Definately sounds hopeful. While I found stuff I could enjoy in the first Smurf CGI film, it did suffer quite a lot from the filmmakers feeling the need to second guess the source material. I mean, if you were making the first Superman film of your generation, you wouldn't set it in the old West (or at least I hope you wouldn't).
... Is With Those Who Fight For Dominance
Anything these dedicated artists do likely has to be far superior to whatever the hell those live - action movies were trying (and unfortunately, failed...) to do, IMHO.
I'm welcoming any and all changes made here.
New Web Browser, same old Shokew.
Two worst wastes of Hank Azaria and Neil Patrick Harris ever.
Professional Moldy Fig/Curmudgeon
Hank Azaria, for all his great voice acting on The Simpsons, is just no Paul Winchell.
"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
So far I really love the traditional animation in the Christmas and Halloween special so this is really exciting. Especially if they continue showing that beautiful flowing inbetweens.
I dearly hope they get rid of George Lopez as Grouchy. George Lopez is incapable of playing anybody other than George Lopez. And they actually altered Grouchy's character just for him. Grrr...
edited 18th Jan '15 10:36:16 PM by Robbery
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
At least George Lopaz is an actual acting talent. The same can NOT be said for Katy Perry. I've only seen and heard clips of the first two movies but it is enough to tell me that her performance as Smurfette is as bad as Tiffiny's Judy in Jetsons The Movie.
edited 18th Jan '15 11:11:52 PM by DS9guy
I think Lopez worked better as Grumpy when the story focused on him in the Christmas Carol film. It gave him versatility and you actually saw him understand what Papa Smurf was working on for a Christmas present. In the films, they turned Grouchy into a joke rather than a individual character(since the movies focused on Neil Patrick Harris's family instead of what the title was suggesting).
Check out the blog. Sometimes, the director talks about the challenges of making an animated film (he has previously co-directed Shrek 2 and directed Gnomeo & Juliet) accompanied by these cute Smurf gag cartoons he drew himself to further whatever point he is making.
edited 19th Jan '15 12:05:05 PM by DS9guy
Sadly, Grouchy wasn't always Grouchy. He was the first Smurf bitten by the purple fly in "The Purple Smurfs" and thus infected all the other Smurfs. Even after the plague was averted, he was apparently never the same.
Whoops, hit a button by mistake...
edited 19th Jan '15 12:16:37 PM by Robbery
A tale of a story meeting
:
STORY ARTIST: What is the natural bridge made of?
WRITER #1: In the script it’s a fallen tree.
WRITER #2: But it could be fallen rocks.
CONSULTANT: Are there large enough rocks in our world?
DIRECTOR: Sure. There’s no rule about that, yet.
STORY ARTIST: How deep is the river?
WRITER #1: Knee deep.
STORY ARTIST: So it’s really more like a creek.
WRITER #2: Well, it needs to be treacherous.
CONSULTANT: Like with rapids?
PRODUCER: Rapids are expensive.
DIRECTOR: Let’s go with the fallen tree.
STORY ARTIST: How far downstream is the tree?
DIRECTOR: Maybe a half mile?
WRITER #2: But it could be closer.
DIRECTOR: These characters are small, so it should “feel” like a half mile to them.
WRITER #2: It has to seem do-able, though.
STORY ARTIST: Is it a large tree?
DIRECTOR: Large in comparison to these characters.
CONSULTANT: What type of tree is it?
DIRECTOR: It just needs to be a large log fallen across the river.
CONSULTANT: How did it fall?
WRITER #2: We just assumed it fell from age.
CONSULTANT: So it’s an old tree?
DIRECTOR: Yes, let’s make it an old fallen tree.
STORY ARTIST: But you said it could be rocks.
DIRECTOR: Just make it a tree. A big, old dead tree.
CONSULTANT: Won’t a dead tree make a dark statement to the audience? (LONG MOMENT OF SILENCE)
DIRECTOR: Let’s take a break…
![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
I don't think it was slam against anyone, just that they had been working at this a little too long
edited 1st Feb '15 5:49:39 PM by DS9guy
Turns out it has been pushed to Easter 2017. This is good in my book because the production schedule was short for an animated film and this will give them much needed time.
edited 26th Mar '15 1:35:44 PM by DS9guy
Our first glimpse of our heroes and villains!
Wooo! The Smurfs don't look so smurfing ugly! Yay, right?
Also, they're calling it Get Smurfy.
edited 14th Jun '15 10:02:35 PM by TargetmasterJoe
Why aren't you laughing?
WOAH
If it's anything like the Smurf Christmas Carol, I'm in! I've always been a fan of the Smurfs, so it'll be nice to get a Smurf film that's good for once.
belongs to the hurricane
the characters look fine based on that production image. pretty spot on, actually.
I hope Philosophal Smurf gets some credit, for once. Yes I know that mostly he was there to whine and be made fun of, but every Smurf *except him* seemed to get the spotlight. And how frustrating must it have been to expect to be the next Papa Smurf only to find that some Baby Smurf that came from nowhere was destined to? (Though Smurfs hardly had the best writing I ever saw...)
And we have a synopsis. It's apparently going to be an Origin Story.
Is anyone catching the irony of Hank Azaria not reprising the role of Gargamel, since he's actually trained in voice-acting?? I suppose they just wanted to recast everyone.
Prim, proper, and yet so socially awkward
That really looks a lot nicer than the live-action films.
It'll be nice to get a Smurf movie that (hopefully) doesn't try too hard to appeal to the kids.
"I shall not be foolish again, my dear Gwendolyn!"
I hope Philosophal Smurf gets some credit, for once. Yes I know that mostly he was there to whine and be made fun of, but every Smurf *except him* seemed to get the spotlight.
He'll always be Pitufo Filosofo to me as well, but in English he's named Brainy Smurf.
WOAH
The character images in that video are great! This movie is going to look so much better than the live action ones.
The voice actors seem like good choices. I wish we could've heard them speak some lines in-character.
I'm glad they're not doing the "X animated character is in the real world now, see them deal with awkward real world stuff despite that not really working with their character all the time" bit that the previous films used too much.
I mean, it's not an inherently bad idea, but a lot of the bad live action adaptations of animated characters in the past couple decades or so have run it into the ground, and since they all tend to copy each other it worked less and less each time.
edited 16th Jun '15 12:28:05 AM by KnownUnknown
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.
Prim, proper, and yet so socially awkward
Sudden thought: What will happen to Gutsy Smurf with this reboot?
"I shall not be foolish again, my dear Gwendolyn!"
This is for the Smurfs movie scheduled for released in 2016.
Well, it seems that after Smurfs 2 made 216 million less than it's predecessor at the worldwide box office (thank you Box Office Mojo), Sony has decided to reboot the property and make the next one fully animated instead of a Live Action/CGI hybrid. Also, the design will be more faithful to Peyo's art style.
Recently, it was announced that Mandy Patinkin, best known for playing Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, would replace the dearly departed Jonathan Winters as the voice of Papa Smurf.
The director has set up a production blog
for the film.
I'm cautiously optimistic. Based on the blog I mentioned, the people behind this film clearly love the Smurfs and want to adapt it as best as they can. I'm just wondering if these changes are enough to avoid the mistakes of the first two films.
edited 18th Jan '15 4:12:00 PM by DS9guy