The Smurfs (2021)
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_Official_Poster_2.png) We really, totally love Smurfette ...as the true main protagonist.
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The Smurfs (French: Les Schtroumpfs) is a Belgian computer-animated television series developed by Dupuis Audiovisuel, IMPS, and Peyo Productions. It is the second television show based on the Smurf characters, after the 1981 series of the same name.
The series was almost entirely produced in Belgium, with 75% of the animation completed at Dupuis' DreamWall animation studio in the city of Charleroi. Its CGI animation style is similar to the film Smurfs: The Lost Village.
The show was first announced by Peyo Productions in 2017. The next year, its European broadcasters were announced: Ketnet (Flanders), TF1 (France), KiKa (Germany), and RTBF (Wallonia). In 2020, it was reported that the broadcast rights had been picked up by the American entertainment brand Nickelodeon for several of its channels, but the airing agreement does not extend to the original 1980s Smurfs series (which continues to be distributed by Warner Bros. in North America). After 18 months on pay TV, the series will stream on Netflix in the United States and abroad. The series made its world premiere, on RTBF's OUFtivi channel in Belgium, on 18 April 2021.
Why It's Still Smurftastic At All
- Like the 1976 feature film, the 1981 series and Smurfs: The Lost Village, it stays clearly faithful to the source material.
- The very funny remixed version of the 1981 theme music can be very catchy.
- Also, the Smurf song is only used sparingly in a few episodes.
- The Tex Avery-esque CG animation perfectly fits the artwork of Peyo's artwork and his style and it's still like Smurfs: The Lost Village.
- The series was funnier and a lot more slapstick than the 1981 series.
- The series focused more on the very zany slapstick comedy, easily compared to the 1981 series.
- Decent voice acting for both original French and English dubbed versions.
- The voice for Smurfette is better than the one from the 1981 series, which sounded similar to Disney's Minnie Mouse character.
- It's also the first time where Jokey Smurf is played by a female actress since the 1981 series. The original was June Foray, who was already deceased by the time this show came out.
- Smurfette is a very adorable main protagonist in the series. Surprisingly, for some reason, Smurfette's new, tomboyish personality became very good, when she finally became a very cute, energetic and joyful tomboy.
- In "Smurf-Fu", Smurfette finally learned to fight.
- Smurfette's character design looks so cute, that adorably fits her new, tomboyish personality.
- Compared to the early seasons of the 1981 series, this series recycles less animation than Hanna-Barbera did.
- Many female Smurfs from Smurfs: The Lost Village, returned for this series.
- Baby Smurf also makes a return in "Diaper Daddy".
- The character designs match Peyo's art style.
- Brainy Smurf's ego has been downplayed in this series. His flaws are minimal and he doesn't cause as much destruction as he did in the 1981 series.
- Also, he doesn't have as many episodes centered around him. The other Smurfs (including the Smurfettes) get an equal amount of focus.
- Unlike the Sony movies, the 2021 show does not use pop songs in its soundtrack.
Bad Qualities That Gargamel Still Hates
- Gargamel's voice isn't very good, compared to the 1981 series.
- Clumsy Smurf's new childlike voice can be this to some when compared to his Southern drawl in the 1981 series and Lost Village.
- Some of the humor can be hit-or-miss.
- There are also gross-out moments, such as Farmer farting in "Smurf-Fu" and Grouchy getting pooped on by a passing stork in "Unsmurfable Smile".
- A lot of characters, like Johan and Peewit, are suddenly absent from this series, yet they were responsible for meeting the Smurfs in the original comics.
- The Smurflings, Puppy, Grandpa Smurf, Nanny, and Smoogle are also absent from this series.
- The Smurfs still bully each other whenever they want to, even though the Smurfs are supposed to be taking pride in being more peaceful than humans. Thankfully, they don't crack jokes on each other with bad puns as much as the 1981 series.
- Bigmouth has been flanderized in the reboot. He changed from being friends with the Smurfs in the 1981 television series into an evil villain who wants to try and eat the Smurfs for unknown reasons. However, it could be somewhat justified as the creators of the series wanted him to be more in line with his initial appearance in the original comics and 1981 series.
- The scene in the episode "Mind the Cat" where Smurfette uses Brainy's mind-controlling device to hypnotize a bear from the woods who attempts to attack her, Scaredy, and Brainy into doing the infamous floss dance from the 2017 online video game "Fortnite".
- Some episodes still reuse stock footage, such as Brainy turning in a close-up when something's wrong, or the Fire Brigade scene in the episode "Joke's on You". The bigger offender is "DRIIINNGGGGG!" which uses the same footage and voice clips.
- Like the original series, it's very hard to identify who voiced the characters with all the actors and actresses listed in the credits (a la Hanna-Barbera, before 1994).
- The pacing can often feel too slow or too fast at times.
Trivia
- In the United States, 18 months after being aired on Nickelodeon, it will be streamed on Netflix, as a Netflix original series.
- Mark Irons, the voice actor of Gargamel and Dimwitty Smurf, serves as the voice director of the English dub.
- A teaser trailer (or animation test) for the series was shown at an event in October 2018. A recording of it was then leaked onto Facebook, which has since been removed. A teaser was posted on Vimeo by IMPS on June 25, 2020, showing animated footage of Jokey and Harmony Smurf. The teaser was later uploaded to the official YouTube channel on October 6, 2020.
- The show will take sporadic hiatuses starting from November 12, 2021, and will return in January 2022. This will likely be the way Nickelodeon will air this series (2 months of new episodes and takes hiatuses).