The Smurfs is a 2011 American fantasy comedy film based on the comic book series created by Peyo. Directed by Raja Gosnell and written by J. David Stem, David N. Weiss, Jay Scherick, and David Ronn, from a story by Stem and Weiss, it is the first installment of the live-action animated Smurfs film series. The film 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.
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 rights in 2008. On a production budget of $110 million, filming began in March 2010 in New York City.
The Smurfs premiered at Júzcar on June 16, 2011, and was released theatrically by Columbia Pictures through Sony Pictures Releasing in the United States on July 29. It received negative reviews from critics, and grossed $564 million worldwide. It ranks as the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2011, and was Sony Pictures Animation's highest-grossing film until it was overtaken by Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in 2023. It was also the highest-grossing live-action/animated hybrid of all time before it was overtaken by Lilo & Stitch in 2025. A sequel, The Smurfs 2, was released on July 31, 2013.
Plot In Smurf Village, the Smurfs are preparing for the Festival of the Blue Moon. Papa Smurf sees a vision of Clumsy Smurf reaching for a dragon wand and Gargamel capturing the Smurfs. Shortly after, Clumsy leaves to pick smurfroot and ends up leading Gargamel into the village. The Smurfs flee and Clumsy unknowingly runs toward the Forbidden Falls, with Papa, Smurfette, Grouchy, Brainy and Gutsy following him. The blue moon appears and creates a portal that spirits the Smurfs to New York City, and Gargamel and his pet cat Azrael follow them. Clumsy then falls into a box belonging to Anjelou Cosmetics employee Patrick Winslow, who unknowingly carries him to his apartment, where he lives with his pregnant wife Grace.
Papa, Smurfette, Brainy, Grouchy and Gutsy follow Clumsy, revealing themselves and explaining their situation to the Winslows, who give them shelter. The next day, needing to find a "stargazer", the Smurfs follow Patrick to his workplace at Anjelou, believing he is a fortune-teller. Meanwhile, Gargamel extracts Smurf essence from a lock of Smurfette's hair, which gives him magic powers. While searching for the Smurfs, he wanders into Anjelou and impresses Patrick's boss, Odile, by restoring her elderly mother's youth with his magic. Upon hearing of Patrick's connection to the Smurfs, Gargamel chases him and the Smurfs into FAO Schwarz, where he steals a leaf blower and causes chaos while trying to catch the Smurfs. He is arrested and jailed, but manages to escape with the aid of a swarm of flies.
Papa uses a toy telescope to calculate the night he and the others can return home, but needs to work out a spell first. The Smurfs visit an antique store to look for a spellbook and find L’Histoire des Schtroumpfs by researcher Peyo, which contains a spell that can turn the moon blue. Gargamel tracks them down in the store, where he finds the dragon wand from Papa's vision and transfers his magic into it to use it against the Smurfs. Papa entrusts the spell to Brainy and voluntarily stays behind to be captured by Gargamel.
After Clumsy convinces the others to rescue Papa, the Smurfs and Patrick travel to Belvedere Castle at Central Park, where Gargamel increases his wand's power with Papa's essence. Brainy successfully turns the moon blue and opens a portal to their world, from where he summons all the Smurfs of Smurf Village. While the Smurfs battle Gargamel, Smurfette and Patrick save Papa. Gutsy steals the dragon wand, but drops it in the process. Clumsy catches it and sends Gargamel flying away. The Smurfs bid Patrick and Grace farewell and return to Smurf Village.
Later, Patrick and Grace have a baby boy, whom they name Blue, and the Smurfs rebuild their village in the style of New York.
Cast
Hank Azaria as Gargamel, the arch-nemesis of the Smurfs who plots to use the Smurfs as part of a spell that 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 the 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. Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf, the leader of the Smurfs. Winters previously provided the voice of Grandpa Smurf in the 1980s cartoon series. Winters and Frank Welker are the only original cast members from the TV series who returned for the film. Katy Perry as Smurfette, the only female Smurf. 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 accident-prone, but friendly smurf. Yelchin commented on his character's personality change from the cartoon 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". Neil Patrick Harris as Patrick Winslow, the new VP of marketing at Anjelou Cosmetics and Grace's husband. Jayma Mays as Grace Winslow, Patrick's wife. Fred Armisen as Brainy Smurf, the second smartest Smurf behind Papa Smurf. Quentin Tarantino was up to voice him, but dropped out. 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. 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. Sofía Vergara as Odile Anjelou, the CEO of Anjelou Cosmetics and Patrick's boss. 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 elicit snarls from the other cats since they did not like him. Tim Gunn as Henri, Odile's 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.
Production
Development In 1997, producer Jordan Kerner sent the first "of a series of letters" to The Smurfs licensing agent Lafig Belgium expressing interest in making a feature film. It was not until 2002 after a draft of Kerner's film adaptation of Charlotte's Web was read by Peyo's heirs, that they accepted Kerner's offer. Peyo's daughter Véronique Culliford and family had wanted to make a Smurfs film for years and said that Kerner was the first person to pitch a film that shared their "vision and enthusiasm". Kerner soon began developing the 3-D CGI feature film with Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies. In 2006, Kerner said the film was planned to be a trilogy and would explain more of Gargamel's backstory. He stated, "We'll learn [more] about Gargamel and Smurf Soup and how all that began and what really goes on in that castle. What his backstory really was. There's an all-powerful wizard... there's all sorts of things that get revealed as we go along". Early animation footage was leaked on the internet in early 2008. The filmmakers were allowed to create three new Smurfs for the film – Narrator, Crazy, and Gutsy.
In June 2008, it was announced that Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation obtained the film rights from Lafig Belgium. Kerner said the current project started with Sony during a conversation with the chairman-CEO Michael Lynton, who grew up watching The Smurfs in the Netherlands. Kerner explained, "He relished them as I do and suggested that it should be a live-action/CGI film. Amy Pascal felt equally that there was potentially a series of films in the making". J. David Stem and David N. Weiss, writers of Shrek 2, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, The Rugrats Movie and Rugrats in Paris: The Movie wrote the screenplay along with Zookeeper writers Jay Scherick and David Ronn; Stem and Weiss also wrote the story. Raja Gosnell, who previously directed Scooby-Doo and its sequel Monsters Unleashed, directed the film. Quentin Tarantino was in talks to play Brainy Smurf, however, these did not pan out.
Filming and animation On a budget of $110 million, principal photography began in New York City on March 26, 2010. In May, scenes were shot all night for five nights in a row at F.A.O. Schwartz toy store. Other locations used for filming were Belvedere Castle, the Russian Tea Room, Rockefeller Center, and Brooklyn's Prospect Park. A two-thirds-scale replica of the Belvedere Castle was built with wooden grates as floors (to create additional contrast). Gargamel's dungeon under the Belvedere Castle, which included the "Smurfalator", was built on a soundstage. It took three months to build because some parts were hard to come by. Production eventually found the rare parts at garage sales, flea markets, on eBay and Craigslist. The scene where Gargamel escapes from prison was filmed at the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow.