FILM · 2011 · USA
The Smurfs
65 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (65)
- #001
During filming, each Smurf was represented on set by a differently colored dot, and the actors had to remember which dot was which Smurf.
- #002
Katy Perry, who voices Smurfette in this film and in The Smurfs 2 (2013), was not allowed to watch the original The Smurfs (1981) series as a child. Her parents were extremely conservative pastors and did not think it was good for their children.
- #003
The producers cast Katy Perry without knowing it was her: "They had done a blind test where they took some voices from previous interviews and matched them to the character. They liked my voice without even knowing who it was, and when they found out it was me they thought it would work. My personality was just a bonus!"
- #004
268 Sony Pictures Imageworks employees spent about 358,000 hours bringing the Smurfs to life.
- #005
In both scenes where the Smurfs ride on top of a taxi, there is an advertisement for something called "blue." The first time it is for the Blue Man Group, and the second time it is for Blu-ray.
- #006
According to Belgian cartoonist Peyo (Pierre Culliford), the Smurfs never take off their hats. In the film, however, they do so while jumping from an apartment balcony, using them as parachutes. Peyo's relatives requested that in that scene the Smurfs be seen only from above or below.
- #007
Sony Pictures Imageworks animators worked on human skin and coloration to improve the texture quality of Smurf skin, so that the Smurfs would not look like "aliens" in the live-action environment.
- #008
Building Gargamel's Smurfette took three months, because its components had to be sourced from garage sales, flea markets, eBay and Craigslist.
- #009
The film's first scene is a pan over a medieval landscape as the Smurfs ride storks toward the Smurf village. It is a tribute to the opening title sequence of The Smurfs (1981), which features the same shots.
- #010
Gutsy Smurf, Crazy Smurf and Narrator Smurf are the newest Smurfs to appear since the death of "Smurfs" creator Pierre "Peyo" Culliford in 1992.
- #011
This is the first Smurfs media in which Jokey Smurf is voiced by a man.
- #012
To prepare for the role of Grouchy Smurf, George Lopez did not drink coffee, made sure his breath smelled bad, and chose the busiest time of day to go to the studio.
- #013
According to Sony Pictures Imageworks animators, the Smurfs are seven and a half inches tall. This height was decided after numerous tests: larger ones would no longer look like the cute creatures people know, while smaller ones would have trouble relating to real-world objects and people.
- #014
To prepare for the role of Gargamel, Hank Azaria wore a prosthetic nose, ears, teeth and eyebrows, as well as a wig (he had to shave his head for the wig to fit). During recording breaks on this film, he wore the wig when he came in to record episodes of the twenty-second season of The Simpsons (1989).
- #015
A full replica of Belvedere Castle was built for the film; it was two-thirds the size of the real one.
- #016
In May 2010, filming was temporarily halted after a worker fell 10 meters from the set while shooting at the FAO Schwartz toy store in New York City.
- #017
Producer Jordan Kerner had wanted to make a film adaptation of The Smurfs since 1997, and he acquired the rights in 2002 after Pierre "Peyo" Culliford's heirs were impressed by Kerner's draft adaptation of Charlotte's Web (2006).
- #018
There is a Smurf named "Panicky" who was expected to appear in the film, and a voice actor named Adam Wylie was even cast for him, but he is only mentioned in dialogue by Gutsy. He does, however, appear in the merchandise sold by McDonald's. Wylie voices the character in The Smurfs 2 (2013).
- #019
Two of this film's voice actors, Jonathan Winters (Papa Smurf) and Frank Welker (Azrael), had appeared in The Smurfs (1981). Winters voiced Grandpa Smurf, and Welker voiced Hefty, Poet, Handy and Wild Smurf.
- #020
On the box in which the Smurfs hide, the sender's country is written as "Belgium." Belgium is the homeland of Pierre "Peyo" Culliford, the creator of "Smurfs."
- #021
The film's premiere was held on the 30th anniversary of The Smurfs (1981). As a tribute, when Gargamel gets into a taxi, Gutsy says he has been waiting thirty years for this.
- #022
A blue moon is an extra full moon within a single month (that is, the second full moon in a month in which full moons normally occur only once). The phrase has nothing to do with the actual color of the moon, though the moon can appear with a blue tint under certain atmospheric conditions (caused by volcanic eruptions or exceptionally large fires that leave particles in the atmosphere).
- #023
This film marks the first time the Smurfs are depicted with blue eyes.
- #024
Painter Smurf and Tailor Smurf are the only Smurfs who appear on screen in the film without speaking.
- #025
Alyson Hannigan was considered for the role of Grace.
- #026
Of the one hundred Smurfs, only twenty-one are named (in this order): Farmer, Greedy, Handy, Clumsy, Baker, Narrator, Chef, Jokey, Grouchy, Hefty, Papa, Smurfette, Crazy, Brainy, Panicky, Big, Painter, Harmony, Complimentary, Passive-Aggressive and Vanity (though the last one's name is given only in the credits).
- #027
For the first time in Smurfs history, Brainy Smurf is depicted with freckles. However, he is not the first Smurf with freckles, since the comic version of Sassette has them. The animated version of The Smurfs (1981), where he first appeared, did not.
- #028
At one point in the film, Gutsy, Smurfette and Gargamel pay tribute to another film character their characters resemble: the Scottish Smurf Gutsy shouts "Freedom!" as William Wallace does in Braveheart (1995). When Smurfette shows her new dress to the other Smurfs, it blows up into the air just like Marilyn Monroe's in The Seven Year Itch (1955), and Smurfette tries to hold it down. Gargamel, a wizard, is linked to the character Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001); he sees a moth and asks it to bring eagles to rescue him, as Gandalf escapes from Saruman's imprisonment. After riding pigeons, Gutsy also says "that'll do bird." This is a parody of the famous line "that'll do pig" spoken in Babe.
- #029
Quentin Tarantino was offered the voice of Brainy Smurf but turned the offer down.
- #030
One of the film's co-producers is Véronique Culliford, daughter of Pierre "Peyo" Culliford. She is the president and founder of I.M.P.S. (International Merchandising, Promotion and Services), responsible for licensing and promoting the "The Smurfs" intellectual property.
- #031
The depictions of Farmer Smurf (green overalls and straw hat) and Handy Smurf (blue overalls and a red pencil held on one ear) are based on their comic-book versions from the 1990s onward. Unlike the comic depiction, however, Farmer wears green trousers covering his feet rather than wooden shoes (called clogs).
- #032
WILHELM SCREAM: As all the Smurfs are sent flying by Gargamel's spell.
- #033
According to Sony Pictures Imageworks animators, the Smurfs in the film can run up to 3 meters per second and make vertical jumps of between 4 and 12 inches.
- #034
The Smurfs (along with Gargamel and Azrael) travel from medieval times to the modern day. This is based on the ninth season of The Smurfs (1981), in which the Smurfs travel through time to different eras. The main time travelers in both this film and that season are Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Brainy Smurf, Clumsy Smurf and Grouchy Smurf.
- #035
This is the third Raja Gosnell film to be a live-action adaptation of a William Hanna and Joe Barbera animated series. The first two were Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004).
- #036
Hank Azaria is the third actor to play Gargamel. Paul Winchell voiced Gargamel until the final season of The Smurfs (1981) (1989-1990), and after the claim that Winchell left the role due to problems with the ninth season's scripts, Michael Bell replaced him.
- #037
UNICEF appears in New York. In 2005, UNICEF had used The Smurfs (1981) for a Belgian advertisement about child soldiers in Burundi (Burundi was formerly a Belgian colony).
- #038
When Patrick searches for "Smurf" on Google, the search results include links to a Wikipedia article: "Myths - Smurfs" at www.uncommonmyths.com, "Build Your Own Smurf Trap" at www.craftsfamily.com, "The Blue Smurf - a Belgian pub" at www.thebluesmurf.com, and "Smurf Clip Art" at www.clipartgalore.com. The sidebar ads read "Belgian Eats - NYC" and "Feeling Blue?" Except for Wikipedia, all of these sites are fictional and the domain names are not even registered to anyone.
- #039
Ben Stiller, John Lithgow, Lucy Liu, Ben Affleck, Sally Field, Julia Sweeney, Marisa Tomei and Quentin Tarantino were considered for voice roles.
- #040
The scene in which Smurfette's dress flies up includes a parody of Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch (1955).
- #041
This is Sony Pictures Animation's first live-action and animated hybrid film.
- #042
Neil Patrick Harris and the animation team hosted Nickelodeon's "Smurf Tastic Saturday Morning" programming on 16 July 2011, during episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants (1999), to promote the film.
- #043
Jordan Kerner was Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (U.N.C.S.A.). Nearly eighty U.N.C.S.A. film students interned on the film at various stages of production.
- #044
Gutsy, Crazy and Narrator Smurf did not appear in The Smurfs (1981) and were newly created for the live-action films.
- #045
At one point Kevin James was said to be the voice of Hefty.
- #046
Wallace Shawn and John Lithgow were considered for the role of Gargamel.
- #047
This is Hank Azaria's second 2011 film in which he played the villain, after Hop (2011), which was also a live-action and CGI hybrid film.
- #048
Patrick uses a Sony laptop. Sony is one of the companies that made the film.
- #049
Neil Patrick Harris appears here alongside guest actors from the TV series How I Met Your Mother. Katy Perry was the one-night stand "Honey" in the episode Oh Honey (2011). Jayma Mays played the "coat check girl" in OK Awesome (2005) and The Time Travellers (2013). Tim Gunn played "Himself" as Barney's personal tailor.
- #050
The building where Patrick and Grace live is called McKinley, the same name as the school where Jayma Mays's character teaches in Glee (2009).
- #051
Not counting sequels, this is the fifth live-action film based on a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, after The Flintstones (1994), Josie and the Pussycats (2001), Scooby-Doo (2002) and Yogi Bear (2010).
- #052
Hank Azaria and Anton Yelchin, who play the rivals Gargamel and Clumsy Smurf, played father and son in Huff (2004).
- #053
This is Olivia Palermo's debut.
- #054
Patrick and Grace Winslow named their baby "Blue" in honour of the Smurfs. This is the second 2011 film to feature a character with that name, after Rio (2011), which also starred George Lopez.
- #055
It is the only Smurfs film released in cinemas that does not feature the main character, Smurfette.
- #056
This is the only film in the Smurfs series that was not released in the same year as a film in Illumination's Despicable Me series. The Smurfs 2 (2013) was released the same year as Despicable Me 2 (2013), and Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) was released the same year as Despicable Me 3 (2017).
- #057
This is the third blue-skinned character played by Alan Cumming. The first was the mutant Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler) in X2: X-Men United (2003), and the second was the alien Judas Caretaker in Riverworld (2010).
- #058
This is John Oliver's first voice role in a theatrical film. He would later voice Steve the porcupine in Wonder Park (2019) and Zazu the hornbill in The Lion King (2019).
- #059
This was Fred Armisen's first voice role in a theatrical film. He later voiced Cole in The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017), Deborahbot 5000 in The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021) and Cranky Kong in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).
- #060
Christopher Lloyd, Nathaniel Parker, Robin Williams, Robert Downey Jr., Ryan Reynolds, James Garner, Jim Carrey, Armand Assante and Michael Palin were considered for the role of Gargamel.
- #061
It was Sony Pictures Animation's fourth feature film since the direct-to-DVD releases of the Open Season (2006) sequels.
- #062
It marked Joel McCrary's second time voicing a character in a live-action film, after Charlotte's Web (2006).
- #063
It was Columbia's third live-action/animation hybrid film, after Stuart Little (1999) and Stuart Little 2 (2002).
- #064
It was the third live-action/animation hybrid film of the 2010s, after Yogi Bear (2010) and Hop (2011).
- #065
It was the third live-action/animation hybrid film of the 2010s shot in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, after Yogi Bear (2010) and Hop (2011).
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