The Smurfs 2 (2022 film)

The Smurfs 2 is a 2022 American computer-animated jukebox musical fantasy action comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, The Jim Henson Company, LAFIG Belgium, and IMPS. The 60th Disney animated feature film, the sequel of The Smurfs, loosely based on The Smurfs comic book series created by the Belgian comics artist Peyo, it was directed by Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Garth Jennings, co-directed by Teen Titans Go! creators Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, and produced by Clark Spencer, Brian Henson, and Toby Ascher, from a screenplay written by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, Bush, Phil Johnston, Matthew Fogel and a story by Howard, Bush, Jennings, Pamela Ribon, Aibel, Berger and Fogel. The film stars Ginnifer Goodwin, Katy Perry, Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Neil Patrick Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Tika Sumpter, Reese Witherspoon, Charlie Day, and Jim Carrey.

Plot
Sometime after the events of the first film, in preparation for her birthday celebration, the Smurfs read the story of Smurfette, how she was created by Gargamel to destroy them, only for Papa Smurf to rescue her and turn her fully into a Smurf. Meanwhile, she is having nightmares about reverting to her original form and betraying her fellow Smurfs by turning them over to Gargamel. The Smurfs are preparing a surprise party, but as Smurfette tries to find out what her fellow Smurfs are planning, none of them are saying a word. She takes this to mean that everyone has forgotten her birthday.

In Redshore City, Gargamel and Azrael are now celebrities, amazing people with Gargamel's sorcery, but he is running low on the Smurf essence that gives him his magic powers. With his new creations, evil Smurf-like creatures called the Naughties, named Vexy and Hackus, Gargamel creates a portal to Smurf Village by using the Eiffel Tower as a conduit so that he can kidnap Smurfette as revenge on The Smurfs for previously defeating him and, through her, obtain Papa's secret formula for creating Smurfs. However, Gargamel is too large to go through the portal, so he sends Vexy through it to kidnap Smurfette.

The Smurfs witness the abduction of Smurfette and inform Papa, who uses his magic to create crystals that allow several of his Smurfs to travel directly to the residence of their anthropomorphic animals allies, Nick Wilde, Buster Moon and their groups, in Zootopia in order to seek his help to rescue Smurfette. Papa originally intends for Brainy, Hefty and Gutsy to use the crystals, but through an accident, Clumsy, Grouchy and Vanity use them instead. The Smurfs arrive in Nick's apartment right after the celebration of their son Blue's fourth birthday where they meet Nick's stepbrother, Victor Doyle, who is a constant embarrassment to Nick. Even though, Judy Hopps aware the pair are to relocate to Redshore City as she accept a post with the RSCPD. Mrs. Otterton unexpectedly barges into Bogo's office, pleading for someone to find her husband Emmitt, one of fourteen missing predators. Despite being the academy valedictorian, Judy is assigned to finds fourteen missing predators. The Smurfs soon discover Gargamel is in Redshore City and set off with the Wildes, the groupes and Victor to find him.

Upon arrival in Redshore City, they are denied entry into Crystal Entertainment but sneak in for an audition with entertainment mogul wolf Jimmy Crystal. As Jimmy is uninterested in Buster's original show pitch, Gunter suggests a space-themed sci-fi musical that features songs from Clay Calloway, a legendary rock star lion who has not been seen in 15 years after his wife Ruby died. Intrigued and assuming Clay will be a part of the show, Jimmy greenlights it and lets Buster and his friends stay at his hotel during production. Patrick and Grace work with Victor to distract Gargamel during one of his performances, while the Smurfs sneak backstage in Gargamel's dressing room to look for Smurfette, only to discover what Gargamel is planning. Miss Crawly finds where Clay lives and goes to visit him, but he scares her away with a series of booby traps. During a rehearsal, Rosita develops a fear of heights, prompting Buster to give Rosita's role to Jimmy's daughter, Porsha, on his insistence while Rosita is relegated to a minor role. Johnny has been assigned to work with top choreographer monkey Klaus Kickenklober, but his harsh teaching methods leave Johnny unable to learn. Johnny later comes across a street dancer lynx named Nooshy, who agrees to help him out. Meena has been cast in a romantic scene with Darius, an egocentric actor yak. Having never been in love, Meena is unable to get the feelings across during their scene. She later meets and falls in love with an ice cream vendor elephant named Alfonso. Judy interrogation Manchas explains that, prior to attacking him, Emmitt yelled about "Night Howlers". Jimmy eventually finds out that Buster never contacted Clay about the show and threatens to harm Buster if he does not deliver. Ash and Buster are going to Clay, however Manchas turns savage, chasing the pair, and vanishes. Ash and Buster visit Clay to convince him to be in the show. He refuses at first, but Ash changes his mind.

At the same time, Smurfette escapes from her prison, and Vexy and Hackus chase after her. Vexy encourages her to become one of them, claiming that naughty is fun. Upon her return to Gargamel's hotel suite with the Naughties, Gargamel presents her with a tiny dragon wand as a feigned act of kindness. At the wedding reception, Judy saves the Smurfs by a cart. Rachel's fiancé Randall and his wedding guests reveal themselves as undercover agents of COVNET and arrest the Smurfs, Nick and Victor, who are then saved by Judy, Maddie and a vengeful Rachel, who reconciles with Randall, and arrest COVNET agents by the RSCPD, for the misunderstanding. Following the wolves, the duo and the Smurfs locates Emmitt, Manchas, and the other missing predators, who are all "savage" and imprisoned in a hidden asylum. Zootopia's mayor, Mayor Lionheart, ordered their capture, and is trying to quietly ascertain the cause of their feral behavior. Wracked with guilt, Judy quits her job. There, she learns that "Night Howlers" are actually Midnicampum flowers, which have severe, lasting psychotropic effects if ingested. Realizing that someone is deliberately using the flowers to turn predators savage.

Smurfette still refuses to give Gargamel the formula until she sees the Naughties are dying due to a lack of Smurf essence. Faced without an alternative to save them, Smurfette writes the formula down and Gargamel uses it to turn the Naughties into real Smurfs. Immediately after they become Smurfs, Gargamel puts them into his Smurfalator so he can carry out the rest of his plan.

Meanwhile, Judy and Nick and the Smurfs work together to rescue Smurfette, while the pair interrogates Weaselton, who admits he was hired by a ram named Doug to steal the Night Howler bulbs. They find Doug in a laboratory hidden in the city subway, where he manufactures a Night Howler serum to be shot at predators via a dart pistol. Judy and Nick obtain a serum gun as evidence. Back at the theater, Buster asks Porsha to switch roles with Rosita, as Porsha's acting skills are poor. Porsha misinterprets this as Buster firing her and runs off. An outraged Jimmy nearly drops Buster off his penthouse roof after news of the supposed firing is broadcast on television before locking him in a closet. Suki later frees Buster and warns him to leave Redshore City before Jimmy can kill him. Judy revealing that Jimmy to have masterminded this prey-supremacist conspiracy.

Ash arrives at the hotel room with the crew and Clay, who advises Buster not to run and hide as he did. Buster decides to have the cast and crew put on the show that night behind Jimmy's back after he witnesses Jimmy insulting him and his friends on television. Porsha rejoins the show, Johnny calls his paroled father and his gang to come over and keep Jimmy and his bodyguards at bay, and Rosita calls her husband Norman to let their children distract security.

During the show, a jealous Klaus takes the place of Johnny's performance partner to undermine his number, but Johnny defeats Klaus with encouragement from Nooshy and the other dancers, finally earning Klaus' respect. Porsha performs a high energy song and dance number, standing up to her enraged father. Meena visualizes Darius as Alfonso, and successfully performs a romantic duet with him. However, the Smurfs are soon captured and put into the Smurfalator, powering Gargamel's large-sized dragon wand. In a last attempt to stop the show, Jimmy drops Buster off a high catwalk, which forces Rosita to overcome her fear of heights to save Buster from Jimmy. Nick and Victor arrive just in time to destroy the Smurfalator together, causing an explosion of Smurf essence that destroys the written formula and frees the Smurfs from their cages. When the time comes for Clay to take the stage, he claims that he is not ready yet. Ash leads the crowd in a rendition of one of Clay's songs, giving him the courage to perform. Everyone is blasted out of Gargamel's lair through a sewer hole where Nick and Victor reunite with Judy, Maddie, Blue and Moon.

After the curtain call, Jimmy tries to take credit for the show only for Suki to have him and her accomplices are arrested by the police. Gargamel reappears out of the sewer hole only to be blasted away by Smurfette with her new wand. He then falls onto the Notre Dame Cathedral, where he accidentally brings a stone gargoyle to life, which then throws him to the top of the Eiffel Tower where fireworks are then set off, sending him into the air. The Smurfs bid farewell to the Winslows, then return home with Vexy and Hackus to celebrate Smurfette's birthday. Just as Judy, Nick, Victor, Buster, Maddie and his friends and family begin to return home the following morning, Suki stops them and tells them that a theater called The Majestic wants to put on their show. As the cast puts on its first official performance, Buster watches from the VIP section, proud to have succeeded in Redshore City.

In two post-credit sequences, Gargamel and Azrael are pulled into the portal, sending them back to their castle, and they later have a fight.

Development
In June 2016, Howard, Moore and Jennings were in talks about the possibility of a The Smurfs sequel. On January 25, 2017, Disney announced that a sequel to The Smurfs was in the works. Later that day, screenwriter Jared Bush confirmed that he is working on the film as a director. In April 2017, it was confirmed that directors Byron Howard and Garth Jennings returned the film along with producers Clark Spencer, Brian Henson and Toby Ascher. In August 2019, Teen Titans Go! creators Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic wants to directed for the sequel for The Smurfs. Later that day, Disney confirmed that Horvath and Jelenic to be co-directing In May 2021, Matthew Fogel was confirmed as screenwriter after previously scribing Illumination's Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022). According to Khary Payton, who has collaborated with Horvath and Jelenic on various projects at Warner Bros. Animation, the duo flew to Walt Disney Animation Studios a month after the release of their first feature film, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, in September 2018. Ed Skudder who previously worked with Horvath on Unikitty!, confirmed that he will returns. Disney officially confirmed the sequel in January 2019, with a release date of December 21, 2021, coincided Christmas. In April 2020, Disney shifted the film's release to June 22, 2022, coinciding of Global Smurfs Day, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the development process, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan F. Horn suggested that Nick should expressly state his disappointment ("Just when I thought someone actually believed in me...") after discovering that Judy still fears him as a predator. The Lego sequence was done by 13-year-old Canadian animator Preston Mutanga and was added late in the movie. The film also marked the last appearance of Tom Lister Jr., who voiced Finnick in the first film. Lister Jr. died on December 10, 2020 (by then, work had already ended on this film).

Writing
Horvath and Jelenic chose to interchange Judy Hopps and Smurfette whose tell us the story. Then, Howard, Bush, and Jennings realized the film's plot would be more engaging if they reversed the roles to instead focus on Hopps as opposed to Wilde and Moon even Smurfette as opposed to Papa Smurf. The change in perspective involved dropping several characters, including 8 characters known as "The Gerbil Jerks" who were described as "trust-fund gerbils that had nothing better to do than harass Nick."

Casting
On September 27, 2016, Jim Carrey expressed interest and confirm that in starring in a sequel, feeling that his character, the villain Gargamel. That same month, Ginnifer Goodwin confirmed for reprises her role as Judy Hopps, along with Jason Bateman, Neil Patrick Harris, Dustin Hoffman, Tika Sumpter, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Charlie Day, who previously play Luigi in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Peter Dinklage, Will Arnett, Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Taron Egerton, Tori Kelly, and Nick Kroll. Katy Perry confirmed at the 2017 Kids Choice Awards that she would be reprising her role as Smurfette.

In December 2020, Jayma Mays, Kevin James, Bobby Cannavale, Lucy Liu, Antonio Banderas, Adam Pally, Jake Gyllenhaal, Don Cheadle, Michelle Rodriguez, Pharrell Williams, Will Smith, portrayed Bono, and Halsey were added to the cast.

Animation
The film was animated by Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, California, Vancouver, British Columbia, Mikros Animation in Montreal, Quebec and for Lego sequence by Animal Logic in Sydney. Production was underway by August 2018, with animation ending in September 2021. Post-production work wrapped by May 2022.

Soundtrack
The Smurfs 2: Music from and Inspired By, the soundtrack of the film, U2 performed the film's original song "Your Song Saved My Life". The song was released on June 8, 2022. Britney Spears contributed an original song titled "Ooh La La", which is played at the film's credits. Many other artists were featured on the soundtrack, including Becky G, Owl City, Nelly Furtado, Austin Mahone, and G.R.L.Additional music includes songs by Kiana Ledé, Sam i, Billie Eilish, Elton John and more. The film's soundtrack was released on June 8, 2022 by iamOTHER and Walt Disney Records.

Score
The Smurfs 2 is the score of the film. Composer Brian Tyler replaced Michael Giacchino from the first film, which was released on July 1, 2022, by Walt Disney Records.