The Smurfs (film)
The Smurfs is a 2011 American 3D live-action/computer-animated comedy film loosely 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 Hank Azaria, Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays and Sofía Vergara, with Jonathan Winters and Katy Perry as the voices of Papa Smurf and Smurfette. It is the first CGI/live-action hybrid film produced by Sony Pictures Animation and in The Smurfs trilogy. 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.
The Smurfs
The Smurfs (French: Les Schtroumpfs) (Dutch: De Smurfen) is a Belgian comic and television franchise centered on a fictional colony of small blue creatures who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest. The Smurfs was first created and introduced as a series of comic characters by the Belgian comics artist Peyo (pen name of Pierre Culliford) in 1958, where they were known as Les Schtroumpfs. There are more than one hundred Smurf characters, and their names are based on adjectives that emphasize their characteristics, such as "Jokey Smurf", who likes to play practical jokes on his fellow smurfs. "Smurfette" was the first female Smurf to be introduced in the series. The Smurfs wear Phrygian caps, which came to represent freedom during the modern era.
The word “Smurf” is the original Dutch translation of the French "Schtroumpf", which, according to Peyo, is a word invented during a meal with fellow cartoonist André Franquin, when he could not remember the word salt.
The Smurfs franchise began as a comic and expanded into advertising, films, TV series, ice capades, video games, theme parks, and dolls.
Smurfs: The Lost Village
Smurfs: The Lost Village, previously known as Get Smurfy, is an upcoming American computer-animated adventure-comedy film directed by Kelly Asbury and written by Karey Kirkpatrick and Chris Poche. It is the third feature film from Sony Pictures Animation based on The Smurfs comic book series created by the Belgian comics artist Peyo, and a reboot film of Sony's live-action/animated film series. The film stars Demi Lovato as Smurfette, Mandy Patinkin as Papa Smurf, Rainn Wilson as Gargamel, Joe Manganiello as Hefty Smurf, Jack McBrayer as Clumsy Smurf and Danny Pudi as Brainy Smurf. The film is set for a March 31, 2017 release.
Voice cast
Production
On May 10, 2012, just two weeks after they announced production of The Smurfs 2, Sony Pictures Animation and Columbia Pictures were already developing a script for The Smurfs 3 with scribes Karey Kirkpatrick and Chris Poche.Hank Azaria, who played Gargamel in the first two movies, revealed that the third film "might actually deal with the genuine origin of how all these characters ran into each other way back when." Unlike the first two live action/computer-animated hybrid films, the third film will be entirely computer-animated and won't be a sequel.
The Smurfs (TV series)
The Smurfs (also known as simply Smurfs and syndicated as Smurfs' Adventures) is an American-Belgian animated fantasy-comedy television series that aired on NBC from September 12, 1981, to December 2, 1989. Made by Hanna-Barbera Productions, it is based on the Belgian comic series by the same name, created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo (who also served as story supervisor of this adaptation) and aired for 256 episodes with a total of 418 stories, excluding three cliffhanger episodes and seven specials.
History
In 1976, Stuart R. Ross, an American media and entertainment entrepreneur who saw the Smurfs while traveling in Belgium, entered into an agreement with Editions Dupuis and Peyo, acquiring North American and other rights to the characters, whose original name was "les Schtroumpfs". Subsequently, Ross launched the Smurfs in the United States in association with a California company, Wallace Berrie and Co., whose figurines, dolls and other Smurf merchandise became a hugely popular success. NBC President Fred Silverman's daughter, Melissa, had a Smurf doll of her own that he had bought for her at a toy shop while they were visiting Aspen, Colorado. Silverman thought that a series based on the Smurfs might make a good addition to his Saturday-morning lineup.
Podcasts:
