Julia Roberts Smurfs: The Lost Village

Cast: Bill Hader, Joe Manganiello, Julia Roberts, Mandy Patinkin
Directors: Rob Minkoff, Kelly Asbury
Genre: Animation, Adventure
Rated: G
Running Time: 90 minutes

Synopsis: In this fully animated, all-new take on the Smurfs, a mysterious map sets Smurfette and her best friends Brainy, Clumsy and Hefty on an exciting and thrilling race through the Forbidden Forest filled with magical creatures to find a mysterious lost village before the evil wizard Gargamel does. Embarking on a rollercoaster journey full of action and danger, the Smurfs are on a course that leads to the discovery of the biggest secret in Smurf history!

Smurfs: The Lost Village
Release Date: March 30th, 2017

 

About The Movie

For Smurfs: The Lost Village – the Smurfs' first all-animated CG adventure – the filmmakers went back to the drawing board to rediscover the classic, magical look of the Smurfs. 'We went through the early comic books and studied the work of Peyo to try to find a visual look for the movie that honored the origins of the Smurfs and how they really look," says Kelly Asbury, the film's director. Kelly Asbury previously directed the hits Shrek 2 and Gnomeo and Juliet. 'That was important to how we conceived each location, the look, the design of the Smurfs themselves, their mushroom houses, the colors."

The film is loaded with fun as the filmmakers take the Smurfs into the vibrant, exciting, and dangerous world of the Forbidden Forest. 'It's a land they've never experienced before – it's beautiful but full of surprises, dangers, and fun," says Kelly Asbury. 'Dragonflies – real fire-breathing dragons that are fun and happy until you make them mad. Flowers that look and smell beautiful but will eat you if you're not careful. A dangerous floating river that defies gravity."

'When I joined Sony Pictures Animation two years ago I was thrilled to discover a fully animated take on the Smurfs, a very different approach than the hybrids, and one that brings the franchise back to its comic roots," says Kristine Belson, president of Sony Pictures Animation. 'Kelly Asbury's talent and his passion has led to a finished film that I couldn't be prouder of, and which is reflective of our studio's renewed commitment to artist-driven movies."

'It's a new and clever take on the Smurfs," says multiplatinum superstar Demi Lovato, who leads the voice cast as Smurfette. 'Smurfette teams up with Hefty, Brainy and Clumsy to go on the biggest adventure any Smurf has ever experienced – to find out if there are other Smurfs beyond the Forbidden Forest. If there are other Smurfs out there, Team Smurf needs to find them!"

Asbury says that the familiar world of Smurf Village and the new worlds created for the film all have the same original inspiration: Peyo – the Belgian artist Pierre Culliford who created the Smurfs back in 1958. 'Peyo's work has a buoyance and a lightness of being. There was an effortlessness to the way he drew," Asbury explains. 'For the Forbidden Forest and the Lost Village, we wanted it to feel like something that the audience was experiencing with the Smurfs for the first time, but it had to feel like a part of the Smurfs' world. Darker colors, deeper colors, rich shadows, lots of lush, unusual colored foliage, glow-in-the-dark plants, animals, bugs – all these things were different – but it had the Peyo shapes and language in common."

The filmmakers also rethought the humor for the film. 'We wanted adults and kids to laugh together at the humor, the way they do at the Peyo comics, rather than to have different kinds of jokes – double-entendre humor for the adults and something else for the kids," says Asbury. 'Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges – everybody laughs at these types of gags and that kind of humor, and that's what we tried to imbue into the movie – timeless with a new twist on it."

'I'm so excited that our film is returning to Peyo's all-animated roots," says producer Jordan Kerner. 'I always thought Smurfs would be the perfect vehicle for a fully animated movie. Our story board artists, art department and animators brought a huge love for the original characters, humour, and designs, and that love comes through in every frame of the beautiful movie Kelly Asbury and his crew crafted."

'Kelly's real point of view as a director was the way to make the movie hugely funny but also capture the heart of why the Smurfs have stood the test of time," adds producer Mary Ellen Bauder Andrews. 'The Smurfs have always stood for the timeless ideas of harmony and peace, and Kelly Asbury wanted to make a movie that was True Blue."

'The message of the movie is really one of teamwork," says Kelly Asbury. 'It takes a Smurf Village, if you will, individually and together, to bring everyone together to act as one. It's about accepting each other's differences and complementing each other for the greater good. I think that's a universal message and one that is pertinent today."

To bring the Smurfs to life, the filmmakers turned to a variety of talented artists from around the world – and because the Smurfs have an international following, these are artists who were eager to return the characters to their all-animated roots. 'The artists and technicians that helped make this film are really an international cast of people who grew up enjoying the Smurfs before the Smurfs even came to America in the mid-80s," says Asbury. 'They have a special affection for the Smurfs and wanted to see this film pay homage to that and be true to the integrity of Peyo's work."

In fact, says Kelly Asbury, the film's character designer, Patrick Maté, was so successful in capturing Peyo's original energy that he received the ultimate endorsement. 'He was able to capture the characters with complete accuracy – so accurate, in fact, that Peyo's daughter, Véronique Culliford, saw Patrick's drawings and started crying since they were so close to her dad's original designs," Kelly Asbury recalls. 'What more could anyone ask?"

So, for the new film, the filmmakers created new 3D designs, focusing on certain Peyo idiosyncrasies: eyes that are joined together, mouths that move independently of the head shape and jaw, eyebrows that pop off the face and above the hat. Because all of the Smurfs have, essentially, the same design, the challenge and fun for the animators came in differentiating the characters through performance. 'Through posing, attitude, and a few props, we are able to differentiate between those characters the way Peyo did," says Kelly Asbury. 'It's very fun to make those subtle differences and it gives you a whole new character."

The villains – the hapless evil wizard Gargamel and his bafflingly loyal cat Azrael – also got a full, all-animated redesign, again based on Peyo's original artwork. 'We didn't want Azrael to look like a real cat or Gargamel to look like a real person. We wanted that cartooniness that was so beautifully done by Peyo to come through – and many of the key poses in this movie are directly from the Peyo comics," says Asbury. 'Gargamel has to be funny and bumbling, but also believably treacherous and dangerous. Azrael is probably the smartest character in the movie; you don't like him, but he's funny and he hates Gargamel, and for some reason, he's his sidekick. It's one of the great questions of mankind – why are Gargamel and Azrael together?"

Even new characters are drawn from the building blocks Peyo set down. 'All of our new characters – Brainy's pet Snappy Bug who basically acts like his smartphone , the glow-in-the-dark Bunnies, down to the smallest insects, the butterflies, the centipedes, the snails – are all derived from shapes and design styles from Peyo's comic books," says Asbury.

In casting the film, the filmmakers encouraged the actors to bring themselves, rather than putting on a voice. 'When you think Smurfs, you might look at their proportions and automatically think young," says head of story Brandon Jeffords. 'We had them bring it back to their normal levels. We wanted the actors to just be themselves.

Smurfette

Smurfette has lived in Smurf Village her entire life... the same 99 boys every day. But now, she and her best friends are about to go where no Smurf has gone before… through the Forbidden Forest to try to find the Lost Village - and they find the biggest mystery in Smurf history. It's going to be the adventure of her life.

'I loved playing Smurfette," says Demi Lovato, who brings the character to life. 'She's kind and compassionate and really takes care of her fellow Smurfs. But she's also really brave – she's adventurous and when she wants something, she goes and gets it. She doesn't take -no' from anybody, especially Papa Smurf. She's a strong, independent lady Smurf."

'She's a one-of-a-kind sort of girl – literally, the only girl in Smurfs Village," Demi Lovato continues. 'She has a really beautiful heart and she's working really hard to figure out who she is."

'Demi Lovato has a very individual voice," says Kelly Asbury. 'She imbued Smurfette with the same confidence that she is always talking and singing about – what's wrong with being confident? She brought that to Smurfette and redefined the character in many ways."
Hefty

Hefty is that guy who hits the gym twice a day and will make sure you know about it. But just when you think he's hard core, he shows you that he's just a big softie inside.

'True Blood" and Magic Mike's Joe Manganiello voices the role of the blue hunk. 'Hefty is the coolest, strongest Smurf in Smurf Village," says Joe Manganiello. Joe Manganiello was excited to be a part of the movie in order to share it with his young family. 'What I love about this movie is that it returns to the look that my generation all remember as kids, so it's nostalgic for adults – but it's also going to usher in an entire new generation, including my two-year-old niece, who loves the Smurfs and is going to get to see her uncle play Hefty."

Clumsy

Clumsy is all heart… and all thumbs. He's always eager to lend a helping hand or pitch in however he can – even if it might have been better if he'd just stayed home. Luckily, his good intentions and wide-eyed wonder make whatever mess he's made utterly forgivable, and in the end, he always impresses us all.

Jack McBrayer of '30 Rock" gives voice to Clumsy. 'He's such a good fella – the kind of guy you want on your team, so long as your team doesn't require hand-eye coordination or grace or ability," he says. 'If you need somebody with team spirit, Clumsy is your Smurf."

Even though Jack McBrayer's acting was done in a recording booth, he still found a chance to go method. 'I watched a lot of fail videos in preparation for my role as Clumsy Smurf. There are so many of them. People have fallen in every imaginable situation," he says. 'So I acquired a lot of practice to really capture the essence of Clumsy and I have the bruises to prove it."

Brainy

Everybody knows a Brainy: the definition of book smart but lacking a certain social grace. No matter: his friends know how important they are to him, and they pay it back. And when the chips are down, there's no more resourceful Smurf with a better idea to solve the problem.

Danny Pudi gives Brainy his nasally voice and caring soul. 'Brainy's the whiz kid on Team Smurf. He's always trying to figure out how to solve a problem," he says. 'He can get hyper-focused at times, but he has a very good heart and he does it for his friends."

Is playing Brainy anything like his 'Community" role? 'It would be a really big compliment to say that I was typecast for Brainy," he laughs. 'I'm a decently bright guy, but Brainy is innovative in many unexpected ways. I really immersed myself in the role: I was painted blue for seventeen months straight and I made sure that my nasal passages were constantly flooded with pollen so that my allergies would flare up."

In fact, finding that nasal inflection took a good deal of work with the director. 'Kelly Asbury was super-helpful in letting us play. We figured out the character together," Danny Pudi recalls. 'We worked on some options – the more we played, the more nasally it got and the more fun it became to inhabit this character."

Papa Smurf

Kind and warm, Papa Smurf's number one concern is the safety and well-being of the Smurfs and his beloved Smurf Village. As the leader of the Smurfs, and the patriarch of the village, he has tried to maintain a certain level of control and order, but if he thought overseeing 99 Smurf boys and one little Smurf girl was hard, he had another think coming when they reached their teenage years.
'I wanted Papa Smurf to have energy – to be irascible and energetic. A guy who could lead an army if he had to," says Kelly Asbury. 'Mandy Patinkin brought heart, he brought energy, he brought vitality and sincerity to the part."

'Papa is the patriarch of the Smurfs – he really cares about each and every one of them," says Mandy Patinkin. 'You might say he's Papa Bear – even a little overbearing at times – but he'll always be there for Team Smurf."

Gargamel

Equal parts dangerous and idiotic, Gargamel is the grandiose, self-important, iconic foil of the Smurfs. All he craves in this life is to be celebrated and revered as the most powerful wizard in the world, but the greatest obstacle standing in his way is his incredible ineptitude.

'I've been a Smurf fan from the get-go – I even remember the graphic novels from way back," says Rainn Wilson – Dwight from 'The Office" – who creates the character. 'I loved the cartoon and Gargamel was always my favorite character. I always related to him – what can I say? Gargamel is greatly misunderstood and needs a little love."

Any actor playing a bad guy will tell you that the secret is to find the humanity inside the part, and Rainn Wilson says that Gargamel is no different. Sort of. 'This is a movie about a heroic wizard who must fight against a villainous pack of blue creatures whose number-one goal is to live in peace and harmony together," he kids. 'It was super-fun to make him not a typical villain, but just the right measure of dastardlyness and silliness."

'Rainn Wilson gave us a spontaneous quality, but he also understood the funny side of Gargamel. He gave us great verbal humor to work with – and our animators could take that and turn Gargamel into a bumbling character who could also be rather operatic and Shakespearean in his self-importance," says Kelly Asbury.

'Gargamel had always been kind of a buffoon character, with a lot of physical comedy. Rainn Wilson and his writing partner actually contributed to the writing of his character and he brought his humor with it," notes head of story Brandon Jeffords.

Azrael

Azrael is the wizard Gargamel's evil sidekick. He may be a mangy alley cat but he's often the smartest guy in the room. Granted, when you're in a room all day with Gargamel that's not too difficult…. Like an old married couple, Azrael and Gargamel are constantly bickering, but Azrael remains a faithful and loyal minion to his delusionally powerful companion.

Monty

Monty is a new character created for the film. 'He is Gargamel's buzzard – Gargamel's way to fly and do recon and find the Smurfs for him," says Asbury. 'Monty is completely incompetent – he doesn't have two brain cells to rub together – but Gargamel sees him as a noble falcon or mighty eagle. Now, Gargamel has a very angry cat and a completely stupid bird."

Snappy Bug

Snappy Bug is no ordinary ladybug – it's Brainy's sidekick and the bug equivalent to a smartphone with tech capabilities like voice memos and GPS directions. Snappy Bug can take pictures and even print them with his little legs, using mud for ink. But there's one key difference: Snappy Bug isn't just a device – he's a friend.

After surviving the Forbidden Forest, Team Smurf are suddenly set upon by strange masked creatures carrying spears. They're trapped! But that's when they realize – they have found the Smurfs they were looking for and the Lost Village (which is actually a village hidden in the treetops called Smurfy Grove). And not just that – there are new warrior Smurfs. Smurfette's not the only one anymore.

'They are not named after what they do – they're named after nature," says Asbury. 'They are not expected to do one thing and specialize – they can do many things, try different things. This is big for Smurfette, because she's looking for her purpose and here she's found a place where everyone has several purposes."

Smurfwillow

Willow is simultaneously peaceful and fierce – a confident and gentle leader who has raised warrior girls who are capable of anything. Anything she does, she does wholeheartedly.

'SmurfWillow is the leader, the matriarch of Smurfy Grove – the counterpart to Papa," says Kelly Asbury. 'Her Smurfs are taught to be resourceful and explore all the things that interest them. Smurf Village and Smurfy Grove work equally well, but they're very different."

'SmurfWillow is beautifully voiced by Julia Roberts, who is one of my favorite actresses and brought to the role a real sincerity and a real heart – a strength and sincerity, confidence and heart," says Kelly Asbury.

'If Papa Smurf is the father figure of Smurfs Village, then SmurfWillow is the mother figure of the Forbidden Forest," says Julia Roberts. 'She's brave, strong, regal, and she's really wise. She's the Smurf you turn to if you're facing a challenge."

Smurfstorm

Stormy is the no-nonsense, tough-as-nails warrior who immediately questions why Smurfette and the boys have come to Smurfy Grove. Her protective nature makes it hard to trust these outsiders. But through her tough exterior lies a heart of gold, and underneath it all, a girl who would do anything for her family and friends.

'SmurfStorm is a handful," says Michelle Rodriguez, who voices the role. 'She's fierce and totally protective of her fellow Smurfs, her team. They're her family. She'll do whatever it takes to take care of them."

'I'm so glad we get to meet more new warrior Smurfs in this movie," Michelle Rodriguez continues. 'Getting to meet SmurfStorm and SmurfWillow and the rest, you really get to see how unique and different they can be. There isn't just one way to be a Smurf – everybody Smurfs in their own way."

Michelle Rodriguez says that she's like her character in more ways than one. 'I'm kind of fiery and feisty, just like SmurfStorm. We're both pretty girl power-oriented. So yeah, there might be some typecasting there, but then I'm also very connected to my friends and protective of them. So in that way, SmurfStorm is just like me."

Smurfblossom

SmurfBlossom lights up a room with her huge energy – she walks and talks a mile a minute, she's never met a Smurf she didn't like, and she bowls everyone over with her candy-sweet, bubbly personality. Her glass isn't just half full, it's overflowing. Ellie Kemper, of 'The Office" and 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," voices the ball of enthusiasm. 'SmurfBlossom just can't contain herself," she says. 'She loves life and she's very chipper and upbeat – almost to the point of being too much at times. She can't totally contain herself."

Like many of the other voice actors, Ellie Kemper found many similarities between her real personality and the character she was invited to bring to life. 'SmurfBlossom gets very excited about everything, and I actually get pretty excited about things in real life," she says. 'I channeled my inner cheerleader – I was a cheerleader in ninth grade and SmurfBlossom is definitely the cheerleader of her village."

Ellie Kemper was also impressed by the way that the Smurf characters are drawn from life. 'The writers did a great job of making these characters very human – all the flaws and quirks that you see every day are also present in the Smurfs," she says. 'Each is different and flawed in her own way, and it's funny to see those shortcomings come out. It's always good to laugh at yourself, and you can always see a little bit of yourself in different Smurfs."

And, Ellie Kemper says, the larger messages that the Smurfs have always stood for are front-and-center in Smurfs: The Lost Village. 'The most inspiring thing about the Smurfs is the way they work together. Even though you have all different types of Smurfs and different personalities, opinions, and ideas, they put those differences aside to get things done. That's teamwork, and it's very inspiring.

Smurflily

SmurfLily is the whip-smart, no-nonsense member of the Lost Village. She's not afraid to tell you like it is or to take charge – even when no one asked her to. 'SmurfLily is smart and practical, but she's full of creativity too," says 'Modern Family's" Ariel Winter, who takes on the role. 'If you have a problem to solve, SmurfLily is your Smurf."

Winter says that finding the voice for SmurfLily was an organic process that came full circle. 'When I first thought about SmurfLily, I thought I was going to be making my voice a little bit higher. But when I was working with the director, he wanted me to have more of my own voice and I actually liked that – doing my own voice rather than making it a lot higher or lower," she explains.

'Getting to play a new Smurf is really awesome," says Ariel Winter. 'The Smurfs have an incredible message of friendship and teamwork. It's a great opportunity and a great role – SmurfLily is so cute."

Smurfmelody

Another citizen of Smurfy Grove, SmurfMelody can bust out an empowering tune at just the right moment. 'Meghan Trainor wrote a song for us – It's fun and buoyant and danceable and everything about Meghan Trainor really comes through. The theme is being proud of who you are – which is the message of this film," says Asbury. 'It turns out Meghan Trainor is a huge Smurfs fan and admitted to us that the minute she heard we might want a song, she wrote it in one night. She's so enthusiastic and brought that love to the song and the part of SmurfMelody."

'I love the Smurfs and was honored when they asked me to write a song for this new movie. I was especially excited – I wrote the whole thing in one evening!" says Meghan Trainor. 'It's a song that I love and am very proud of, and I can't wait for the world to finally hear it! Getting to play a small part in the film with my character, SmurfMelody, makes this all the more exciting! So happy to be a part of the Smurfs family!!!"

About The Production

Kelly Asbury says that in directing Smurfs: The Lost Village, he wanted to call up for audiences a feeling of classic animation – but also to conjure a feeling from his own childhood.

'The animation style dates back to the animation style of the 1940s – very cartoony and bouncy and buoyant, and the characters squash and stretch," he begins. 'We tried for a rubbery, bouncy quality to all of it. The senior animation supervisor, Alan Hawkins, helped me discover that and research it and impart it to the animators.

What can be more fun for an animator than to be able to finally animate in CG these characters that are bouncing around like an old-school animated film?"

But Kelly Asbury also felt that the film afforded the opportunity to enter an entirely new world, and he remembers doing just that as a child. 'When I was a kid, I wanted to climb into my Viewmaster and play in that world. That was probably one of the biggest influences on this film – when we knew it was going to be in 3D, I wanted to create a world that isn't real but not completely cartoony, has a reality about it, but is also magical and heightened and not like anything we've seen before. It's finally getting an opportunity to climb inside a Viewmaster," he explains.

This combination – classical style combined with a 3D through-the-Viewmaster sensibility – informed the entire production design. And the first step in realizing that vision was to return to Peyo's original 2D comics and try to faithfully adapt them for 3D animation.

Perhaps the biggest challenge in going back to Peyo's original drawings came in bringing Peyo's exceptionally appealing character designs of the Smurfs into 3D. The job of translating Peyo's drawings into 3D animation belonged to character designer Patrick Maté, a Frenchman who grew up with the characters. He says that he was excited not only to capture the Belgian style of drawing that influenced Peyo in creating the Smurfs, but also to capture the spirit of the Smurfs in their design. 'The Smurfs so likable, so family friendly – there's a universe of the Smurfs that is very special, so you don't want to change what people like about it so much." Maté helped to influence the way that the animators would capture the characters' performance in the way they move by submitting several sketches beyond his design, showing off the characters' attitudes and personalities.

But because of the way Peyo drew the characters, the animators had to build the film characters from the ground up. 'They have overlapping eyes; when they're surprised or excited, their eyebrows will go up over their hats; and when they open their mouths wide, their jaws don't move – their head shape stays constant," notes Alan Hawkins, the film's senior animation supervisor. To keep these designs meant that a standard facial 'rig" – the controls an animator uses to bring a character to life – could not be used, requiring the filmmakers to build an entirely new rig. (The silver lining was that most of the Smurfs followed the same design, so they needed only one rig that could be duplicated many times.)

The fact that they were working in CG was also a challenge, says Michael Ford, the film's VFX Supervisor. 'By default, everything in CG is very symmetrical, which for the Smurfs is not very appealing," he explains. 'Animation would always try to position the character in a three-quarter pose relative to the camera so the eyes looked like they did in the comics – one slightly in front of the other, with a curved line."

That approach helped in animating Gargamel as well. 'The animators were able to do all kinds of fun, broad stuff that they came up with from Rainn Wilson's reads. He's got some of the best jokes in the movie," says Hawkins. 'It was fun to have him play off Azrael – he might say something stupid or Azrael knows something he doesn't, and that always gave us lots of comedic options. As far as maintaining his design appeal, he shares some of the same rules as the Smurfs – sticking to a strong three-quarter view and rarely getting complex angles on his head helps us match his look from the comics."

The world of the Smurfs, too, was heavily influenced by Peyo's original drawings, and adapted by the team headed by production designer Noëlle Triaureau. She says that Peyo, working in drawings, had advantages that were not available to the 3D modelers. 'In 2D, you can get away with tricks on anatomy or perspective, that won't look correct when you translate the drawings into 3D. So our character designer, Patrick Maté, solved conflicting drawings and made sure the smurfs look appealing also from angles we don't see in the comics. For the environments, we overlap, framing and composition keeping in mind how Peyo used them in the comics," she explains. 'For example, the first establishing drawings that Peyo did are a down-shot onto the village, and it makes you feel taller than the Smurfs. Another thing is overlap to create depth – Peyo used those framing elements in the foreground and then overlapping hills and winding paths, and we did a lot of that in our film."

'We were able to give the Smurfs' world an intimate feeling by making their furniture oversized – everything is a bit big for them," says Kelly Asbury. 'By contrast, Gargamel's world feels a little bit miniature – everything has a quaintness about it and a childlike scale to it. That keeps the world appealing and fun – nothing is quite realistic."

The filmmakers took efforts to draw those contrasts between Smurf Village and Gargamel's castle whenever possible. 'In Smurf Village, there's a feeling of harmlessness and safety from the colors and shapes; in Gargamel's lair, it's angles and shadows, almost a German Expressionist quality – it's full of surprises and you don't know what will happen next," says Asbury.

Ford says that giving Gargamel's lair that German Expressionist look – including shadows projected against a wall – is always a challenge, but one they had faced before. 'We did shots like that in Hotel Transylvania and even back to Open Season," he recalls. 'In a scene like that, there's a special Gargamel that's off- camera – the audience will never see it – that's contorted and pushed into a really crazy pose that we use only for projecting the shadow."

The animators got to play with stylized 2D effects too. 'In the comic books, whenever someone got hit – especially Gargamel – Peyo would draw impact lines or what we would call -Peyo stars.' A red and yellow star, a squiggly line – things like that," says Hawkins. 'It was one of the first things we tried out as animators to see if we could fit that in. It's kind of a risky thing, because the rest of the world feels very tangible so we weren't sure how well it would play to have something appear out of nothing an disappear again. But Kelly loved it, and Mike Ford and his team were able to make it blend with that realistic design world – so even though it's stylized, it all makes sense."

But it wasn't all work to bring Peyo's sensibilities into the film. Ford says that they were able to drop in Easter Eggs for fans as well. 'True Smurfs fans are going to recognize them and get a kick out of them," says Ford. 'If you're watching closely, you'll find the Blue Bug, Turlusiphon Horn, Diver Smurf, King Smurf scarecrow, and Hangglider Smurf."

The animators could keep the fun going by loading the film with sight gags and jokes. 'Everyone on the crew was encouraged to pitch jokes. In more than a few instances something was placed in by an animator that was unexpected but got big laughs and it made it into the film," says Hawkins. 'There's a scene in the rabbit warren where Brainy asks Clumsy how he's doing and Clumsy responds, -Okay, I guess.' It was never meant to be a joke until the animator put Clumsy in a fetal position. The contrast between the relatively normal-sounding read of the dialogue versus his extreme fear pose always got a big laugh."

That approach was kept in place even as the filmmakers expanded the world Peyo created into the Forbidden Forest and the new Smurf village of Smurfy Grove. 'In the regular forest, things are green, with yellows and other warm colors. In the Forbidden Forest, the palette is much more of a blue/green, colder colors, violets, unusual magical colors that are combined together. It's full of magical and unusual creatures, but they all fit into the Peyo world," says Triaureau. 'All of the creatures and plants have that friendly design, even though they might glow in the dark or breathe fire or have other magical attributes."

'We often joked that not only did we have to build a full set of assets to populate a forest that the Smurfs lived in, but that we had to build another completely new set of plants and trees for the even more complicated Forbidden Forest," says Ford. The Forbidden Forest needed to be a place that felt compelling, exciting to look at, and, in some cases, actually come to life."

Triaureau's team created fantastical new plants that the animators could make move like creatures: Smurf-Eating Plants, a Kissing Plant, a Boxing Plant, Eyeball Plants. 'The visuals of the Forbidden Forest definitely grab your attention, but we wanted them to get right into the journey, so the Smurfs are immediately gobbled up by Smurf-Eating Plants," says Brandon Jeffords, the film's head of story.

All of the plants in the Forbidden Forest were inspired by real plants, taken to flights of fancy. 'The details of the Smurf-Eating Plants – the tendrils, the vines – are inspired by real vines, which sometimes go into little circles or a corkscrew shape," says Triaureau. 'It could be really bouncy and snap in and out of shape, and that gave a lot of possibilities for the animators to put them in any kind of shape and motion."

Putting them in motion required a lot of back and forth between the animation team and the design team. 'They needed to go from looking like a regular plant to opening up a jaw, closing and chewing up a Smurf, and then spitting him out unharmed," says Ford. 'We had a lot of flexibility in how to make them behave like mouths, but it was pretty tough to figure out how to arrange the leaves to form the mouth shapes, how to be consistent from shot to shot, to get them to squash and stretch without getting a crack in the space between each of the leaves; they had to stay sealed."

'The Kissing Plant was inspired by some stargazer lilies and orchids with hot pink and fuchsia colors. Patrick Maté, our character designer, thought of these big red boxing gloves and how they could be adapted to a Boxing Plant. And Lizzie Nichols, one of our visual development artists, used Easter Egg Plants as a reference, and she gave them an iris, a pupil – they already look like big oval eyeballs, and we put them on stems that feel a little bit like an orchid," adds Triaureau.

'The Eyeball Plant is a very curious plant," says Jeffords. 'The only one that could really rival the Eyeball Plant is Nosey Smurf."

Just as the world of Smurf Village is slightly outsized to create a homey feel, so too are the grasses and plants of the Forbidden Forest. 'In Peyo's work there is a consistent theme of making trees, plants, flowers and grasses larger in scale to really sell the idea of Smurfs as small creatures. The production design team created amazing interpretations of Peyo's 2D drawings that would work in a threedimensional world. Plant by plant, tree by tree, and leaf by leaf, we modeled,

textured and developed the surface qualities of each forest element," says Ford. 'When it came to the Forbidden Forest, we pushed the scale of plants even larger, creating a lush landscape that creates even more scale compared with the Smurfs."

The filmmakers also created entirely new creatures to populate the Forbidden Forest. Triaureau says that perhaps the best example of the way the animators approached the expansion of Peyo's style are the Dragonflies – flying insects that can spit fire. 'They're shining and adorable, but they can also be very dangerous if someone steals their eggs," says Triaureau.

For Hawkins, it was the Forbidden Forest's Glow Bunnies that gave the animators their first clues on what the finished film would look like. 'That was our first sequence in animation and it was one that helped us learn Kelly's sensibilities and the style of animation for the film," he remembers. 'It was a great sequence to start with because it has a lot of action and quick cuts.

The Glow Bunnies and the Dragonflies were just two of many, many creatures that Maté explored in sketches as possibilities before the final options were chosen. We did tons and tons of sketches of Peyo style animals and some of them made it in," says Maté. 'We would have loved to put in even more."

For Smurfy Grove, the visual development artists' goal was to create a home for Smurfs that was stylistically varied from Smurf Village. 'It's a very special location because it's unusual to think of Smurfs living up in trees, but this is what our new Smurfs had to do to survive," says Triaureau. 'Their whole village is camouflaged in the foliage of three intertwined trees. It's a fun, Robinson Crusoe kind of approach, where you can go from one tree to another by rope ladders and bridges. The new Smurfs are very acrobatic and agile and adapted to that kind of environment."

'They lead a very different lifestyle from the other Smurfs," says Jeffords. 'They live in the trees. They deal with many more predators than the Smurfs we've known until now, and they've learned to adapt."

To create the new Smurfs of Smurfy Grove, the character designer Patrick Maté started with Smurfette. 'I wanted the new Smurfs to be from the same world, not a one-off," says Maté. 'I wanted it to be logical – if you thought of a new Smurf, you'd end up thinking of what we ended up doing."

The animators took special care to imbue each of the new Smurfs with her own personality. 'Each one has their own style of motion, and that was a key thing that Kelly encouraged us to do. He was always helping us find ways to keep each Smurf moving according to their unique personality," says Hawkins.

The filmmakers even gave special attention to the sounds of Smurfy Grove. 'We wanted a real natural quality," Kelly Asbury explains. 'We wanted things that are of the earth and of the forest – musical instruments, drums, horns. Our amazing composer, Christopher Lennertz, found instruments, and in some cases made instruments that sounded natural, that sounded like you're banging on rocks or blowing into reeds or blowing into a flower. Anything he could do to give these natural sounds, he did it."

When the filmmakers presented their designs and ideas to Véronique Culliford, they discovered they were on the right track. 'Véronique told us that Peyo did some sketches and went in the same direction as what we did," Maté says. 'As it turns out, this is a story that Peyo wanted to tell."

Smurfs: The Lost Village
Release Date: March 30th, 2017