The Smurfs (film) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Smurfs |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Raja Gosnell |
| Produced by | Jordan Kerner |
| Screenplay by | J. David Stem David N. Weiss Jay Scherick David Ronn |
| Story by | J. David Stem David N. Weiss |
| Starring | Neil Patrick Harris Jayma Mays Sofia Vergara Tim Gunn Hank Azaria |
| Music by | Heitor Pereira |
| Cinematography | Phil Méheux |
| Editing by | Sabrina Plisco |
| Studio | Columbia Pictures Sony Pictures Animation Kerner Entertainment Company |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
| Release date(s) | July 29, 2011 (United States) |
| Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $110 million |
| Money made | $563.7 million |
The Smurfs is a 2011 American 3D live-action/computer-animated comedy film loosely based on the comics series of the same name created by the Belgian comics artist Peyo. It was directed by Raja Gosnell and stars Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays, Sofía Vergara, and Hank Azaria, with the voices of Jonathan Winters, Katy Perry, George Lopez, Anton Yelchin, Fred Armisen, and Alan Cumming. It is the first live-action/animated film produced by Sony Pictures Animation, and the first of two live-action/animated Smurfs feature films. The film tells the story of the Smurfs as they get lost in New York, and try to find a way to get back home before Gargamel catches them.
After five years of negotiations, Jordan Kerner bought the rights in 2002, and the film entered development with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies, until Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation obtained the film rights in 2008. Filming began in March 2010 in New York City.
After having the release date changed three times, Columbia Pictures released The Smurfs on July 29, 2011. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, but was a box office success, grossing $564 million worldwide on a $110 million budget, making it the ninth highest-grossing film of 2011, and also making this Sony Pictures Animation's most commercially successful film to-date. A sequel, titled The Smurfs 2, was released July 31, 2013.
Contents
Plot
As the Smurfs get ready for the Blue Moon Festival, Papa Smurf (voiced by Jonathan Winters) sees in his cauldron a vision of Clumsy Smurf (voiced by Anton Yelchin) reaching for a dragon wand and the Smurfs' longtime enemy, evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria), capturing him. Not wanting this vision to come true, Papa disallows Clumsy to pick smurfroot, since the smurfroot fields lead to Gargamel's castle. Clumsy disobeys Papa and ends up unintentionally leading Gargamel and his pet cat Azrael (voiced by Frank Welker) to the village. The Smurfs all flee for their lives while Clumsy unknowingly runs towards the Forbidden Falls, with Papa, Smurfette, Grouchy, Brainy and Gutsy (voiced by Katy Perry, George Lopez, Fred Armisen and Alan Cumming respectively) running after him. They find him at the edge of a cliff, and while trying to help him up, they are sucked into a gigantic vortex that spirits them to 2011 New York City. To make matters worse, Gargamel and Azrael follow them through the vortex. The Smurfs end up in the apartment of Patrick and Grace Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays), a married couple who are expecting their first child, and their Basset Hound Elway. After introducing themselves and explaining 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, misunderstanding the previous explanation of his job as fortune-telling, where he calls Grace to pick them up.
Meanwhile, having extracted Smurf essence from a lock of Smurfette's hair, Gargamel also arrives at Anjelou Cosmetics and ends up being treated favorably by Patrick's boss Odile (Sofia Vergara) when he uses most of his acquired magic on her elderly mother by restoring her youth and attractiveness. But Gargamel resumes his search upon recognizing Patrick and following him into FAO Schwarz, but gets arrested after stealing another man's leaf blower and for causing chaos in the store with some customers while trying to catch the Smurfs. Gargamel manages to bust out of prison with the aid of flies, since he encountered a moth and told it to bring him eagles to help him escape. By that time, Papa manages to calculate the night he and the others can get home. But first, he must figure out the spell to do so. Patrick tells them that there is an old bookstore in the city near Anjelou Cosmetics that may contain the spell Papa needs. Meanwhile, Patrick bonds with the Smurfs after sending what he believed to be his finished advertisement to be published. However, the next day, Patrick learns that Clumsy accidentally attached Patrick's first attempt at the advertisement, a blue-moon themed image that he was not confident enough to submit, and he angrily berates the Smurfs, walking out on them and Grace to save his job.
Forced to search on their own, the Smurfs find the store and find the book L’Histoire des Schtroumpfs by researcher Peyo, containing the spell to turn the moon blue. But learning of their location, Gargamel sneaks into the bookstore and finds a dragon wand, transferring his magic into it as he uses it to capture Papa as he sends the others to safety. Though the Smurfs promised Papa that they won't try to save him and return home, Clumsy and Patrick, having seen the error of their actions after Grace gave him a sonogram picture of their baby, convince them to plan a rescue. At Belvedere Castle, after increasing the dragon wand's power with Smurf essence extracted from bits of Papa's beard, Gargamel finds himself facing all the Smurfs, summoned to New York by Brainy after he reopened the vortex by conjuring the blue moon. As the Smurf army battles Gargamel, Smurfette defeats Azrael and saves Papa before they join the fray. Though Gargamel attempts to break the Smurfs by killing Papa, Patrick saves him while Gutsy knocks the dragon wand out of Gargamel's hand, but he drops it. Clumsy tries to catch it, and to Papa's surprise, is successful, and sends Gargamel flying into trash bags and being hit by a MCI J4500 bus with the advertisement "Blue Moon" on it before Papa breaks it. Soon after, the Smurfs take their leave as Patrick receives a call from Odile that he still has his job because he finally gave her what she wants after she noticed the blue moon that Brainy created. Later, Patrick and Grace have a baby boy, whom they name Blue to honor the Smurfs, who rebuild their village in the style of New York.
In the aftermath, Gargamel wakes up and learns that he is still in the present and he looks at the audience before breaking the fourth wall and asking them "What are you looking at?" and blasts them with his wand, ending the movie.
Cast
Live action actors
- Hank Azaria as Gargamel, the nemesis of the Smurfs who plots to use the Smurfs as part of a spell which 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 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.
- Mr. Krinkle as Azrael, Gargamel's cat.
- Neil Patrick Harris as Patrick "Pat" Winslow, the new VP of marketing at Anjelou Cosmetics
- Jayma Mays as Grace Winslow, Patrick's wife
- Sofía Vergara as Odile Anjelou, an executive at Anjelou Cosmetics who is Patrick's boss.
- Tim Gunn as Henri, Odile's executive assistant at Anjelou Cosmetics.
Joan Rivers, Liz Smith, Tom Colicchio, Olivia Palermo, and Michael Musto make cameos in the film at a fictional Anjelou cosmetics product launch.
Voice actors
- 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.
- Katy Perry as Smurfette, the female of the Smurfs. About gaining the voice role, Perry said: "They had done a blind test where they took certain voices from previous interviews and matched them with the character. They liked my voice without even knowing who it was, and when they found out it was me, they thought that would work out. My personality was just a plus!"
- 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 he turned it down.
- 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.
- B. J. Novak as Baker Smurf, a smurf who loves to bake.
- 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. 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. 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.
See also
In Spanish: Los Pitufos (película) para niños
