The Smurfs (2011 film)

The Smurfs is a 2011 American live-action/animated 3D fantasy adventure comedy film based on the characters and works by Peyo. Directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, produced by Jordan Kerner, Nine Culliford and Lori Forte and written by Jay Scherick, David Ronn, Jason Carter Eaton and Peter Ackerman based on a screenplay by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, the film stars Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Sofia Vergara and Hank Azaria, with the voices of Jonathan Winters, Grey DeLisle, George Lopez, Anton Yelchin, Fred Armisen, Alan Cumming, and Frank Welker.

It is the first 20th Century Fox Animation film to blend animation with live-action photography, and the first of three Smurfs films. In the film, the evil wizard Gargamel has plagued the happy, peaceful Smurfs for a very long time. Finally, he succeeds in chasing the little blue people from their village and through a magic portal -- which transports them to Manhattan and into the life of Anjelou Cosmetics executive Patrick Winslow. Only three apples high and lost in the Big Apple, the Smurfs must find a way back to their world before Gargamel tracks them down.

The Smurfs entered the film business in 2002 with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. However, plans never fully fell through when Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation acquired the rights in 2006. Then, after failed attempts in coming up with a script and a detailed storyline, 20th Century Fox Animation and Warner Bros. Pictures secured the rights in 2008. Jonathan Winters, who portrayed the voice of Papa Smurf in the 1980 TV series, came to the film's production team as the voice of him. Grey DeLisle, known for her voice performance of Daphne Blake in the Warner Bros. animated cartoon Scooby-Doo!, was added to the film's cast as Smurfette, the only female Smurf of the bunch. Other voices include George Lopez, Anton Yelchin, Fred Armisen, and Alan Cumming. Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays portray Patrick and Grace Winslow respectively, with Hank Azaria portraying the evil wizard Gargamel, with Frank Welker voicing his companion Azrael. Winters and Welker are the only two voice actors from the TV series to reprise their latter roles in the film.

The film was produced by 20th Century Fox, its animation division 20th Century Fox Animation, along with Warner Bros. Pictures, Amblin Entertainment and The K Entertainment Company, with 2D animation handled by Yowza! Animation, Rough Draft Studios, Sunwoo Entertainment and Duncan Studio. Bardel Entertainment and Sony Pictures Imageworks handled visual effects, with Rhythm & Hues Studios and Tippett Studio providing the CGI work for Azrael. Principal photography took place in New York City, commencing in March 2010 and concluding in July.

The Smurfs held its worldwide premiere in Júzcar, Spain on June 16, 2011 and was released on July 29, 2011 in the United States by 20th Century Fox and on August 3, 2011 internationally by Warner Bros. Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its 2D animation, visual effects, voice performances by Winters, DeLisle, Yelchin and Lopez, musical score by Heitor Pereira and Christopher Lennertz, and portrayals by Harris, Mays and Azaria and faithfulness to the source material, though criticized the plot, runtime, pacing, and CGI of Azrael. Despite mixed reception, it became a financial success, grossing $563.7 million worldwide on its budget of $115 million, making it the highest-grossing live-action/animated hybrid film of all time. Two sequels were released: The Smurfs 2 in 2013, and The Smurfs 3 in 2016. A fourth and final film is in development.

Plot
In Smurf Village, the Smurfs prepare for the Festival of the Blue Moon. Papa Smurf sees a vision of Clumsy Smurf reaching for a dragon wand and evil wizard Gargamel capturing the Smurfs. Shortly after, Clumsy leaves to pick smurfroot and ends up leading Gargamel into the village. The Smurfs flee and Clumsy unknowingly runs for the Forbidden Falls, with Papa, Smurfette, Grouchy, Brainy and Gutsy going after him. The Blue Moon appears and creates a vortex that spirits them to New York City. Gargamel and his pet cat Azrael follow them.

The Smurfs end up in the apartment of Patrick and Grace Winslow, a married couple who are expecting their first child. After they explain their situation, the Winslows befriend them and allow them to stay in their apartment. The next day, needing to find a "stargazer", the Smurfs follow Patrick to his workplace at Anjelou Cosmetics, believing he is a fortune-teller. Meanwhile, Gargamel extracts Smurf essence from a lock of Smurfette's hair and impresses Patrick's boss, Odile, by using the essence to restore her elderly mother's youth. Upon recognizing Patrick, Gargamel chases him and the Smurfs into FAO Schwarz and causes chaos while trying to catch them. He is arrested and jailed, but manages to escape the prison with the aid of a swarm of flies.

Papa manages to calculate the night he and the others can return home, but needs to work out a spell. While the Smurfs bond with Patrick and Grace, Papa decides to search a nearby bookstore in order to locate the spell. The Smurfs find the book L’Histoire des Schtroumpfs by researcher Peyo, containing the spell to turn the moon blue. Gargamel sneaks into the bookstore and finds a dragon wand, transferring his magic into it and uses it to capture Papa. After increasing the wand's power with Smurf essence extracted from Papa's DNA, Gargamel is confronted by the entire Smurf village, having been summoned by the blue moon which opened the portal to their world. As the Smurf army battles Gargamel, Smurfette defeats Azrael and saves Papa. Gargamel is knocked out by Patrick, who drops the dragon wand in the process. Clumsy tries to catch it, and to Papa's surprise, is successful and sends Gargamel flying into the path of a bus, carrying him away. The Smurfs bid Patrick and Grace farewell and return to Smurf Village. Later, Patrick and Grace have a baby boy, whom they name Blue, and the Smurfs rebuild their village in the style of New York.

Live-action actors

 * Hank Azaria as Gargamel, the arch-nemesis of the Smurfs who plots to use the Smurfs as part of a spell that would turn lead into gold. As opposed to the television show where Gargamel's goal is to use the Smurfs as the key ingredient in an alchemical formula to create the 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". 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.
 * Neil Patrick Harris as Patrick Winslow, the new VP of marketing at Anjelou Cosmetics and Grace's husband.
 * Jayma Mays as Grace Winslow, Patrick's wife.
 * Sofía Vergara as Odile Anjelou, the leader of Anjelou Cosmetics who is Patrick's boss.
 * Tim Gunn as Henri, Odile's assistant friend of Anjelou Cosmetics.

Joan Rivers, Liz Smith, Tom Colicchio, Olivia Palermo, Michael Musto, Steve Carell, Phyllis Smith, and Jim Carrey make cameos in the film at a fictional Anjelou cosmetics product launch.

Voice actors
"Further information: List of The Smurfs characters"


 * Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf, the leader of the Smurfs. Winters previously 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.
 * Grey DeLisle as Smurfette, the female of the Smurfs.
 * Anton Yelchin as Clumsy Smurf, the dimwitted but friendly 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".
 * Fred Armisen as Brainy Smurf, the smartest Smurf, below Papa Smurf. Quentin Tarantino was up to voice him, but dropped out.
 * 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.
 * George Lopez as Grouchy Smurf, a smurf who is always grouchy. 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.
 * Jeff Foxworthy as Handy Smurf, a hard-working smurf.
 * Paul Reubens as Jokey Smurf, a smurf who plays pranks on others.
 * Gary Basaraba as Hefty Smurf, a strong smurf with a tattoo of a heart.
 * John Oliver as Vanity Smurf, a smurf who is obsessed with his looks.
 * Kenan Thompson as Greedy Smurf, a smurf who loves smurfberries.
 * Gordon Ramsay as Baker Smurf, a smurf who loves to bake. B. J. Novak was up to voice him, but dropped out, much like with Quentin Tarantino.
 * Joel McCrary as Farmer Smurf, a smurf who is a farmer.
 * Wolfgang Puck as Chef Smurf, a smurf who loves to cook.
 * John Kassir as Crazy Smurf, the alarm for the village and the second Smurf created specifically for the film
 * Tom Kane as Narrator Smurf, a smurf with a deep narrator voice and the third Smurf created specifically for the film.
 * Frank Welker as Azrael, Gargamel's cat and companion. 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 and Rhythm & Hues Studios. 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.

Development
Coming soon!

Writing
Coming soon!

Casting
Coming soon!

Filming
On a budget of $115 million, principal photography began in New York City on March 26, 2010. In May, scenes were filmed in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood. That month, scenes were shot all night for five nights in a row at F.A.O. Schwartz toy store. 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. Other locations used for filming were Belvedere Castle, the Russian Tea Room, Rockefeller Center, and Brooklyn's Prospect Park. 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.

Animation and visual effects
Coming soon!

Release
The film had its worldwide premiere on June 16, 2011, in Júzcar, a small village in Spain. To celebrate the release, the residents painted entire village, including church and other historical buildings in blue. Twelve local painters used 4,000 litres of blue to transform traditionally white Júzcar into the world's first Smurf Village. Although 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Pictures vowed to restore the village to its former look, six months after the premiere, the residents voted to keep the colour, which had brought more than 80,000 tourists to Júzcar.

In the United States, the film was meant to be released on December 17, 2010, but it was delayed to July 29, 2011. It was then further delayed to August 3, 2011, before being moved up to the original release date of July 29, 2011. 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Pictures teamed up with marketing partners in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom to promote the film through McDonald's Happy Meals and Post Foods brand cereal during the summer of 2011.

Home media
The Smurfs was released on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and Blu-ray 3D on December 2, 2011, accompanied with an all-new 22-minute animated short film The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol. They were distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video. The Smurfs is the first 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Pictures film compatible with the UltraViolet system, which enables users to access films on any web-connected device. The film was re-released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on March 28, 2017.

Box office
The Smurfs grossed $142.6 million in the United States and Canada, along with $421.1 million in foreign markets, for a worldwide total of $563.7 million.

The film opened on approximately 5,300 screens at 3,395 locations, with 2,042 locations being 3D-enabled theaters. On July 28, 2011, Exhibitor Relations predicted The Smurfs would rank third its opening weekend with $24 million, but analyst Jeff Bock added that the film "could be a dark horse and do better than expected". That same day, John Young of Entertainment Weekly predicted a $32 million opening and a second-place ranking behind Cowboys & Aliens. He also stated that the ticket service Fandango reported that the film was leading in ticket sales. The Smurfs came in number one on Friday making an $13.2 million, ahead of Cowboys & Aliens ' $13 million. According to Fox's research, 65% of The Smurfs ' audience was parents (40%) and their children under 12 years old (25%). Overall the audience breakdown was reported as 64% female and 55% age 25 years and older.

Estimates later showed that Cowboys & Aliens and The Smurfs were tied at the number one spot for the weekend with $36.2 million each. However, actual figures showed Cowboys & Aliens won the weekend with $36.4 million just beating The Smurfs ' $35.6 million. The Smurfs ' opening was still stronger than anticipated since some box office analysts predicted that it would open below $30 million. For its second weekend the film remained at number two with Rise of the Planet of the Apes taking Cowboys & Aliens ' spot. It made $20.7 million (41% being from 3D showings), a 42% decrease from its opening weekend.

The Smurfs opened to $4.4 million from seven territories with Spain taking in $4 million of that total. On its second weekend it expanded to 42 territories, taking first place in most of its markets and grossing $45.2 million. Among the markets the film opened in first place were Brazil ($6.65 million), France ($5.93 million), Mexico ($5.53 million) Germany ($5.43 million). The film stayed number one at the international box office for the next seven weeks.

Critical response
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 42% of 117 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.80/10. The site's critical consensus states, "The Smurfs assembles a charming team of actors with live-action fun from Hank Azaria, and Grey DeLisle's performance of Smurfette is nothing shy of beautiful, but Neil Patrick Harris dries out the blue essence of the creatures from the Enchanted Forest, though gives off the classic feel of the television show with its animation." Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film an average score of 56 based on 22 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel gave it two out of four stars saying, "The good news about the big-screen 3D version of The Smurfs that's opening at your neighborhood multiplex is that it's not the insipid and some say "socialist" Smurfs you remember from 1980s TV". He called the slapstick "very small-kid friendly" and considered the adult-friendly jokes "pretty mild stuff". He closed his review saying, "Yeah, the Smurfs are still sickeningly sweet and upbeat. But if you've got kids, it's not nearly as torturous to sit through as you might have feared". Justin Chang of Variety described the film as "adorable and annoying, patently unnecessary yet kinda sweet" and calling it "a calculated commercial enterprise with little soul but an appreciable amount of heart". He said, "The script does wink knowingly in the direction of attentive adults".

San Francisco Chronicle's Peter Hartlaub gave the film a mixed review. He said The Smurfs is a "rare movie where the worst parts are in the promos". He called Harris' performance an "honest effort in a thankless role" but said that Azaria as Gargamel "Hidden under prosthetics, [Hank Azaria] compensates for his lack of good lines and repulsive makeup by overacting". He closed his review saying, "Harris, mostly acting against Marshmallow Peep-sized animated creations, is convincing and likable throughout. No doubt he will poke fun at his participation in this film the next time he's hosting an awards show, but don't be fooled. It takes a good actor to save a bad movie". Ty Burr of The Boston Globe criticized the CGI used on the cat, the use of 3D by calling it "needless" and Lopez's voice as Grouchy. He called the Smurf rap the worst part of the film. However, Burr echoed Harlaub's praise for Harris' performance by saying, "Harris manages to class up whatever he touches, even if the sight of him repeatedly hitting himself with an umbrella probably won't go on the career highlight reel". About Azaria, he said, "[Azaria] gets to put on a baldy wig and fake buck-teeth and overact as broadly as he can. A little of this goes a long way unless you're 6 years old, which is the point". He also added that Sofia Vergara "shares the screenplay's confusion as to what, exactly, she's doing here".

USA Today's Scott Bowles enjoyed Azaria's performance calling him "the human standout" and saying "He and his distrusting cat, Azrael, steal scenes". He also called Jonathan Winters "wonderful" as Papa Smurf. Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times said Azaria was "quite funny". About the film's content, he said "Those grown-up winks, along with an array of New York locations, make The Smurfs a surprisingly tolerable film for adults. As for their children, well, who knows with kids? But at least the writers have cleverly built in enough Smurfology that today's youngsters will be able to get the basics of the blue universe". Betsy Sharkey from the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review, writing "Steven Spielberg brings the charming light to The Smurfs with the 2D animation and the heartfelt performance of Grey DeLisle as Smurfette, though Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger can't come up with a clever enough script to keep the blue energy going. But hyper-realistic Azrael is something else." He also added "There are many good actors wasted as voices—Alan Cumming, Fred Armisen and Winters among them—and in the flesh, though the greatest disservice is to Azaria".

Accolades
The Smurfs was nominated at the 84th Academy Awards for six awards, winning two, including Best Voice Actress for Grey DeLisle. Additionally, it was nominated at the 69th Golden Globe Awards for five awards, winning three, including Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for Jayma Mays, Best Original Score by Heitor Pereira and Christopher Lennertz, and Best Screenplay by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger.

The Smurfs, despite winning positive rewards, received a nomination at the 2012 Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Actor to Neil Patrick Harris, but lost to Adam Sandler's performance as Jack in the 2011 film Jack and Jill.

Sequels
"Main articles: The Smurfs 2, The Smurfs 3 and The Smurfs 4"A sequel, titled The Smurfs 2, was released on July 31, 2013. Director and producer Steven Spielberg and producers Jordan Kerner, Nine Culliford and Lori Forte returned, along with all the main cast. New cast members includes Christina Ricci, J. B. Smoove, and Brendan Gleeson. Heitor Pereira returned to compose the score. In the sequel, Gargamel creates a couple of evil Smurf-like creatures called the Naughties to harness the magical Smurf-essence. When he discovers that only a real Smurf can give him what he wants and that only Smurfette can turn the Naughties into the real Smurfs, Gargamel kidnaps Smurfette and takes her to Paris. Papa, Clumsy, Grouchy, and Vanity return to the human world and seek the help of their friends Patrick and Grace Winslow to rescue Smurfette from Gargamel and when the Smurfs gets captured. The Smurfs 2 was met with mixed to negative reviews, and it earned $347 million, grossing lower than its predecessor. The film was dedicated to Jonathan Winters, the voice of Papa Smurf in the original cartoon and the first film, who died on April 11, 2013.

Third film
A third film, titled The Smurfs 3, was released on August 20, 2016. Steven Spielberg returned to produce and direct, while also enlisting as a script writer alongside Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. Alan Silvestri and Harry Gregson-Williams composed the score. In the third film, set four years after the second film, Patrick and Grace, Victor, and their son Blue were on vacation in the Scottish Highlands. Gargamel had developed robotic creatures to set out and capture the Smurfs, bringing them to his castle. Alerted of his planned attacks by Clumsy, Papa Smurf sets out with Brainy, Hefty, Clumsy, Gutsy, Vanity and Smurfette to enlist the help of Patrick, Grace and Victor. Followed by Gargamel across the globe, it was up to Smurfette, the smurf that was created by the evil wizard, to save Smurf Village, her family, Papa Smurf, and the Winslows. The Smurfs 3 was released to positive reviews, with many deeming it a significant improvement over its predecessor, and grossed $679 million worldwide. The film was dedicated to Nine Culliford, the producer for the three films, who died on July 9, 2016, and to Anton Yelchin, the voice of Clumsy Smurf in the three films, who died on June 19, 2016 from blunt traumatic asphyxia.

Fourth and final film
With the growing success of the third film, Fox and Warner Bros. had interests in a fourth film, with the film titled The Smurfs 4. Like the second and third film, Steven Spielberg came back to produce and direct, with Jordan Kerner, Lori Forte and Véronique Culliford producing. However, Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio wrote the screenplay instead of Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. The film is about the Smurfs, who, having defeated Gargamel completely in the third film, would spend more time with the Winslows than the previous three times they've visited. The film is currently scheduled for released on August 2, 2023 alongside Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Rupert Gregson-Williams will compose the score.