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.

The Smurfs and the Magic Flute
One day, a merchant brings musical instruments to sell to Peewit, the court jester, but because Peewit is such a terrible musician the King throws the merchant out before Peewit arrives. However, he has left behind a flute that has only six holes. The King throws it into the fireplace in his room, which starts to emit green smoke. When the fire is put out, Peewit retrieves the flute from the ashes unharmed. He cleans it and starts playing it for the whole castle realizing that it causes everyone to dance when it is played.

That night a man named Matthew McCreep learns from the merchant that the same flute he had been looking for is at the castle. He heads over to the castle and steals the flute from Peewit. The king sends Peewit and the young knight Johan out to catch McCreep, who uses the flute to rob people of their money. However, McCreep uses the flute to stop them. Johan and Peewit then go to the house of Homnibus the wizard. Using a spell called Hypnokenesis, the wizard sends Johan and Peewit to Smurfland where the magic flute was built.

Upon arriving, they meet a Smurf who leads them to the village. Papa Smurf greets the two of them and tells them that they will make a new flute in order to counter McCreep's flute. The Smurfs head into the forest and chop down a huge tree to get wood from the tree trunk's very centre as only this kind of wood can be useful in crafting a magical flute. Afterwards, they celebrate with a party. However, just as Papa Smurf is about to give the flute to Johan and Peewit, the two are warped back to the wizard's house. Homnibus tries the spell again but passes out from a headache.

Meanwhile, McCreep, who has now stolen over 7,000 gold pieces, arrives at the castle of his secret partner, Earl Flatbroke. McCreep tells Flatbroke of his plan to go to an island to hire people for an army to raise war on the King's castle; fortunately, two Smurfs had been listening to this. Back at the wizard's house, the Smurfs regroup with Johan and Peewit and give them the magic flute. Then they head to the port of Terminac where McCreep sets sail for the island. However, they are too late. Papa Smurf tells Johan and Peewit about Flatbroke's castle and Johan comes up with a plan.

Flatbroke receives a letter from McCreep (written by Johan) to come to the island. He heads over to Terminac to board a ship where Johan and Peewit are also on board in disguise as well as Papa Smurf and three others. They head to the island where Johan and Peewit tail Flatbroke. Suddenly, Peewit comes face to face with McCreep and they both start playing their flutes to each other. They both become exhausted soon after, but Peewit knocks out McCreep with a final note.

With McCreep and Flatbroke being brought back to the castle and all the stolen money recovered, Peewit now has two magic flutes. Johan tells him that the flutes are dangerous and must be brought back to the Smurfs, but Peewit begins to carve a phony flute to give to them instead. At the castle, Johan and Peewit give the flutes back to the Smurfs, and after they leave, Peewit starts playing the flute, only to realize (to his horror) that it has no effect on the townsfolk; it is the fake flute he had made.

The Smurfette
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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