I'm an 80's baby, born and bread. My childhood saturdays consisted of waking up around 6 am, making myself cereal, plopping down in front of the TV and watching cartoons. He-Man, GI Joe, Dungeons and Dragons, Dragon's Lair, Spiderman and His Amazing Friends, Thundar the Barbarian, Thundercats, Voltron... you name it, I loved it. But there were a couple of shows that were more up my sister Oona's alley. Shows like the Snorks, the Wuzzles, and the Smurfs that were kinda cool, but as a boy you never wanted to admit you liked them. My sister Oona had a huge thing for the Smurfs, and she collected the little figurines that went along with it. She had hundreds of these blue fuckers, and she displayed them up on her shelves for show. I was not allowed to touch them, and that drove me crazy.
The cartoon was pretty cool, a village of little blue creatures being tormented by an evil wizard named Gargamel and his cat Azrael, who want to eat them and use their Smurf magic to make gold. The series is set in medieval times and started off as a companion to a sword and socery comic strip entitled Johan and PeeWee. The little magical creatures are all blue, they are all male except for Smurfette (who was an evil smurf made by Gargamel), and they all wear white pants and white hats. They also have distinct accessories to distiguish them, like Brainey wearing glasses or Hefty constantly working out with his barbells.
Well, like most things from the past, Hollywood is going to take a shot at turning this beloved Cartoon into a CGI/Live Action Trilogy in the vein of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. At first glance, I dismissed this as terrible. Why, good lord, why??? But then the voice cast and live character actors leaked out, and I began to get excited. Not only are the names great, but such good choices for each character... well, maybe this won't be so bad. I'm sure it will be a very entertaining kids movie, and as an adult with a child that all you can ask for so that you dont want to kill yourself in the theaters. Neil Patrick Harris will play Johan, the squire that discovers the magical creatures that live in the forest near his castle. Hank Azaria will be playing the evil wizard Gargamel... and thats awesome!!! Anything with NPH and Azaria will at least get a look from me. And now for the voice actors playing the Smurfs: Johnathan Winters will play Poppa Smurf, the leader of the village. Quentin Tarantino will play Brainey, the village know-it-all. Kevin James will play Hefty, the tough guy smurf, and Alan Cummings will play Gutsy, the bravest smurf. George Lopez checks in as as Grouchy smurf, and Katy Perry will voice the only female smurf, Smurfette. All in all, this is an interesting cast. As long as they look better then the guys above, the movie will be a win in my book. I am now looking foward to the movies, and want to shout out my man Jeff Bond for putting me on to this news. Long live the smurfs... now lets just hope Hollywood does not butcher the shit out of a beloved childrens franchise.
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