Sony ditches hybrid Smurf movies, goes to straight up CGI

[Drtooth]

Seems they're doing what they SHOULD have done all along

Now, I felt the first one was below "meh" quality, though I surprisingly didn't hate it. But then again, Hank Azaria pretty much saved the freaking film. And, admittedly, the human actors felt like they generally wanted to be there, and they didn't toss a crappy love story in the middle of it. The second one, sadly flopped, considering they actually tried to make a Smurf movie that time. heck, it went into places Peyo didn't, certainly not the cartoon series. They got lucky with the first one because there were no talking Planes taking away from its box office take.

Other than that, this is good news. Seems like we're getting the Smurfs movie we should have gotten, but got the writers of the Scooby-Doo movie to make weak jokes about them instead.

 

[mr3urious]

It's a wise idea for Sony to reboot the franchise with an all-animated origin story. Just when the Christmas and Halloween specials weren't enough of an apology to Smurfs fans, along comes this.

 

[Muppet Master]

Seems they're doing what they SHOULD have done all along

Now, I felt the first one was below "meh" quality, though I surprisingly didn't hate it. But then again, Hank Azaria pretty much saved the freaking film. And, admittedly, the human actors felt like they generally wanted to be there, and they didn't toss a crappy love story in the middle of it. The second one, sadly flopped, considering they actually tried to make a Smurf movie that time. heck, it went into places Peyo didn't, certainly not the cartoon series. They got lucky with the first one because there were no talking Planes taking away from its box office take.

Other than that, this is good news. Seems like we're getting the Smurfs movie we should have gotten, but got the writers of the Scooby-Doo movie to make weak jokes about them instead.

THANK GOD, and it's being directed by Shrek 2's director, that's a good sign.

 

[Drtooth]

It's a wise idea for Sony to reboot the franchise with an all-animated origin story. Just when the Christmas and Halloween specials weren't enough of an apology to Smurfs fans, along comes this.

It sounds much more like what Paramount/Nickelodeon planned on when they had the license to the movies. Though, those were also planned to be CGI/Hybrid films. Supposedly, the film they planned was the rise of Gargamel. My biggest problem with the film series Sony made was that they absolutely had to follow the Chipmunks, and shove them in the "real world" where they didn't belong (though I do applaud them for running through the Muppet Whatnot Workshop and calling Elmo a red troll). While they certainly calmed it down and made their trip to "our world" more purposeful in the second movie, the first film was just "hey! Look at these crazy characters running around! Go buy some toys, kids." To say the Guitar Hero section was a bad Big Lipped Alligator Moment mixed with a We're still relevant. Though, to be fair, it's not half as jaded as Europe's Smurf Pop Albums.

On the one hand, it's best to forget these movies. On the other hand, they actually tried with the second film. The characters actually acted like the characters this time. It seems that they wanted to improve the film series, and just ended it anyway.

 

[Mynameisdean]

While it's good to see someone adapt an older cartoon and not put them with real people, I don't think I'll see it anyway.

 

[Drtooth]

A Smurf hybrid movie could have worked if they kept them in the Smurf village in their own time period. But they went for the Chipmunks route, and we got them bouncing around New York and having their personalities removed (except for Papa, Clumsy they reinvented to be sympathetic instead of Gomer Pyle, like in the cartoon). Which is a shame, since the CGI rendered Smurf Village was actually beautiful. And it lasted for all of 4 minutes.

Then again, the American cartoon series stripped the satire of the original comics (it's European, after all), and made it a preschooly show. They almost wanted them to be other colors and lame caricatures of celebrities. The movies have been a boon for, if nothing else, getting the darn original comics actually released in English here.

 

[KremlingWhatnot]

Seems they're doing what they SHOULD have done all along

Now, I felt the first one was below "meh" quality, though I surprisingly didn't hate it. But then again, Hank Azaria pretty much saved the freaking film. And, admittedly, the human actors felt like they generally wanted to be there, and they didn't toss a crappy love story in the middle of it. The second one, sadly flopped, considering they actually tried to make a Smurf movie that time. heck, it went into places Peyo didn't, certainly not the cartoon series. They got lucky with the first one because there were no talking Planes taking away from its box office take.

Other than that, this is good news. Seems like we're getting the Smurfs movie we should have gotten, but got the writers of the Scooby-Doo movie to make weak jokes about them instead.

You ARE JUST noticing this NOW!?!?, I've known this for a couple of months, which I should've posted a thread while I was at it, but I was a little busy, anyways, I think Sony is finally doing the RIGHT THING with the franchise, about time.

 

[Drtooth]

The right thing with the franchise is what they were doing all along. Smurf's Christmas Carol and Legend of Smurfy Hollow. The tradigital animation on those are beautiful. And they retained Hank Azaria's Gargamel. I highly recommend tracking down Smurfy Hollow, actually. They even managed to make Gutsy Smurf likable.

That said, all over this is what movie studios should have been doing all along. Whatever your feelings on Peabody and Sherman are, aren't you glad they didn't go with a CGI (or worse, real) Peabody pasted in? That's sure the heck what Universal would have done had Bullwinkle not bombed. Imagine an Underdog CGI reboot... anything would have been better than the piece of crap we got. The CGI DTV Garfield films are a trilliondy billion times better than those dull live action hybrids as well.

And yes... I just found this out. I'm guessing no one cares about the Smurfs movies enough to really post this thing all over the net.

 

[mr3urious]

This new Smurfs movie now has a new name: Get Smurfy. And here's a look at what the film will look like, along with the new voice cast.

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/get-smurfy-114471.html

Disappointing that Hank Azaria won't stick around as Gargamel, since he had a ton of fun in that role, though Demi Lovato as Smurfette could very well turn my opinion of her as a voice actor like Ashley Tisdale as Candace Flynn. And the visuals are sticking very close to the look of the comics and cartoon, and even have a hand-drawn look to them.

 

[Drtooth]

It's the movie they should have made in the first place, sure, but they really should have kept Hank Azaria. He was the best thing about the live action series hands down. I'm sure Rainn Wilson will do a good job, and I hope he hams it up in the role.

Other than that, I'm quite happy. They were going to have to recast Papa Smurf anyway, and they'd clearly go for the marquee name that Jack Angel (who was the alternate for the 2 cartoon specials) wouldn't be able to.