats played the role of Azrael with some scenes being created with CGI by Tippett Studio. Animal trainer Larry Madrid had a "rare Burma cat" that was used to educe snarls from the other cats since they did not like him.^[5]

Production[link]

Development[link]

In 1997, producer Jordan Kerner sent the first "of a series of letters" to The Smurfs' licensing agent Lafig Belgium expressing interest in making a feature film. It was not until 2002 after a draft of Kerner's film adaptation of Charlotte's Web was read by Peyo's heirs, that they accepted Kerner's offer. Peyo's daughter Véronique Culliford and family had wanted to make a Smurfs film for years and said that Kerner was the first person to pitch a film that shared their "vision and enthusiasm".^[5] Kerner soon began developing the 3-D CGI feature film with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies.^[7][8] In 2006, Kerner said the film was planned to be a trilogy and would explain more of Gargamel's backstory. He stated, "We'll learn [more] about Gargamel and Smurf Soup and how all that began and what really goes on in that castle. What his backstory really was. There's an all-powerful wizard… there’s all sorts of things that get revealed as we go along".^[7] Early animation footage was leaked on the internet in early 2008.^[9] The filmmakers were allowed to create three new Smurfs for the film – Narrator, Crazy, and Gutsy.^[5]

In June 2008, it was announced that Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation obtained the film rights from Lafig Belgium.^[10] Kerner said the current project started with Sony during a conversation with the chairman-CEO Michael Lynton, who grew up watching The Smurfs in the Netherlands. Kerner explained, "He relished them as I do and suggested that it should be a live-action/CG film. Amy Pascal felt equally that there was potentially a series of films in the making".^[8] Shrek 2 writers, J. David Stem and David N. Weiss wrote the screenplay along with Zookeeper writers Jay Scherick and David Ronn; Stem and Weiss also wrote the story. Raja Gosnell directed.^[8][11] Quentin Tarantino was in talks to play Brainy Smurf.^[12]

Filming and animation[link]

On a budget of $110 million,^[1] principal photography began in New York City on March 26, 2010.^[13] In May, scenes were filmed in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood.^[14] That month, scenes were shot all night for five nights in a row at F.A.O. Schwartz toy store.^[5] Production was temporarily halted after a worker fell 30 feet from a set at the toy store on Fifth Avenue and 58th Street; he later recovered in a hospital.^[15] Other locations used for filming were Belvedere Castle, the Russian Tea Room, Rockefeller Center, and Brooklyn's Prospect Park.^[5] A two-thirds-scale replica of the Belvedere Castle was built with wooden grates as floors (to create additional contrast). Gargamel's dungeon under the Belvedere Castle, which included the "Smurfalator", was built on a soundstage. It took three months to build because some parts were hard to come by. Production eventually found the rare parts at garage sales, flea markets, on eBay and Craigslist.^[5]

In order to help the Smurfs' animators during post-production, cinematographer Phil Meheux and his team would light up a scene where the Smurfs would be digitally added using 7 and one half-inch tall models to stand in during set-up and rehearsals. He explained, "We can then position the light so that it falls right. The actors know where the Smurf will be when it is animated later, so their eyelines will match. Then we can take out the model and shoot the scene, and they look quite real, fitting the real backing that we're giving them. It looks like they're part of the surroundings".^[5] Also during the process the Imageworks visual effects team used a new camera system to precisely record the on-set lighting, so it could be applied later in the computer.^[5] When time came to film a scene that would include actors and Smurfs, each Smurf was represented by a different colored dot and the actors had to remember which dot was which Smurf. The Smurfs characters were created during post-production by 268 Sony Pictures Imageworks employees who spent around 358,000 hours animating. Character designer Allen Battino, a long time Kerner collaborator, was brought in to redesign the characters for CGI.^[5]

Release[link]