The Smurfs' Magical Adventures

The Smurfs' Magical Adventures is an American hand-drawn animated web television comedy film produced by Studio Peyo, Sony Pictures Animation and Warner Bros. Animation, based on the characters created by Peyo and the original Hanna-Barbera TV series, serving as a reboot, starring an celebrity-based voice cast consisting of Jack Angel, Anna Kendrick, Billy West, Jeff Bennett, Michael Bell, Frank Welker, Alan Oppenheimer, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria, Dee Bradley Baker and Dan Castellaneta. It premiered on Netflix in September 2019. The film was directed by Rich Moore, who also worked on The Simpsons.

This film follows the adventures of Johan and Peewit in the first segment, as well as the Smurfs dealing against Gargamel in the last two segments. It also features the animated return of Homnibus' teenage servant, Oliver, who is currently voiced by Animaniacs voice actor, Rob Paulsen. Following the retirements of Danny Goldman and Bill Callaway, and the deaths of June Foray, Lucille Bliss, Hamilton Camp, Bob Holt, Linda Gary, Kip King, Don Messick and Paul Winchell, new voice actors and actress were brought in to play their respective characters.

The film was originally nominated for Best Film on the Internet, but lost to a Disney's Lady and the Tramp. Nevertheless, the film was a big success overseas in the UK, Italy, France, Belgium, Netherlands and Poland. The film got a DVD/Blu-ray release on Febraury 14, 2020 (Valentine's Day), according to the third segment involving romance. Despite its controversy of Smurfette, the film still remains a cult following on the Smurfs fanbase.

Synopsis
Peewit acquires a flute, which is bad enough for the castle's inhabitants, but this one has the ability of making its audience dance crazily before they collapse from exhaustion. When a thief steals it and uses it to commit further robberies, Johan and Peewit decide to consult the flute's makers: some little blue beings called the Smurfs.

Later on, the evil sorcerer Gargamel wants to create a magic stone, and finds out that one of the ingredients in his recipe is a Smurf. Gargamel and his pet cat Azrael catch a very unlucky Smurf, who they plan to drop into their magic cauldron. Papa Smurf leads a rescue effort to free their fellow Smurfs and foil Gargamel's plan.

After being vanquished, Gargamel magically created Smurfette as a spy to help him to do away with the Smurfs once and for all. Smurfette tricks Greedy into opening the Smurf River Dam (to flood the village), but later -- when he realizes Smurfette wants to be "a real Smurf" -- Papa Smurf has an ace up his sleeve.

Plot
The film starts with a book opening to show the words, "Once upon a time..." on the page. It then cuts to a view of the castle, where the people in the human village are celebrating the Royal Fair. Today was the jousting tournament, and Johan is going to joust against his opponent. Peewit already made a bet with the King that if Johan wins, he gets a few gold pieces. Much to Peewit's surprise and the King's dismay, Johan wins the jousting tournament.

Still under construction...

Voice cast

 * Jack Angel - Papa Smurf
 * Anna Kendrick - Smurfette
 * Billy West - Brainy Smurf, Homnibus
 * Jeff Bennett - Clumsy Smurf, Painter Smurf
 * Michael Bell - Handy Smurf, Lazy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Johan
 * Frank Welker - Hefty Smurf, Poet Smurf, Azrael, Peewit
 * Alan Oppenheimer - Vanity Smurf
 * Nancy Cartwright - Jokey Smurf
 * Hank Azaria - Gargamel
 * Dee Bradley Baker - Greedy Smurf, Harmony Smurf
 * Rob Paulsen - Oliver
 * Jim Cummings - The Good King
 * Tress MacNeille - Dame Barbara
 * Dan Castellaneta - Tailor Smurf
 * Tom Kane - The Narrator

Production
In the summer of 2018, Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures announced that they are rebooting The Smurfs with Studio Peyo for a film on Netflix.

Production began in the fall of 2018. Animators, such as Dave Feiss, Jamie Oliff, Eric Goldberg, Bruce W. Smith, Lynne Naylor and Chris Reccardi also contributed to doing character layouts for the film. In mid-February 2019, it was announced that Rich Moore was hired to direct the film.

On July of 2019, a first look of the movie was released to the public. This trailer reveals that a Spanish studio, Alfonso Entertainment (successor to Alfonso Productions, who worked on Cosgrove-Hall's Count Duckula during the late 1980s to early 1990s) is providing the animation work overseas (a la Carbunkle Cartoons' style on Nickelodeon's Ren and Stimpy and Harvey Comics' Baby Huey).

Reception
The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics and fans of the original Smurfs comics and 1980s cartoon show. It was praised for its animation and humor, as well as re-adapting old comic stories to the screen, while it was panned for Tom Kane's narration due to it already being used in the live-action/CGI duology.

Trivia

 * The film's plot is mainly based on the Smurfs' first appearance in the Johan and Peewit comic story, "The Smurfs and the Magic Flute", as well as the original comic story "The Smurfnapper", and Hanna-Barbera's version of the original comic story, "The Smurfette".
 * Rich Moore optioned to use the Peyo art style for the film, because the simplistic CalArts-style character designs and backgrounds used at the time (such as Regular Show, Adventure Time, Steven Universe, etc.) would never work on a very European cartoon.
 * Originally, the producers wanted to add Monty the vulture (Gargamel's second pet from Smurfs: The Lost Village) to the film due to being a crew-favorite, but because Kelly Asbury (who was busy directing the computer-animated film UglyDolls) wasn't involved with the production of the film, he got removed after they failed to get the rights to use Monty.
 * Tom Kane's narration (and the recurring gag of him being frequently interrupted by a character) serves as both a tribute and parody to Narrator Smurf from the live-action/CGI duology.
 * The film brings back the traditional hand-drawn art style of the old 1980s Smurfs cartoon show, as well as an upgrade to have a more fluid animation style.

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