Get A Load Of This Smurf: ‘Smurfs’ Trailer Reveals First Footage From New Film

Paramount Pictures has released a trailer for Smurfs, a new hybrid live-action/cg-animation movie starring the small blue, forest-dwelling fairy folk, this time rendered in a more 2d-graphic-looking style compared to previous Smurf hybrids.

The new film is written by Pam Brady (South Park, Mr. Wong) and directed by Chris Miller (not of the Lord & Miller variety, but the other one that directed Shrek the Third and Puss in Boots).

The trailer, introduced by Rihanna, who plays Smurfette, doesn’t mention any of the other celebrity-filled voice cast, which includes John Goodman, Kurt Russell, James Corden, Nick Offerman, JP Karliak, Daniel Levy, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, Sandra Oh, Octavia Spencer, Nick Kroll, Hannah Waddingham, Alex Winter, Maya Erskine, Billie Lourd, and Xolo Maridueña.

The plot is the usual: it pairs Smurf nemesis Gargamel with his even more evil wizard brother Razamel, and together they kidnap Papa Smurf, which leads to a subsequent rescue mission led by the other Smurfs.

As well as live-action realms, the trailer showcases an 8-bit-style Smurf video game world, and 2d child’s Smurf drawings. New Smurf characters include Influencer Smurf, Papa Smurf’s brother Ken, and a creature named Mama Poot. Dialog is full of tongue-in-cheek, ‘Smurftastic’ language that reappropriates the word ‘Smurf’ for non-PG-rated language: “That sounds like a load of Smurf.”

This is the fifth full-length theatrical feature film based on the Belgian comic characters, originated in 1958 as Les Schtroumpfs by comic strip artist Pierre “Peyo” Culliford. The three most recent films were released by Sony — two hybrid, one fully animated — and together grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide.

The new Smurfs pic is produced by Paramount Animation. Cinesite has revealed that it’s a vendor studio on the film; it is not known if there are other vendor studios involved as well.

The film is produced by Jay Brown, Ty Ty Smith, Robyn “Rihanna”Fenty, and Ryan Harris. Smurf arrives in theaters July 18.