• Comics, figurines, American films… The Smurfs are among the most famous comic book heroes in the world

  • Twenty years after the cult cartoon of Hanna-Barbera, they are back on television with a 3D animated series, produced by Dupuis and Peyo Production

  • The series wants to be more modern for its realization, its humor and its Smurfs girls

From their creation and the first volumes by Peyo to the cartoon by Hanna-Barbera in the 1980s, including auction figures and films mixing live and CGI, the Smurfs are one of the most famous Franco-Belgian comic book heroes. in the world.

After the success of The 

Smurfs and the Lost Village

at the cinema in 2017, they are back on television with a brand new series, composed of more than 50 13-minute episodes and launched Sunday at 8:15 am on TFOU.

In the tradition of the last 3D film

And small and large screens are linked, because “the series project was born in the wake of Sony's 3D film,” confirms director William Renaud, who also worked on

Calimero

,

Casper

or

Titeuf

. The beneficiaries of Peyo have recovered the rights with the idea of ​​being inspired or even reaching the level of the film, which is already a sacred challenge. "Aesthetics, tone, humor ... The series takes up certain specificities of the

Lost Village

, while being more in the cartoon and keeping the identity, the themes of the comic strip".

If The Smurfs had two Belgian adaptations in the years 1960-1970, the most famous, films and series, are American.

The new series is produced by Dupuis Edition & Audiovisuel and Peyo Productions, a return home, and a "French and Belgian touch, according to William Renaud, which allows us to go further in a certain spirit of comics. , towards the absurd ”.

With also the desire to make the universe more modern, more current.

“This modernity is first and foremost technical, in terms of design, staging,” comments the director.

3D makes it possible to obtain more cinematographic, more visual things.

Each episode is thus considered as a mini feature film, at all levels: adventure, cartoon, thematic, psychological… ”

The historic Smurfs are here ... with some new ones

Besides, the series only offers new stories, complementary to the comic strip, but always the same universe, the same village… the same Smurfs? Spectacled Smurfs, Grumpy, Beefy, Lazy, Prankster… They're all there. "The Smurfs are single characters, while being a very united group," explains William Renaud. We have kept and cultivated this universal and timeless spirit. It can happen that we isolate a character of a Smurf to explore a subject, like a Smurf who wants to overcome his fears. "

It also happens that new Smurfs are introduced, like in the comics.

“For example, we have the Smurf, a Smurf who has no name and the challenge of the episode will be to find him one.

But the series remains centered on the historical ones, about fifteen Smurfs that the public can identify and enjoy to find.

"

The found village of the Smurfs girls

Like the Smurfette.

This is the real novelty, and modernity, of the series.

The Smurfette is no longer alone, she is accompanied by other Smurfs girls: Willow, Storm, Buttercup, Fleur de Lys.

Discovered in

The Lost Village

, they have the right to their own comics with

The Smurfs and the Girls' Village

, and are included in the series. "There is not the village of girls as such, specifies the director, because in terms of work and budget, that was a lot for the first season, with already the village of the Smurfs, the forest, the house of Gargamel. . But they come regularly and actively participate in the stories. "

Smurfette herself has changed a lot, like when she trains Smurf Fu in

Kill Bill

outfit

.

“As she was for a long time the only girl in the village, it was essential to give her a more important part, not to reduce her to a caricature.

It is multifaceted, more voluntary, more complex.

And therefore more present.

"

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  • Youth

  • Cartoon

  • Smurfs

  • TF1

  • Culture