Quote:
Envisaged as secondary characters for a single cartoon album, the blue gnomes widely known as the Smurfs will celebrate their 50th anniversary this year with a movie deal and an invasion of new female characters.
Smurfs -- known in the original Belgian comic strip as Schtroumpfs -- may only be as tall as three apples and do little more than forage for food and mend the village dam, but the business they have created in over 30 languages is put at some $4 billion, generating $5-12 million in royalties per year.
They will mark 50 years with a series of new comic adventures, statuettes, an exhibition at Brussels' cartoon museum, a set of commemorative stamps and, in a reflection of changing times, more females in their mushroom cottage village.
Blond-haired Smurfette, originally created by evil sorcerer Gargamel to foster jealous rivalry in the community, has been the single love interest for almost every other Smurf for years.
"There have been dramatic changes in socio-cultural values in the past 20 to 25 years," Hendrik Coysman, head of Smurf rights holder IMPS told a news conference on Monday. "One of these is girl empowerment."
"So, there will be a greater female presence in the Smurf village and this will, of course, be a basis for new stories and this will probably turn upside down certain traditional situations within the village."
Nine Culliford, the widow of Belgian cartoonist Peyo who was instrumental in choosing the color blue, argued that her husband Pierre had never been overtly political, but avidly read the newspaper and made his creations address current themes.
Notable among them was the 1973 story of the conflict between northern and southern clans divided by language, echoing the ongoing dispute between Belgium's Dutch-speaking north and French-speaking south.
Thierry Culliford, Peyo's 52-year-old son, argues the Smurfs are otherwise timeless, explaining their continued appeal.
"They live in the Middle Ages ... They don't live in the 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s so the clothing or their look doesn't change ... After 50 years we see they are still popular with children."
The Smurfs will be brought into the modern age, nonetheless, with a computer-animated 3-D style movie.
IMPS has agreed a deal with Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom. A script is being written and further details are set to follow in the coming weeks.
Coysman also has hopes for a 26-episode series of half-hour shorts to add to the 272 that Hanna-Barbera made in the 1980s to propel the Smurfs around the world.
The 50th anniversary could also mark a return for Johan and Peewit, the characters that first stumbled across the vibrant village and the curious "Smurf" language in "The Magic Flute" cartoon album in October 1958.
(Additional reporting by Elaine Codogno; Editing by Caroline Drees)
*smacks forehead*
WHY HOLLYWOOD WHY
Did everyone suddenly time travel back to the 80s?
I think it's because they think resurrecting old things from the past for new generations is a good thing. From what we've seen so far, everything sucked.
EVERYTHING. YOU HEAR ME, EVERYTHING!!
And not only that, but all the jokes that revolved around there being a single female in the village are ruined.
RUINED!
It's less about ressurecting things and more about the children of the 80's being the consumers of the present.
They have the money, will and eagerness to splash the cash on anything 80's related. Heaven knows it worked out for Bayformers and will undoubtably work with GI JOE.
I assume Smurfs will follow the Alvin template and try to appeal to today's youth who don't remember the original and have no interest in the modernized and out of place characters and concepts which were never intended for them.
Either way, it's a movie I wont see. I have no intention or motivation to be upset by it, same as Alvin. It exists, woopdiedoo.
Wake me up when I have kids who will force me to pay attention to movies I'm morally apposed to. Excusing Day After Tomorrow. Any little brat tries to make me watch that and they're up for adoption.
Alvin was the last movie they brought up from older cartoons that I'm surprised about. Well, maybe I'm surprised at this too, but it just doesn't feel novel or even controversial anymore. My reaction amounts to a "meh" instead of a "...buh?"
I remember watching the old Smurfs cartoon - it was fun. But it isn't something I'd like to revisit, even the original.
Awwww Craigum's gonna have little kidz *calls attention nON*
ANYWAY*distract <<* I just hope the influx of girly smurfs has something to do with the plot... and that the plot is Smurfette getting jealous and killing all of them in a bloody rampage. I couldn't tell if there was much about the plot from reading. My comprehension skills aren't like... on <..>
The same thing happened when The Wombles was reinvented for a new generation over here. Instead of just one female womble - the middle-aged one who made the food and complained about everyone else trailing dirt through the burrow - there were suddenly several, including trendy young teen tomboy wombles with monomania on pollution and darker-furred wombles with Rastafarian hats.
With such a skewed male:female ratio in the original text, I don't have to like it being messed with, but this really doesn't shock me.
Given Hollywood's current "Let's all laugh at the funny camp people!" fixation, I'm more anticipating what today's lowest common denominator scriptwriters'll do to Vanity.
Well it is stuff like this which proves that people cannot think anymore.
Games from ages past are being re-released, music singles are being redone by modern artists.
Can people not think for themselves anymore.
The new Smurfs will probably fall over itself...like the moden Care Bear films did.
Oh Hollywood, I love you so.
And not only that, but all the jokes that revolved around there being a single female in the village are ruined.
RUINED!
They were never funny anyway.
Quote:
Care Bear films
There were Care Bear films? o.o
Quote:
There were Care Bear films? o.o
shows how successful they were if hardily any of us has heard of them. 
No, it just says that some of us're older than others. Some of us remember all three theatrical releases...
If you must know -
The first Care Bears film (The Care Bears Movie) was a very big success (although if I remember rightly, was also a marketing campaign). It worked wonders for the franchise and raked in a lot of money. It was praised for it's voice actors and songs.
The Second one, was not so much of a success, it was deemed as more of a rehash and a poorer plot, but will still a pretty good sucess. It was also somewhat of a retcon for Nelvana too.
Then there was the third one - Adventures in Wonderland, which you can see clear similarities between it and the Nelvana Series that followed. It didn't do particually well and the series in the way of films fell through really after that.
Now there are just direct to DVD releases - Journey to Joke a-Lot for example, which just fail miserably.
But I like the first two movies *snugs a Brightheart Raccoon.
*snugs* Thanks Sam =3
To be fair, CJ - all three movies were marketing campaigns. It just happened that the first two films had something original to promote - the first generation of toys in the first movie, and the Care Bear Cousins (who were practically the only new thing in the plot) in the second.
Well, most cartoons with toys and films are typical marketing ploys. Afterall, do you still remember the Land Before Time original film at the cinema with Pizza Huts associated kids meals toys.
The Cousins had been around since the days of DICs version - it was Nelvana though which really took the level to a newer high.
I draw a distinction between toy tie-ins involving a company producing toys based on a popular film and films created to sell more of a pre-existing toy line, though. 🙂
I suppose there is that way at looking at it...
But now Land Before Time has become a movie cash in on a succesful and rather good original film.
What number are they on now...?
That, I'm not disputing. 🙁
I think they're on 11 or 12 now. I liked the original film, but even Disney never went in for cheapquels to that extent.
Yeah, the original film worked well. I saw it at the cinema. It had that element of reality that just worked, it was a story you could actually see happening.
But like most things which go modern, they end up bringing in things which just don't fit in the mood of the setting. I think it's an attempt to bring morals and lessons to them nowadays.
I keep seeing them advertised on Disney and thankfully, the subscription doesn't let me see them.
To help out a bit.
1) I remember Care Bears being in Theaters, but I never saw it there.
2) They're on number 13 now, for Land Before Time-and I loved the original, Number 2-5 were well..ok..and then after that they got retarted all the way through. I mean seriously, when the hell are these kids gonna grow BIGGER >O!
Spike still dosen't have Tail Spikes yet. He's still never spoken since Movie 6 (I think it was 6, or 5..) and Petrie is still able to be squished by my toenail -.-
Back to my main point
>O THERE WERE 2 FEMALE SMURFS! Everyone forgets about the red-haired little girl Smurf. She was funny. As for them making a movie, ugh. Yeah I'd rather see Snorks or Centurions brought back than Smurfs. Leave them alone :o.
they should bring back the power rangers. oh wait, they never left
I have a confession. Last Saturday I watched the newest installment of the Power Rangers. I was upset cause the black guys name was Will ;_; I felt like I was in that horror of a TV show and I can never live it down.
Though he did get his 2 seconds of fame by killing the main bad guy....
The original Powers Ranger was awesome and the first movie was fantastic. 
