Sony Pictures Animation Announces Hand-Drawn Smurfs Mini-Movie
The Smurfs 2 may not have done as well at the box office as the studio hoped, but a brand new mostly hand drawn short (a 22-minute “mini-movie”) is coming to the rescue.
The Smurfs: The Legend Of Smurfy Hollow – essentially a combination 3D-CG/2D animated film, faithful to the original Peyo Smurfs comics – is coming to Home Video on September 10th and is expected to air on TV in October. The film was selected in official competition at this year’s Annecy film festival, and was directed by Stephan Franck (animator on The Iron Giant, Eight Crazy Nights, etc). Says Franck:
“Having grown up in Europe with the original Smurfs books, I found that I knew these characters intimately–it was like a family reunion. The use of both hand-drawn and CG animation was a fantastic opportunity. While the CG takes advantage of all the bells and whistles of modern filmmaking, the hand-drawn parts gave us a chance to bring the original Smurfs designs to life at a quality level they never had been done before. It’s completely charming.”
voice talent from the feature Smurfs 2 including Alan Cumming (TV’s The Good Wife), Fred
Armisen (TV’s Saturday Night Live), Anton Yelchin (Star Trek) as well
as Hank Azaria as the voice of Gargamel (TV’s The Simpsons).
The Smurfs: The Legend Of Smurfy Hollow combines
cutting-edge computer generated imagery and traditionally hand drawn animation, and was inspired by the classic tale The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow. In the film, the Smurfs learn the value of friendship and family. When Brainy
Smurf is favored to win the annual Smurfberry Hunt for the ninth year in a row, Gutsy Smurf sets out to discover how Brainy wins every year. Gutsy’s
investigation takes him into spooky Smurfy Hollow – and right into Gargamel’s
trap! Can Brainy and Gutsy, with the help of Smurfette, put aside their rivalry
before Gargamel captures them, or worse, will they come face-to-face with
the legendary ghost, the Headless Horseman?
