ASBURY: Hi, I'm Kelly Asbury, the director of Smurfs: The Lost Village,
and I'm sitting here with Alan Hawkins, the animation supervisor on the film.
- Is that the right title, Alan? Okay. - HAWKINS: That's it. Hello.
And Brandon Jeffords, my trustworthy head of story on the film.
JEFFORDS: Hello.
ASBURY: And we are going to, uh, spend a little time
just telling you what it was like making this crazy animated movie.
JEFFORDS: It was quite a journey.
ASBURY: Well, you just saw that Columbia logo, and that was really fun to at least
- have had a chance to play with that logo... - JEFFORDS: Oh, yeah.
ASBURY: Have some fun with it and Smurf it.
HAWKINS: We had quite a few variations on that, remember?
ASBURY: Yeah, many variations. HAWKINS: Tried a few things.
- (ASBURY CHUCKLES) - Those are kind of tricky actually
for us to put together.
ASBURY: You never know what's gonna get a laugh
until you screen the movie for people.
And so, some things do, and some things don't.
This opening happening right here is a good example of that.
We tried a few things.
We had the characters talk to the screen,
and we realized we're not gonna get much more than some little polite giggles in there
because people are still settling in.
And then when Clumsy enters, that's when we start getting some genuine laughs.
(HAWKINS CHUCKLES)
HAWKINS: These were some of the last scenes we did...
ASBURY: I know.
HAWKINS: Almost the last shots that we finished in the movie.
ASBURY: Well, the opening of movies,
how you get into a story is always a challenge.
I don't think I've worked on a film where the opening was figured out at the top.
We had to always go back and come up with things.
JEFFORDS: This scene was particularly challenging for us
because there was so much that needed to be done.
We had to introduce all the characters,
while at the same time introducing the Village and the humor of the Village.
ASBURY: Yeah, and a little bit of the backstory
'cause, you know, we can go on the assumption
that people know about the Smurfs.
But we can't leave out the people that possibly don't know about them.
There's a whole generation of people who don't even know what Smurfs are really.
So, we had to walk this line of not giving too much exposition and information,
but getting everyone accustomed to what the world is.
- There's Table-Eating Smurf... - (JEFFORDS CHUCKLES)
ASBURY: That's our most off-the-wall Smurf yet.
I sort of run this place.
ASBURY: I think Mike Rianda, one of our directors at Sony,
who's working on another movie, came up with that idea.
Or any of them.
ASBURY: And there's Smurfette, everyone's little blue sweetheart.
Demi Lovato did a great job voicing Smurfette,
and creating a whole new kind of brand for her.
And then, of course, there's this backstory.
Brandon, why don't you give us a little background
- on how fun this was to come up with? - (JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
JEFFORDS: Well, the backstory, originally,
was in the movie itself, in the body of the movie.
We were always... Because it's such a complex and important part of the story,
we were always trying to figure out where to put it, and make it seem natural.
So, eventually, I came to Kelly, actually,
with the idea that we put it in the intro itself and get it out of the way and show it visually.
And thankfully, you bought the idea.
Thankfully, it was a good idea 'cause it did...
(JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: We had to find the simplest, most concise way to tell it
without getting bogged down in backstory...
- JEFFORDS: Right. - ...and characters having to talk, which...
It's a very fine line about how much talking you want.
You want humor in visuals, but...
Speaking of visuals, Alan, the animation in this movie,
we really tried to capture an old style of animation
that you sort of expect these rounded characters to move like.
HAWKINS: Mmm-hmm.
Yeah, I think the exploration process was pretty fun.
I mean, when you came on, you gave us sort of a broad guideline
for, you know, what to look at that's been done before,
and that gave us a lot of information right off the bat
for how to handle our timing and the posing and stuff,
and they are very classically-shaped little guys.
They're very squashy and stretchy,
and they had some new challenges for us, too.
Like the way their eyebrows come up in front of their hats and stuff.
There were some new things for us to figure out.
JEFFORDS: I'm so glad you guys did that.
ASBURY: But the way that we silhouetted all the characters
and just posed them in ways that...
We weren't afraid to be cartoony, we weren't trying to be realistic,
we wanted to move these characters the way they're sort of meant to be.
HAWKINS: Mmm-hmm. Yeah, the animators had a lot of fun, too.
That style opened up a lot of possibilities for the animators
to try their own ideas and they didn't feel restrained,
and so, we got a lot of really cool stuff out of them as a result.
JEFFORDS: Well, also, Kelly, in your approach to the designs themselves,
in bringing them back to the whole Peyo-d world,
- I'm sure that helped quite a bit with... - ASBURY: Oh, yeah.
Patrick Mate was our character designer,
and he is a Smurf lover from way back.
- He grew up in France. - (JEFFORDS CHUCKLES)
ASBURY: I hope I pronounced his name correctly. Patrick, I'm sorry if I didn't.
He actually told me it was "Patrick." Not "Patreek."
- So, I'm... - JEFFORDS: Ah, really? That's a surprise.
ASBURY: But, you know, everybody calls him "Patreek," so, I'm right.
But he really, really knew the fundamentals of the design of these characters
and he drew so much like Peyo, that Véronique Culliford, Peyo's daughter...
JEFFORDS: Uh-huh.
ASBURY: ...didn't know that they weren't her father's drawings.
(JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: And she was amazed, and it brought tears to her eyes.
HAWKINS: Yeah.
He taught us a lot in the early stages about how to handle these guys
because you look at them and they seem simple enough,
but there are certain, like, aesthetic balances that we need to maintain
in order for them to feel still Smurf-y and not become a different shaped character
- even though they're so simple. - ASBURY: Right.
Speaking of the general look of the movie,
I want to give huge credit to the art department
led by Noelle Triaureau, our production designer.
And Marcelo Vignali, and Dean Gordon, our art directors,
and their entire team who really helped me get the look I wanted,
which was influenced by Peyo, obviously.
I wanted the colors to be, sort of, bright and vibrant,
and not too many blacks and not too many darks.
And let it be the colorful world that Peyo created.
And I also,
because Peyo had, sort of, this miniature quality to the world he invented,
I wanted this world to, sort of, feel the way it felt when I was a kid
and I would look at those View-Masters
and I used to want to crawl inside those little miniature worlds.
And I think that the modeling and the art department and lighting
did a wonderful job capturing that feel.
It really does feel like you're looking into a very specific world that's real,
but it's also not real at the same time.
- And I'm really proud of that. - HAWKINS: Yeah.
JEFFORDS: And one of the things that you don't think of,
Dean pointed out to me,
just even the size of the grain in the wood
makes you subconsciously understand how big these things are.
ASBURY: Right. JEFFORDS: In everything.
The texture, the way it's treated.
ASBURY: Yeah, and one of the revelations of this movie for me
when I started learning about the Smurfs and having to really research them was,
if they were really in our world,
they're about 7.5 to 9 inches tall.
I always thought they were little, tiny, like, 2-inch high characters
- that lived in real mushrooms. - JEFFORDS: Like the figurines that you buy.
ASBURY: Yeah, I always thought that. But they actually are little, small, you know,
almost 1 -foot, or slightly under little characters walking around
in this world that I guess looks like a miniature golf course,
- if you go into it. - (ALL LAUGH)
Which I love, you know.
I love miniature golf courses. So, that's great.
If they have castles and stuff, so...
Speaking of the characters, Joe Manganiello as Hefty,
Danny Pudi as Brainy...
JEFFORDS: Jack McBrayer as Clumsy. ASBURY: Yeah, yeah, they're just fantastic.
- They did such a great job for us. - JEFFORDS: Mmm-hmm.
ASBURY: And, you know, the four of those characters, the way we looked at it,
and, Brandon, you can speak to this, too,
is they were, sort of, our Dorothy and her Tin Man...
JEFFORDS: Oh, yeah.
ASBURY: Cowardly Lion and the Scarecrow. JEFFORDS: Absolutely.
ASBURY: They sort of serve those functions in a similar way
as they go on this journey of discovery together.
And each character has a small, little lesson to learn.
And we try to really let that come through without hitting people over the head.
- And, of course, there is Gargamel. - (JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: We really brought him back to the original design,
from a live action character, back to Peyo's world,
really similar to what Peyo drew.
JEFFORDS: And, Rainn Wilson, who does his voice, absolutely brought comedy to this
that we were unable to execute until he came on board.
ASBURY: Yeah.
JEFFORDS: In fact, him and his writing partner, Paul...
- Was it Paul... - ASBURY: Paul Lieberstein. Yeah.
JEFFORDS: Um, he, uh... Those two...
I remember reading the dialogue that they wrote for this.
It was me, you, and Mary Ellen in a room and we were laughing out loud at every...
He gave us like three alts for every line.
ASBURY: Yeah, he really created Gargamel for us.
We didn't know exactly what approach to take.
JEFFORDS: Mmm-hmm.
ASBURY: You know, there's a little bit of Captain Hook in him,
there's a little bit of Darth Vader,
there's a little bit of the Wicked Witch of the West.
But we really didn't have it until Rainn really took it and made it his own.
HAWKINS: (CHUCKLES) He was a lot of fun to animate, too.
It gives us lots to work with for comedy,
and then also, he is scary and intimidating when he needs to be.
It was a lot of fun for the animators.
ASBURY: And credit has to be given also... We mentioned the writing.
Pamela Ribon and Stacey Harman, our writers,
certainly played a role in all the humor and the structure of the film
and did a great job for us.
And there's a lot of ideas that come from a lot of places.
But they really helped us solidify this film, which is really hard with animation
because there are so many ideas floating around,
- and so many storyboards... - JEFFORDS: Right.
ASBURY: ...and so many people, you know, throwing out ideas at all times,
that it really comes down to sifting through what works best.
And that happens in a lot of ways.
Either through writing, or the editing process.
JEFFORDS: Well, I mean... And it's collaborative all the way through
because there's so many aspects of this story that we spelled out with dialogue
and as much as we could in storyboards, and then animation takes it over
and you realize you didn't need all of that, anyway.
ASBURY: Right. Right. JEFFORDS: Just...
CLUMSY: My turn!
JEFFORDS: For that scene for instance, like Smurfboarding,
we had this huge explanation at the beginning of the scene
about the Forbidden Forest...
ASBURY: Right. JEFFORDS: ...you know.
And in the end, we realized, "You didn't need all that because..."
ASBURY: I think, also, what we realized in that very piece you're talking about is,
most people understand the idea of kids sneaking out
and going to a secret, sort of, fun place that their parents don't know about.
But they know their parameters, and they know
- what they're not supposed to do. - JEFFORDS: Right, right.
ASBURY: I think that's a simple premise and it comes across here.
And that's how we were able to get that exposition out
and not explain every single thing, you know, just verbatim all the time.
(JEFFORDS CHUCKLES)
ASBURY: The foliage, and the cloth, and the hair, and the lighting,
all of those things, credit has to be given to Mike Ford, Mandy Tankenson,
all the people at Sony Pictures Imageworks.
The work that went into this, the layout, Dave Morehead and his crew...
JEFFORDS: Mmm-hmm.
ASBURY: You know, just every aspect, "It really does take a Smurf Village,"
- as we like to say. - (JEFFORDS AND HAWKINS LAUGH)
ASBURY: But it really does. I mean, it's...
- What? - Who was it?
ASBURY: It's so many people contributing their best to get something to work like this.
HAWKINS: Yeah. The foliage you mentioned, I mean,
that was a huge undertaking for this one.
The effects department handles that and there's just a lot of interaction
that has to go on between the animators in that department
to make sure everything's going to work out okay for them
and it's just everywhere, so...
- (JEFFORDS LAUGHS) - HAWKINS: It was a lot to do.
- That was our first Peyo stars, I think. - ASBURY: That was. Yeah.
We wanted to make sure at some points, that when the villains were hit...
JEFFORDS: (LAUGHS) Love that. ASBURY: ...that we saw the stars.
JEFFORDS: That animation is great. ASBURY: Yeah.
- The controversial kiss. Yeah. - (JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: I've had a few questions from the press about that.
JEFFORDS: Oh, yeah? ASBURY: And all I can say is,
"Hey, it's funny. You know, what could we do?"
There's no agenda here.
JEFFORDS: It definitely harps back to old-style animation that I loved as a kid.
ASBURY: Oh, yeah. There's a ridiculousness about it all.
And then, of course, there's Rainn Wilson, who did such a good job for us.
JEFFORDS: Yeah, he actually really brought life into the character of Gargamel.
Before that, we were struggling.
It's always tough to do this sort of comedic villain.
And what he brought with his improvs became the character of Gargamel.
ASBURY: Yeah, he helped us invent that character.
He took so much and gave us more than we really anticipated.
We didn't really know what to do with the character.
And Rainn's talents just shine through in this.
And so, he helped us create Gargamel.
JEFFORDS: He gave us, like, three or four variations on every line,
and we laughed at every single one of them.
ASBURY: He was great.
You know, another thing that's great
is when you have these four characters that are interacting
with each other and going on this journey,
we really tried our best to create an ensemble of characters
that complemented each other.
Each one has their own problem that has to get solved,
but we really do take each character through a little bit of an arc
and they're on this trek together and they help each other.
So, it was really fun to cast this little foursome we've got here.
And Frank Welker, he comes into the studio
and he gives us these cat sounds that are uncanny.
JEFFORDS: (LAUGHS) Yeah. ASBURY: It was crazy.
HAWKINS: And Monty, too, you know, he had the same sort of dichotomy
of being dangerous when he needed to be, but also the comedy element at times.
JEFFORDS: Dee Bradley Baker actually brought life to Monty,
which we had never seen before.
Kelly, you can attest to this in recording that character.
ASBURY: It was like a bird was coming out of his mouth.
- I don't know how he did it. It was amazing. - (JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
JEFFORDS: Yeah, we would just shut our eyes in the recording sequence
and just listen.
Yeah, the sounds that he made, I have no idea how he did it.
ASBURY: It's great.
JEFFORDS: The voice of the cauldron actually is also an amazing...
ASBURY: Yes, that performance...
That was an up-and-coming actor named Brandon Jeffords
who happens to be sitting right here with us and was Head of Story as you know.
(JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: He gave us this voice, that we just couldn't replace it with anyone.
We thought of everyone and...
JEFFORDS: (LAUGHS) I'm pretty sure that's not the case.
ASBURY: No, it is. We could not find one that was better.
JEFFORDS: (LAUGHS) I think the effect helps a little bit.
ASBURY: You know, and there is no bigger compliment than people saying
they couldn't find anyone better, so, they used you. Isn't that great?
(JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
Trees, trees, breeze, knees. Babies crawl on their knees.
Check all the nurseries in the area!
ASBURY: So, yeah, the...
This whole thing with the three trees and the...
It's one of those MacGuffins that feels so important in a movie for so long
and then, of course, it ends up not really having any significance at all. (LAUGHS)
JEFFORDS: (LAUGHS) I loved the part where they reveal what it is.
I think that's a great reveal for the audience.
ASBURY: Yeah.
JEFFORDS: Originally, the three trees was a clue
that the Smurfs were gonna find on their journey.
On, like a rock, and they have the rock upside down.
ASBURY: Yeah, it's so...
That's just an example of how the ideas just come and go, and change and mutate.
But for a long time, no one got captured.
We talked about, "Should it be Clumsy that gets captured by Gargamel?"
(JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: And we couldn't find any...
We couldn't find out how to get these characters
- to know that they had to go on this journey. - JEFFORDS: Right.
Well, the clue that led Gargamel on this journey
used to be, actually, Monty that brought it to Gargamel.
We changed it to Smurfette only to help, sort of, her journey
because part of her, not just finding her purpose,
but part of it is feeling like she's stuck in this thing that Gargamel created.
ASBURY: Right. JEFFORDS: And so, to make it her fault
that he knows it, it made it more poignant for her journey.
ASBURY: Sure.
And there's Snappy Bug. That was the idea of Pam Ribon.
And then I think it was Steve Fonti, our story artist,
who actually came up with the idea of him taking selfies.
- JEFFORDS: Actually, it was Paul Watling. - It was Paul Watling? Okay.
JEFFORDS: Yeah, it was Paul that came up with that.
ASBURY: They're all good. Both you guys are good, but it was, uh...
It was a great idea to have that bug be this little kind of an iPhone for Brainy.
HAWKINS: I love this chase sequence.
This was like the second thing we did in the animation department.
But it was a lot of fun. There's so much going on in here.
And the energy level is so high.
ASBURY: Yeah, this is a really great sequence for 3D as well.
But it is pure animation here. I mean...
What I love about sequences like this is,
and it's something I really try to do in everything,
is if you turn the sound off, you know what's going on, and there's...
I really try to make the movie as visual as possible,
so that it really doesn't even need dialogue to get what's happening.
But this one's very successful, I think, in that way.
Very proud of it. And the animation, of course...
JEFFORDS: Oh, completely sells it. ASBURY: Yeah.
JEFFORDS: That whole bit with Clumsy falling,
I had no idea how that was gonna look.
And it's definitely successful.
HAWKINS: It's great. I love the bird in this one, too.
He's so dynamic and cool.
ASBURY: And this is a good example, like you said earlier,
of where the bird becomes really angry and evil.
HAWKINS: Mmm-hmm. And then we turn it off when we need to,
afterwards, he gets bonked on the head and kind of shrugs it off, and that's it.
ASBURY: This chase was originally storyboarded
by one of our star story artists on this film,
Bryan Andrews,
who really has a way of taking what is a paragraph in the script
and turning it into a delightful sequence.
And this didn't change that much from what he...
And then there are other sequences in the film
that exemplify that.
JEFFORDS: Yeah, Bryan often gets typecast as the action guy,
but he's very versatile with what he does. Comedy, I mean...
ASBURY: Yeah. And the comedy comes through.
He really does contribute to so much of these sequences.
HAWKINS: Mmm-hmm. Yeah.
JEFFORDS: This was one of the first scenes, right, that got put in?
ASBURY: This is one of the first scenes that was animated.
HAWKINS: This was... Yeah, this was, like, maybe second or third,
or I think we started around the same time as the chase sequence.
It was a good starting place.
We had some excitement with the chase sequence,
and then we also had some more subtle stuff,
and that helped us figure out our range.
But in this sequence, especially,
it's the first one with Papa really doing dialogue
because we did the intro later.
So, this was us learning how to animate his mouth to work with
the hair department, which did tons of work to get that groom...
ASBURY: And the beard. (CHUCKLES) HAWKINS: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, that beard is lots and lots of work from the CFX department,
who had to make all those hairs look nice, but also fit the shape that they needed to be,
but not too, uh...
It had to feel soft, and it's just quite an undertaking to make that one work.
ASBURY: And, of course, Mandy Patinkin, the great Mandy Patinkin,
did our voice for Papa.
And I think he's the best version of Papa Smurf that's ever been put out there.
I just love it. I love Mandy. I think he's very talented.
And I think that Mandy's character comes across in this animation of Papa.
I don't know if the reference footage helped with that, but...
Yes, but...
HAWKINS: Yeah, we definitely studied all that.
I mean, you gave us a lot to look for. Everyone, they were very informative.
JEFFORDS: Mandy, when I saw him,
it's the first time I'd truly seen, like, some amazing acting in front of a microphone.
I mean, that guy could turn on the tears in a heartbeat.
ASBURY: Yeah.
Yeah, and he said recently that this was one of the funnest jobs he ever had
because he got to just go crazy in front of the mic.
And we did let him give us a lot of takes. He was great.
And then this sequence here, this is where
our lighting team and our art direction team really worked together beautifully
to give us this, sort of, day for night,
so, it's not a scary nighttime scene.
It feels like nighttime, but it's a safe nighttime.
Because there's something about the Smurf world
that never really gets super-dark and dreary.
And we do, toward the end of the film, obviously,
we take it darker than this,
but we didn't want this to feel scary as much as "thrilling." That's a better word.
And adventurous, as the sun is about to come up
and it's just before dawn.
JEFFORDS: In a world of wish fulfillment, as a kid, this is a world you want to be in.
ASBURY: Yeah, this is the...
The To Kill a Mockingbird, sneaking out of the house at night,
kids going on an adventure together,
that I really, really am proud we captured. I think it's turned out great.
HAWKINS: Love that little kick.
That was always there from the boards, but that tells you so much.
ASBURY: That was Paul... Paul Watling gave us that.
JEFFORDS: That's Paul Watling again, yeah.
This is all my fault, Hefty.
But, Smurfette, the Forbidden Forest?
ASBURY: This was a scene that took a lot of
- rewrite and revising... - JEFFORDS: Oh, yeah.
ASBURY: ...to get just the words that we needed.
I can't ask you to do that.
ASBURY: And I have to give a lot of credit to Stacey Harman for this.
She really crafted this very carefully.
And it took, I'm sure on her part, a lot of frustration to get there. (LAUGHS)
- (JEFFORDS LAUGHS) - ASBURY: I'm sure I frustrated her.
- I'm glad she is not here to comment... - (ALL LAUGH)
But we really had a hard time getting this scene right, and she did a great job.
JEFFORDS: Oh, yeah, as a writer, you have to be incredibly patient in animation.
ASBURY: Oh, yeah. JEFFORDS: And have such discipline.
ALL: Check.
ASBURY: Sharon Bridgeman did a little bit of this scene, too, I think.
A lot of different people, storyboard artists...
You know, we change them out sometimes, or someone may do it a few times
and it's time to get a fresh eye on it.
It's hard to kind of point to each sequence
and know how many story artists worked on it.
JEFFORDS: Right. Well, and each story artist has their unique abilities.
I mean, Sharon had this way of giving such an endearing quality
that no one else could replicate.
I never wanted to do revisions on Sharon's scene.
ASBURY: Yeah, she did great. JEFFORDS: And comedy as well.
In fact, in this scene coming up here, Sharon did the majority of it.
ASBURY: Yeah.
JEFFORDS: And sometimes, it was just like, "Okay.
"Here is this crazy scene with all of these flowers eating the Smurfs.
"Just go insane with it."
ASBURY: And some credit has to go here to...
Jordan Kerner had said...
You know, the producer, he wanted...
The minute they enter this enchanted forest or Forbidden Forest,
he wanted something unexpected to happen immediately.
And we didn't have that for a while, and that was a great idea.
And it does really work.
And Sharon landed this beautifully,
as did the animators and Alan's team, of course.
I mean, that's a lot of a work.
JEFFORDS: (CHUCKLES) Yeah. HAWKINS: Yes.
Those flowers were pretty tricky.
This one's definitely a favorite of my son's.
Every time he'd come to work, he always has to see the flower sequence.
It was just so silly.
JEFFORDS: It seems like, too, when I watch a scene like this,
you almost can't have enough physical comedy in these type of movies.
ASBURY: Right.
JEFFORDS: In fact, Kristine was always pushing us to really exploit that.
ASBURY: Yeah, as was Tom Rothman. JEFFORDS: Uh-huh.
ASBURY: You know, the verbal comedy is one thing,
but in animated films, it is a balance.
I mean, because certainly there's wonderful dialogue.
And animated film certainly rely on great one-liners, and...
JEFFORDS: Mmm-hmm. ASBURY: But it is a visual art form
and it is more important to have the physical comedy in visual storytelling.
- It's so important. - HAWKINS: Mmm-hmm.
ASBURY: And, again, the animators...
Alan, honestly, it's just a tribute to the art of animating
and how these characters live and breathe and act,
and the facial expressions and the body languages,
each of them moves in their own special way.
Why don't you talk about that a little bit?
- About how you differentiated them? - HAWKINS: Well, I mean...
Yeah, like you said, they're all sort of based off the same structure,
but we had to really maintain each individual's character.
And you were actually instrumental in making, helping us remember
that we needed to treat each one, you know, with their own character traits.
I mean, looking at the scenes,
sometimes you see four characters and they look similar enough,
and you forget to make them move in their own unique way.
But Clumsy has got his clumsiness, and Brainy with his braininess, and Hefty...
They all have this sort of rich personality that we would try to remember
to, you know, put in the posing, in the timing, and how we treated them.
But so much of it came from the dialogue, too.
But, uh, yeah, it's kind of an interesting challenge
to take these things that are so similar in their structure
and then make 'em try to seem as unique as you can.
JEFFORDS: If you watch them side-by-side,
is there a very unique way in sort of their strut, and their mannerisms? That way?
HAWKINS: Yeah, the timing. I mean, Hefty's posture is different than Clumsy's.
You know, we always looked for something for Clumsy to do, to trip and fall,
and Brainy is wise and always correcting, and so, his posture is a little different, too.
But, uh, yeah, there's always something we're trying to take advantage of
to show their differences.
I hate nature.
ASBURY: And that's such a...
(GROANS) How gaudy.
ASBURY: When you watch classic old movies,
dating all the way back to the Silent Era,
the silent comedies, you know, Laurel and Hardy even,
you know, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton...
If you put those comedians side-by-side, you would see,
each of them had a completely different character movement
that enhances who they are and who they were,
and what you expected from them.
And that's an old style that you don't see as much in movies nowadays.
You don't see quite as much of the physical,
- almost mime quality to it. - JEFFORDS: Right, right.
HAWKINS: Mmm-hmm. Yeah, and a lot of... I mean, I feel like this was
a very freeing experience for a lot of the animators, too.
I think that you opened the door really wide for them to try ideas.
You were always supporting, pitching gags and things like that.
I think we got a really great result out of them
because they felt like they had room to try anything
and they were able to inject a lot of their own personalities in there, too,
and the result's a lot of fun.
ASBURY: Well, the old animation term that's been around for decades
is each phase from storyboard
all the way through should be plused.
Everything pluses the thing before it.
- Get 'em, boys. (SNAPS FINGERS) - Smurfintine formation! Go!
ASBURY: A big part of what animation is so great about is,
by the time you get to the animators,
I hope that they know the characters enough to be able to add...
- It's almost like improv, really. - HAWKINS: Mmm-hmm. Yeah, it is.
These dragonflies were pretty fun.
I don't think we've had a character with six arms in a Sony animated movie before,
- but that was its own challenge. - (ALL LAUGH)
Keeping those shapes appealing and not getting too busy
and, you know, figuring out their way of motion, that was kind of fun.
They're sort of a crisscross between, like, a dragon and a dragonfly.
So, sometimes, they are very fluid and swooping and elegant,
and sometimes, it's sort of staccato and hovering, like a dragonfly would be.
- That was a pretty fun mix... - ASBURY: Well, they looked great. I mean...
I love how they go from cute to very threatening.
Over there!
JEFFORDS: This scene, too, the whole egg falling into Clumsy's hands,
that is from an old...
ASBURY: Oh, yeah.
- Buster Keaton. - JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: I mean, it's certainly that kind of physical
prop humor that he was famous for.
It did influence us, there's no doubt.
JEFFORDS: This is also an example, for me, of, like...
Remember how hard it was, we were trying to explain,
"What's Gargamel's plan here with the dragonfly egg?"
In the end, it's like, you watch it, you needed no explanation.
ASBURY: Right. (LAUGHS)
JEFFORDS: Immediately, when the dragonflies chase,
you're like, "I know what he's done."
ASBURY: Yeah, he's trying to, you know, do away with them, so...
There's a Smurf Easter egg that we just passed by there.
It's a little horn, and the name of it, I cannot pronounce it,
but all the Smurf fans from way back love these little things we've thrown in,
and they're throughout the movie.
JEFFORDS: What is the horn?
ASBURY: It's from an old comic book. It was in the dirt there.
JEFFORDS: Yeah, well, I saw it.
ASBURY: We have a few of those little Easter eggs implanted throughout the movie
and the real Smurf fans are responding.
I got an e-mail recently from one of the Smurf fan club members
and they were all excited because they had seen it. It's crazy.
- But it's fun. - JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: Now, this sequence was another of our early ones,
and as we watch this, this makes it probably my 1,000th time that I've seen it,
and I never get tired of it.
I always enjoy it, and I think that from a standpoint of...
Well, everything about this scene really...
We have to give credit to Bryan Andrews again.
JEFFORDS: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
ASBURY: He took the script
and he turned this sequence into something
that was so entertaining, that we never changed it.
I mean, it's virtually unchanged from his original storyboards.
JEFFORDS: When we launched him, he didn't have a script.
You remember? We launched him over the phone, remember? (LAUGHS)
ASBURY: Yeah.
JEFFORDS: And it was like, they get an idea...
ASBURY: Yeah. You know, the idea... JEFFORDS: (LAUGHS) So...
ASBURY: I have to give Pamela Ribon, the writer...
JEFFORDS: Yeah, eventually, yeah.
ASBURY: She came up with the idea of the rabbit warrens
and the glowing bunnies that are coming up.
JEFFORDS: Mmm-hmm.
ASBURY: But Bryan took it and turned it into a visual feast.
JEFFORDS: And it was early, too.
I mean, a lot of character stuff hadn't been developed. I mean, he...
He sort of threw in a lot of these,
you know, the conflicts between Hefty and Brainy and Clumsy.
ASBURY: And the glow sticks, and the bug... JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: I mean, all that was right out of his mind.
- And then, of course... - HAWKINS: And you saw...
Well, you saw this in lighting by accident, I remember, once.
And I remember how happy you were 'cause...
We had a meeting, and then we ended it,
and I think we were in Vancouver that week, but you weren't,
and we didn't disconnect the session,
so you were able to see what was on the screen,
and we loaded up the lighting for this,
which you weren't supposed to have seen yet.
And then you just see it scrubbing back and forth
and you guys are exploding, from what I heard, with excitement
because it was bit of a spoiler,
but it was great to hear how positive the response was to the lighting.
ASBURY: Sure, and from the layout, through the lighting, through everything,
the animation, it's really a tour de force.
And it's fun while being thrilling, and not too scary.
JEFFORDS: Mmm-hmm. ASBURY: It's just got everything.
It's very close to being my favorite sequence in the movie.
I have a hard time picking, I have about three or four that I really love,
but this one is a high point, there's no doubt about it.
JEFFORDS: Well, and the trick here with anything
that's approved this early in animation is,
you worry that you've seen it one too many times,
and so, the edge gets shaved off.
Eventually, you're like, "Eh, do we need all this?"
ASBURY: And that did happen.
We did have those debates after watching it so much.
But all it took was showing it in front of an audience.
When we got the laughter...
You know, this ended up being...
It's consistently one of the favorite sequences.
HAWKINS: This one showcases kind of an interesting...
It's more early, when they're searching around in the caves,
but there we had a big challenge with Smurfette's hair.
In the comics, Peyo's drawings,
he always drew her hair, the bangs, breaking the silhouette shape of her head.
And so, when we modeled it, we favored one side,
but she only had one good angle at that point.
So, when we started seeing that, you know, from one side, she looked really great,
from the other side, it looked like her hair had collapsed.
And so, we had to work with the cloth and hair team and animation...
Work together to figure out a way.
I mean, it was mostly, really, the cloth and hair team
to figure out a way to make it look like the same from both three-quarter sides.
JEFFORDS: Wow. HAWKINS: And we would always hide
a little transition.
So, every time she turned her head,
we're actually flipping the hair one way or the other,
kind of like twisting, you know, the bill of a hat.
But it was actually a lot of work because they had to hide
the source of where the hair was growing
and make it look like it was the same on both sides even though it really isn't.
So, that was a pretty cool challenge.
ASBURY: That's what I call "movie sleight of hand," or "animation sleight of hand,"
where you really are creating an illusion that something's working correctly,
even though it's very carefully cheated.
But it's movie magic, it really is.
HAWKINS: Yeah, hopefully, you'd never really notice,
because we tried to make the little swap happen gracefully
with each time she turned her head,
but the end result is that she's appealing from both angles,
which she wasn't before, so it worked out great.
ASBURY: Okay, credit for this sequence has to go to our good friend, Mr. Mike Kunkel.
Mike was given, again, an assignment that was something very vague
and he took it and turned it into his own, and we never changed it.
I know that Steve Fonti had done some of the gags that come later and they're great,
but the heart of this sequence and the idea behind it, it's Mike's,
and we interpreted it very close to what he storyboarded.
You could run the storyboard side-by-side with this sequence
and it would play almost identically.
JEFFORDS: There's so much heart in this scene,
and it was another one that was on the chopping block for a while
for some of us more insensitive people...
- (ALL LAUGH) - ...who don't like the talking scenes,
but in looking at it, it's such a great juxtaposition
because Papa's not in all of the movie,
and so, there's a lot of scenes where he's angry at the Smurfs all the time.
So, it's just nice, especially because he's about to get angry again,
that he has such a connection with Smurfette,
and says all those wonderful things about her.
ASBURY: Yeah, and the dialogue...
To me, that sort of dialogue is about character, it's not exposition.
JEFFORDS: Right. ASBURY: And so, I like it.
It's almost like a song number, if you will,
where he's singing about how he feels about Smurfette.
And then, of course, he's all hornswoggled
when he finds out they're not such obedient kids after all.
JEFFORDS: Well, we also have to give credit here to Kelly Asbury
who does Nosey. (LAUGHS)
ASBURY: Yeah, Nosey happened sort of accidentally.
I did the scratch for it, everyone laughed,
and it stayed in, and we never changed the voice, and there you go.
JEFFORDS: I think, secretly, there was a part of your personality that you're pulling out.
- ASBURY: Maybe so. - (JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: Nosey was based on an old neighbor of mine
that would say those very words whenever she would bring us our mail.
- It was just ridiculous. - (JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
JEFFORDS: It's definitely a character that we all know.
ASBURY: Yeah.
So get me some firewood.
Clumsy? You okay?
ASBURY: So, every movie that involves a trek,
or a... It seems like there's a campfire scene,
and this was a hard one to get right.
But I'm glad we did it, I think it's charming. I think it's a lot about character.
JEFFORDS: Absolutely. ASBURY: It's a moment, you know,
I remember, I was reading, recently, Alfred Hitchcock said one time that
at some point, midway through the movie,
you need your main character to somehow restate their goal,
so the audience remembers it.
And this was our chance for each of them
to sort of ground us once again on where we are and what the movie is about.
And it was a hard-won battle,
and I think there's a lot of fun to be had between these characters in this.
The animation, Alan, is fantastic.
HAWKINS: I mean, what I like about this sequence and what it leads to ultimately
is that it sets up the fight that they have later in the beach, which...
There's been a little sort of back and forth with Hefty and Brainy,
but it's still within their character,
and I like that it builds up
and that we actually get to have a fight with them later on,
which doesn't come up often.
I mean, the tension really adds to make it a more rich relationship
and it was a lot of fun to go through that process.
JEFFORDS: I think Sharon Bridgeman, again, was one of the story artists on this.
She seemed to always get the scenes that...
We'd get to a point and it was just like, "All right, give it to Sharon,"
'cause she'll be able to infuse some great character in it.
ASBURY: Sharon has always...
I've worked with her on many movies
and she's always had a knack for the heart, getting it.
And she's great with comedy.
So, it was really nice. Good work.
JEFFORDS: How did you guys do the shadow animation?
HAWKINS: Oh, well, those are characters that are just off-camera,
and we have these, like, modeling tools
that basically allow us to just push and pull the characters, so...
I mean, those are Smurfs off-camera
and if you could see them, they would be just mangled and gnarly,
but the silhouette looks good, and the edges, and that's all that matters,
and then the lighting department, you know, puts a light behind 'em,
and it sends it to the wall,
but it's just, you know, it's just really pushing the shape of those characters
with some special tools that we have at Imageworks, which was pretty fun.
We did the same thing with Gargamel, when he's first introduced.
JEFFORDS: Oh, yeah, right.
HAWKINS: That one was actually tougher because,
initially, you see the silhouette of him,
but then you pull out and you see that he's also in the shot.
Normally, we can hide the character that's being deformed to hit that shape,
but that one sort of made us, you know,
work to everything being visible in the scene, which was an unusual challenge.
ASBURY: You know, all this water is so beautifully done,
and all the effects in this movie are beautifully done,
and led by Patrick Witting, who is this...
He and his team were just geniuses.
I could ask for anything and they would give it to me.
And this water, and all the magic effects that happen in this movie,
are because of them. It's fantastic.
This river... This floating river,
no one knew exactly what it was supposed to be.
I think Pamela Ribon wrote it. Mike... I'm sorry.
Bryan Andrews storyboarded it,
and Sharon Bridgeman did some of it...
JEFFORDS: I did a little bit of it. (LAUGHS) ASBURY: (LAUGHS) Yeah, we all did.
But it ended up, you know, working in a way that...
Even in the preview, we showed a version to an audience that was not yet finished.
And it was not met with much favor because it wasn't finished.
And it was really kind of worrisome
because we really thought, "Gosh, is it gonna work?"
And once it was finished, we showed it again,
and it was the favorite
- sequence in the movie. - (JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: So, I think it remains so, and it's a tour de force of animation.
This little place right here is all Bryan Andrews' idea. This interruption.
I have a funny story I wanna tell here.
Someone saw the movie recently, and said that the minute they walked out,
their son, to his little sister,
whenever his little sister would talk, for the rest of the day,
he'd go, "Bark, bark, bing, bang."
So, we've influenced children.
JEFFORDS: (LAUGHS) In a bad way. ASBURY: It's a great moment.
- (ALL LAUGH) - ASBURY: Yeah. That's great.
JEFFORDS: I'm glad my kids are a little bit older. They will not pick up that.
Or maybe they will.
HAWKINS: And this was definitely... I mean, for all departments...
At Imageworks, this was, I think, the hardest one.
I certainly felt that way from the animation side.
I mean, we would start by moving the river in animation,
and then we would give it to the effects department and they'd do their work,
and we'd have to give it back and do adjustments...
There was a lot of back and forth and...
ASBURY: Decisions were made at each step.
HAWKINS: Yeah, and then the look of it, too, all the vis dev and lighting that went into it...
And also, it's one of the longest sequences in the movie,
so it was really hard work for a really long time.
You know, it's not just like a quick little challenge.
ASBURY: One thing that I'm kind of a stickler for,
and fortunately, Noelle Triaureau and Dave Morehead
and Mike Ford were right there with me,
is, as much as what's going on here,
they managed to give a lot of clarity as to where you're supposed to look.
It's a scene that could've been so busy and overproduced,
but all of us were always vigilant on the composition of the shots
and the shot being about what it was supposed to be.
And I'm really proud of it.
I think that it's just a stellar example
of all the different teams working so good together and creating something memorable.
JEFFORDS: It's also one of those things that you don't...
Until you see the final thing, you never quite know how well it's gonna work.
So many times, it feels like, in the movie,
that the characters are going, "Wow!" or "Whoa!" or whatever.
And it's like, "What are we really looking at?"
ASBURY: Yeah, and until this was finished,
no one knew what we had here, really.
- We hoped, but... - (HAWKINS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: You know, there were times I would be in the effects
and I'd just be saying, "I can't tell what this is gonna look like."
And they would have to say, "Kelly, you're gonna have to trust us."
And I did, and there you go.
I love you two.
ASBURY: So, I'm very proud, the water and the cloth and all the effects.
JEFFORDS: Who's the one that designed that raft?
I love the whole, the lever and all of that business.
ASBURY: Oh, the designer? I think it was the art department.
I think Marcelo Vignali probably had a big part in it.
I think that Bryan kind of came up with this idea of it being propelled by log-rolling.
(JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: And everyone, you know... It was a combination of a few people, I think.
HAWKINS: These are some of my favorite jokes,
the whole back and forth with Gargamel as he's drowning, not drowning.
JEFFORDS: Again, that's Bryan Andrews, and his...
HAWKINS: It's hilarious.
From the first time I saw the reels, this was easily my favorite joke
when he's like, "That's awesome."
ASBURY: This was a case of a story artist taking a section
and doing something with it just to see if we wanted it 'cause he had a funny idea.
And it got so many laughs, that...
And we have to save him.
HAWKINS: Yeah, especially the scene when he's on the raft.
And he's... They're like, "Are you okay?"
And he says, "Yeah, a little tired. Yeah, I'm still evil."
And then he switches back on. I love it. That's one of my favorites.
(JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
HAWKINS: And then the nose thing, the animator came up with that.
We had to figure out a way for him to grab on somehow
and putting the life preserver right on the nose, fun solve.
JEFFORDS: There are so many aspects of the animated Gargamel, you know,
because the other movies, he was this live-action guy,
there are so many things that now breathe life into this character
- that you never expected. - ASBURY: Right.
JEFFORDS: I know my kids have seen the previews for this
and they're so excited to see that version.
ASBURY: And in this part, at the end of that spectacular waterfall,
we really wanted to have a moment here where you wonder if they did survive.
But not to make it too dark,
these great little crabs were thrown in there that are so funny.
(JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: Was that Sharon, or, um...
JEFFORDS: Gosh, I think Casey had a little bit to do with it.
ASBURY: Casey Lowe. Yeah.
Another great story artist we...
JEFFORDS: Denise also... ASBURY: Denise Koyama, yeah.
JEFFORDS: Much of what she originally storyboarded here was kept.
ASBURY: Some of this was done in the editing room as we went.
This was not an easy sequence to get right.
We knew we had to have this sort of conflict between them,
and Stacey wrote a great scene, Stacey Harman, and we really worked at it,
but not getting it too hostile, not getting it, you know...
- They're kids having a meltdown. - JEFFORDS: Right.
ASBURY: It's kind of a temper tantrum 'cause they've had a bad day.
- And we didn't want them to hate each other. - JEFFORDS: Right.
ASBURY: So, it was a tricky moment.
But I think we pulled it off. It's believable.
HAWKINS: As animators, you rarely get the opportunity to animate a fight.
ASBURY: The main characters.
HAWKINS: Especially between the main characters, yeah.
JEFFORDS: Well, and I love Stacey's idea of throwing Clumsy in there, too, in the fight,
even though he's not fighting, he's yelling, which is great in this character.
HAWKINS: And now, the monster. This was...
The design of this thing is so awesome.
It was a challenge for everyone, too,
because we had to figure out how to make this thing work together
when it's, you know, made up of eight or 12 different parts
that are whole characters in and of themselves.
ASBURY: And again, Patrick Mate has to be credited for it.
He drew these original ideas of these characters...
The art department contributed.
This was sort of built from visuals
and then the writers took it and sort of turned it into a sequence.
And then Denise Koyama boarded it for us beautifully.
(GRUNTS) Her.
ASBURY: There's just so much about this that I'm so happy with.
HAWKINS: These girls are just so cool when they're in these outfits.
I wish we could've done more with them in this, but it's just the right amount,
but just their design and the awesome factor that they have was a lot of fun for us.
So dynamic.
(GASPS) It's you.
ASBURY: And it really is fun to have opened up the world
to where, now, there are these girl Smurfs.
JEFFORDS: Yeah. When I watched this, 'cause I watched it just recently,
and of course I already know, I have all the spoilers,
it was still, it was so magical.
It was really cool to see this whole new world open for them.
ASBURY: Mmm-hmm.
You feel... I think what's most successful overall is,
you really feel Smurfette's awe at this.
Like, you're in Smurfette's head in this sequence
in a way that kind of surprised us all, really. I mean...
I'm really happy with how it turned out
and a lot of credit has to go to Denise Koyama.
She did board this and our writer, Pamela Ribon, came up with Smurfblossom.
JEFFORDS: The three main ones, from the very start, she came up with.
ASBURY: The three main ones, yeah.
Ellie Kemper took this character and made it fantastic.
JEFFORDS: Yeah. ASBURY: Really gave it a life,
and it's what you need at this point in the movie, is to have this relief.
JEFFORDS: No, as soon as we recorded Ellie, uh...
I mean, Kristine Belson was like,
"We need to put more of that character in this movie."
ASBURY: And people love her.
HAWKINS: She's so much fun to animate, too.
It's like, she changed directions several times per second
- and that just gave us so much to work with. - (JEFFORDS CHUCKLES)
- Garga? - Garga?
Garga-what?
He's a dangerous wizard who wants to capture all Smurfs
and use them for his evil magic.
And he knows about your lost village.
"Lost village"?
(CHUCKLES)
You're the ones who are lost, not us.
(QUIET LAUGHTER)
We have to take you to Smurfy Grove.
What do we do with these blue blobs?
Oh, um...
ASBURY: But credit has to go to Michelle Rodriguez for Smurfstorm,
- and Ariel Winter for Smurflily... - JEFFORDS: Smurflily.
ASBURY: ...because they all are very distinct, it's just like our other Smurfs.
And there's Meghan Trainor right there. That little Smurfmelody.
We gave her a little character.
- She gets a laugh. - JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: But all of them, once again, we really paid attention to how they move.
That's where the animators really were the other half of the actors in this movie.
And it's just a good fusion of the two.
HAWKINS: Yeah, there's a huge difference between Smurfstorm and Smurfblossom,
one is just so under control and calm and always, like, evaluating the situation,
and the other is just all over the place, and you can tell who's who instantly.
JEFFORDS: I love, too, that Pam Ribon, from the very start,
gave all the girls these Smurf-something names which tied in with Smurfette.
ASBURY: Yeah. JEFFORDS: Such a brilliant idea.
So that they didn't mirror the boys.
ASBURY: Yeah, and we really...
No one wanted us to do a parallel village where it was just... Like, a brainy girl...
We wanted everyone to have their own thing,
and these girls are
- a completely different culture. - (JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: This is great animation.
SMURF 1: I like 'em. SMURF 2: Where do they come from?
ASBURY: But, you know, this melding of two cultures,
and these two different ways of life having to come together and accept each other,
is very timely, kind of accidentally very timely.
And a lot of people have asked me
if we tried to make, on purpose, a girl-power movie.
- (JEFFORDS LAUGHS) - ASBURY: Certainly, it is a girl-power theme,
but I think it's about empowerment for everybody.
Because the boys learn a lot about self-empowerment, too.
So, I think that that's what keeps it from just being strictly a girl-centric theme.
It's a human theme.
And I'm really happy about that.
And then, of course, Smurfwillow,
- who's voiced so incredibly by Julia Roberts. - JEFFORDS: Mmm-hmm.
ASBURY: So much subtlety and so much heart in her character.
I'm just so thrilled with how she turned out.
- And she's such a standout in the movie. - JEFFORDS: Yeah.
Well, new characters are always the hardest ones to create,
and much of the time, like with Julia,
the actor brings something that you didn't expect
and you're able to just pattern it after that voice.
ASBURY: Just a dimension that's brought to it.
HAWKINS: She's pretty badass, too.
I love the shot where she takes down Papa thinking that he's Gargamel.
She's skillful. I mean, they're like a warrior tribe.
So, it was really cool to take advantage of those opportunities.
JEFFORDS: There is the famous three trees. ASBURY: Yes.
And the revelation they weren't trees at all, which...
(JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: That's a combination of ideas.
I think you and Mike Kunkel and Pam Ribon
- sort of swirled around this symbol. - JEFFORDS: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
HAWKINS: There was a time when there were actual trees that Gargamel went to, right?
ASBURY: Yeah, well, he still does go to the swamp where there are three trees.
JEFFORDS: Oh, there it is, right? ASBURY: Yeah, but...
There was a whole sequence that was developed
that ended up just being a detour, which happens.
And one of the fun things about animation is, you get an opportunity to try things.
We never went as far as animating it, but it was a completely different...
JEFFORDS: At one point, the three trees actually spoke.
I mean, they were anthropomorphic. (LAUGHS)
ASBURY: Yeah, it was funny. It would've been a good short film, but...
JEFFORDS: It didn't quite fit the style of what we were doing, so...
- ASBURY: It was a big detour. - (JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: You know what I like about Smurfstorm,
and the way that I think Michelle Rodriguez gave some real dimension,
is Smurfstorm, rightly so, does not readily trust these characters.
She knows... You know, she's not a bad character, she's actually quite protective,
and I think that that comes across...
You like her even though she's really tough
and she's not necessarily very nice at first, but you understand.
I mean, she's like, you know, "We don't know who these people are."
JEFFORDS: Well, and her character plays such an important role,
because, you know, Clumsy is about to reveal to her Smurfette's true origin,
which makes her turn the entire village against her.
That was one of Jen Kluska's ideas, actually, that came late in the movie,
which was perfect timing for this.
But also, in the reconnaissance scene,
she helps Clumsy, sort of, get outside of his box that he's been in.
HAWKINS: The song for this sequence was kind of a funny evolution, I think.
- Didn't we do like an internal... Yeah. - ASBURY: We tried everything.
HAWKINS: We did a presentation,
like, internally, at Imageworks, where we used this song,
and then I think you guys got the idea from that because...
ASBURY: Yeah, I think it just kind of started there
and someone said, "Hey, that's funny."
There were people who didn't want to use it, there were people that did, you know,
'cause it's a song that I don't think anyone ever really particularly took it seriously.
And then, as we tried other things,
and we even had people write a couple of other things,
we thought, "You know what? This is like the perfect... It's perfect."
JEFFORDS: It gets a laugh. ASBURY: It gets a laugh,
and it's not too long.
But, you know, it's about being blue.
And what are these characters?
- So, we had a good time with it. - HAWKINS: Yeah.
ASBURY: And I think it ended up being quite light-hearted and fun, so...
Speaking of the music, we haven't mentioned...
JEFFORDS: What?
HAWKINS: We were trying to think if there was a fart joke in the movie,
and we do have one.
JEFFORDS: Oh, there it is.
HAWKINS: It's not full-on fart... ASBURY: It's a very soft fart joke.
JEFFORDS: Unfortunately, I think you might have me to thank for that one.
ASBURY: Yeah, well...
JEFFORDS: Jen Kluska actually storyboarded this scene,
which was extremely difficult,
because it went through so many iterations as well.
ASBURY: Well, it was hard to decide what it was about.
JEFFORDS: (LAUGHS) Exactly. ASBURY: Yeah.
But I think we got it. I think it's entertaining.
Threading that rivalry between Hefty and Brainy.
JEFFORDS: And giving Smurfette sort of a mini arc
in this as she starts to bond with the girls,
and at the same time, get really skilled at all these different activities.
ASBURY: Yeah.
HAWKINS: Montages are kind of fun to animate.
Like, the context and the continuity doesn't matter so much,
so you get to treat each one as kind of a solo thing,
and it gives us lot of room to play.
ASBURY: Okay, so, here we are in the swamp.
- The color styling for this sequence... - HAWKINS: Yeah, I love it.
ASBURY: Noelle Triaureau and Dean Gordon really brought a sophistication to the color.
I really wanted this sequence to feel like,
"Okay, they're not in any place..."
Like, "It's different than anything else in the movie."
And they gave me that, and it's beautiful.
HAWKINS: Yeah, the red of those fish, with the glowing eyes,
against that green, it just works so well.
ASBURY: And it feels swampy, but not disgusting. That was the hard part.
We didn't want to make it just a big, brown, dark swamp.
HAWKINS: Yeah, it's still vibrant. ASBURY: There's still fun in it.
JEFFORDS: I remember seeing the artwork, even just for this cloud scene stuff...
I was so amazed at what they did with the colors.
ASBURY: This scene was thought of...
Stacey Harman, when she joined our team,
this was a scene that she said the movie needed.
Where you get a sense of not only the information about what Gargamel's doing,
and that he's not dead, and that he's coming,
but also it's an opportunity for Clumsy's arc to sort of be realized.
JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: And for him to realize that his clumsiness can become an asset,
like, turn your liability into an asset.
And I think that's a big, important thing, and I really do credit Stacey with this.
I think Mike Kunkel did a great job storyboarding it and gave it a lot of fun,
and then the animators, all this business,
all this Buster Keaton-like business that Clumsy's doing, that's pure animation.
And it's just really, once again, it's all the pieces coming into play.
The 3D is fantastic here.
HAWKINS: Yeah, the shots are real dynamic.
I love the feeling of advancement that he always has on there.
Monty, so much fun.
JEFFORDS: Well, I love, thematically, too,
that, you know, part of what you learn as an audience here
is that you don't have to be pigeonholed into one thing.
And Smurfstorm, what I was saying earlier,
is that Smurfstorm actually allows him to find that,
because she's lived her whole life.
The girls aren't pigeonholed into one thing, they're not named after their thing.
So, she's like, "Look, how do you know it's not your thing unless you try it?"
HAWKINS: Mmm-hmm.
ASBURY: I have to give credit to the layout department.
That's kind of the unsung heroes of every movie.
Layout is... They're the people that really work this camera.
And all these great shots were from their minds, and so...
Kudos to everyone involved in this sequence,
but layout certainly enhanced it.
HAWKINS: Yeah, I mean, they solve a million problems
before it ever gets to the animation department.
JEFFORDS: Problems that were created by the storyboard team.
- (ALL LAUGH) - Pretty much.
HAWKINS: We get to work in a nice little box and things are already figured out.
(JEFFORDS LAUGHING)
- Oh, the awkward spa scene. - ASBURY: Yeah,
- and everyone loves it, you know. - (JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: Patrick Ballin was our little
caterpillar here from the editorial department.
JEFFORDS: I love his voice. ASBURY: He's great.
JEFFORDS: That's how he really talks. ASBURY: Yeah.
JEFFORDS: (LAUGHS) It's just his natural voice.
ASBURY: This spa scene is funny.
I don't know who originally... There's so many people that boarded...
I did a little bit of storyboarding on it.
JEFFORDS: Casey Lowe did quite a bit. ASBURY: Casey Lowe did a lot. Yeah.
I don't know whose original idea it was, but I know that Casey was the one
who boarded Hefty being shy about taking his towel off,
and all he has is his pants underneath. It's so funny.
- (JEFFORDS LAUGHS) - ASBURY: So cute.
Isn't this place awesome?
(GASPS) Doesn't she look great?
ASBURY: I wanted to mention earlier something that, um...
We haven't talked about the music in the movie.
Christopher Lennertz's score for this film and the orchestrations
are absolutely the most complementary score of any movie I've ever worked on.
I love the music.
There's a song coming up later that's sensational that Chris wrote.
So, I'm just really happy that he was our composer for this...
JEFFORDS: Oh, he wrote that song? ASBURY: He wrote the song.
JEFFORDS: I was wondering where that came from.
It's beautiful.
ASBURY: And, you know, again, the music doesn't overpower the film,
but it enhances all the emotions.
And I think that it's a great score.
Amazing work by a really gifted composer.
HAWKINS: It's hard to find a place to mention some of the behind-the-scenes departments
where they don't have a key scene that pops up that reminds you,
but our rigging department, which set up all the characters for us to animate,
did such a great job.
These guys are really challenging designs
because their mouths have to work really well across sort of a difficult shape,
which is that really rounded head,
and making them look soft and smooth without getting pinches and things like that.
Takes a lot of work,
and all those problems that they solve gets sent on to, you know, 100 animators,
which don't have to worry about it as much
because they've done such a good job getting it ready for us.
And so, the rigging department as well has done great stuff for us
to work with, really.
JEFFORDS: What was the hardest rig to create in this movie?
HAWKINS: (BREATHES DEEPLY) Hardest one?
Well, for all departments, probably Monty, the bird,
because of the feather interaction.
You know, there's an effects pass that's done on it.
There's, like, different types of feathers.
There's primary feathers, which, I think, they call the "flight feathers,"
and then there's hair-based feathers, which are the soft, fuzzier ones.
JEFFORDS: Gosh.
HAWKINS: And then that has to work really well in the animation department
because when the wings close up,
it has to not intersect and it'll have to fold nicely.
And so, bird characters are always a huge challenge,
and, you know, all departments working together really well to get his result,
and then you don't think about it because, you know, he looks great
and everything came together.
ASBURY: This scene was one that had several different versions.
About Papa showing up a little bit miraculously, perhaps.
- (LAUGHS) - JEFFORDS: Right.
ASBURY: But it's one of those that, again, the simplicity,
and the less we shine a light on
whatever seems illogical or hard to buy,
the more you do buy it and the more you accept it.
It was a cartoon logic,
and it was something that Stacey Harman and I
really had a lot of back-and-forth to get this right,
and I think we found the balance.
And I really like the subtleties
that you get from the acting with the characters,
and the slight little bit of intrigue and attraction
that you sense from Papa and Smurfwillow,
but I think the sequence actually...
- You understand it, you get it... - JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: ...and it doesn't need too much explanation beyond what's onscreen.
HAWKINS: Maybe there's a DVD short there,
how Papa meets Bucky along the way, or something like that.
ASBURY: There's an entire world that took place.
HAWKINS: We can connect the dots.
ASBURY: Yeah. We definitely fast-forward a little bit there.
HAWKINS: Yeah, the interaction
- between Papa and Smurfwillow... - ASBURY: This is a great shot.
HAWKINS: A lot of fun tension to play with.
ASBURY: The animation in this shot is quite nice.
HAWKINS: Yeah.
And then, you know, coming right up afterwards, how it all goes wrong,
which, it's a nice abrupt change.
What? What is all this talk about Garga...
ASBURY: And then, of course, Gargamel shows up,
and once again, Bryan Andrews takes a sequence
that was essentially a paragraph and turns it into...
Bryan invented the freeze balls.
Was that Bryan? I think...
JEFFORDS: Uh, actually, I think it might've been...
ASBURY: Pam mentioned them in the script, or...
JEFFORDS: Yeah, I don't know.
I think even I had a little something to do with that.
ASBURY: The freeze balls?
JEFFORDS: I don't remember exactly where we...
ASBURY: Well, I know in editorial, which, by the way, our editorial department,
led by Bret Marnell and his team, did a great job on this movie.
There's so many people to thank and acknowledge
because every bit of it, you know...
HEFTY: Look out!
ASBURY: ...the work is behind the scenes, but it's great.
JEFFORDS: Bryan definitely took the freeze balls to a new level in this scene. (LAUGHS)
HAWKINS: This was so fun to animate, too.
We were talking about the size of the Smurfs earlier,
and this is one that we really pushed the proportions.
I think Gargamel might be twice as big as he normally is
in order to get that very, you know, monstrous, imposing shape on him,
and to get those really strong angles.
It's like... I mean, I love animating the bad guys,
but this one was so much fun
because you take care of these Smurfs for so much of the movie,
it's kind of nice to sort of kick the houses in every once in a while. (LAUGHS)
ASBURY: What I also love about this scene, especially this piece right here,
this is where Gargamel is the meanest in the movie,
when he is basically goading Smurfette
and literally just kicking her when she's down.
And her worst fears are being realized,
and he's telling her, "You never were a Smurf, and you never will be,
"and you'll always be my operative, no matter what you do."
HAWKINS: Yeah.
ASBURY: It's so sad and so mean,
that it really makes him earn his villain-hood.
JEFFORDS: I actually have to give a lot of credit to H. Peterson, the editor on this,
because him and I worked hand-in-hand on this, and it was,
you know, it was one of those scenes
that was just like, "We've gotta get this right."
And that balance, he really helped find that.
ASBURY: And he worked a long time on it. - Yeah.
ASBURY: So did you in the editorial department.
HAWKINS: Yeah.
The relationship between Gargamel and Smurfette is pretty fun.
Sometimes in a movie, you don't know who the bad guy is,
or they're a mystery character until they're revealed at the end,
but every time they're together, they know exactly who each other is,
and so, they kind of... I don't know.
They have a lot of history to fall back on in their interactions.
This one was a tough one for animation,
to animate good crying and to make it all feel real,
that can be a big challenge.
They don't have a lot of anatomy,
- which, you know, the subtleties of crying... - ASBURY: Sure.
HAWKINS: ...depend, you know, in a human, a lot on like,
little facial muscles in your chin and things like that,
that they really don't have, and so, to translate into something
was a big challenge for the animators.
ASBURY: Well, the animation on Snappy Bug in this,
and what you did with so little, the simplicity of it, is really, really artful.
And I'm so pleased with the level of emotion that's achieved in this scene.
It's enhanced by the music, it's enhanced by the lighting,
the rain, all that,
but that little bug acting like a little puppy,
that's trying so hard to cheer her up, and so hard to, you know...
By the time he creates this selfie,
there's not a dry eye in the house during that part.
JEFFORDS: Well, I love the selfie, too.
It's such a modern concept,
how we were able to get it into a Smurf world.
It changes the movie.
ASBURY: Was that selfie thing... That was your idea, wasn't it?
JEFFORDS: I think so. ASBURY: Yeah.
JEFFORDS: We were trying to figure out... ASBURY: You can take credit.
ASBURY: You're head of story. You get a little credit.
JEFFORDS: (LAUGHS) We were trying to figure out
what really, emotionally, could impact her at this moment,
- and it was like, "What..." You know. - ASBURY: Yeah.
JEFFORDS: What visual could Snappy create?
ASBURY: I remember when you pitched it to me, I remember just hearing the pitch,
her seeing that selfie
and it reminding her, you know, that they're a team,
and that they don't give up.
It really... I remember even then getting excited about it.
But this scene really, really works effectively,
and now, of course, we get to...
This is where I really wanted to make the environment of Gargamel
seem much more sinister, much more dark.
It's the darkest in the whole movie.
And I really wanted us to feel that he, now, is overcome with this sort of evil...
He thinks he's succeeded.
- He's trapped all these Smurfs. - JEFFORDS: Right.
ASBURY: I wanted this to feel like it was really...
If we get scary, it's this sequence.
HAWKINS: Yeah. The colors are so great. The environment in this one is so fun.
We've been here before, but it doesn't feel like it
- because it's just a different presentation. - ASBURY: Yeah.
Fine. We'll just knock him unconscious.
JEFFORDS: That animation on Gargamel
when he's going through the machine is so fun.
ASBURY: It's fantastic.
JEFFORDS: I love how much life you guys put into that,
the little twirl and the land.
HAWKINS: Yeah. He really enjoys being who he is,
and you know, he's not stewing in it.
He's embraced himself, and he's winning, so he gets to enjoy...
ASBURY: You know, in terms of composition, or in terms of balance,
one of the big challenges of this sequence, and I think it was answered very well,
was to not just let the Smurfs be in cages,
- observing it all. - JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: They had to play an active role in trying to escape.
We wanted our Team Smurf to still, even Papa and Smurfwillow, to play a part,
so that it's not just, "Okay, Smurfette's gonna come save the day,"
and they're all helpless. They're not helpless characters.
I'm really pleased with how this turned out
because it does feel like, "Yeah, they tried their best."
- "They didn't give up." - JEFFORDS: For a long time, it was.
We just kept cutting to Smurfs in cages. It was just like, "Ugh, this is excruciating."
So, yeah, it was a good collaboration from the story team.
Again, Bryan Andrews, I think, brought quite a bit to the table...
ASBURY: Definitely.
JEFFORDS: ...coming up with a plan for them, besides just sitting around
and waiting their fate.
ASBURY: Yeah. And this was some of the last stuff.
This was after we had pretty much reached a point where,
"Look, we gotta come up with something here."
You and Bryan were working,
and working in editorial, and showing it to me,
and then we were showing it to Kristine Belson
and Tom Rothman and everyone,
and we finally crafted, after everyone, kind of, lobbed in their ideas,
we crafted something that I think is really fun and exciting,
but was not an easy-won battle, that's for sure.
JEFFORDS: Well, and I can tell layout did quite a bit there, too...
ASBURY: Definitely. JEFFORDS: ...with all of their...
Those great camera moves
to enhance that magic that he gets there.
ASBURY: Yeah. This was... This is our superhero moment for Smurfette.
I really love how brave she is, and self-sacrificing,
and the little twist, I believe that goes way back to...
Pamela Ribon always wanted this twist where
even the audience is not sure what Smurfette's up to.
- "Is she really gonna join Gargamel?" - JEFFORDS: Right.
ASBURY: It works. It is a little bit of a,
- "Hold on. What is she doing?" - JEFFORDS: Right.
ASBURY: And then you get it.
I'm really, really happy.
I keep saying I'm really, really happy. I am really, really happy.
- How can you not be? - HAWKINS: Yeah.
ASBURY: It's a Smurf movie.
HAWKINS: Gargamel's new outfit and his new hair.
ASBURY: Oh, yeah.
HAWKINS: Of course, that's the first thing he's gonna do when he gets his powers.
- ASBURY: Yeah, is grow hair. - (HAWKINS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: He wants powers and hair and bling.
HAWKINS: Yeah. His transformation scenes were so fun.
JEFFORDS: I love that line at the beginning, "Oh, look at me with hair."
ASBURY: (LAUGHS) Yeah.
Do we have a deal?
Smurfette, no!
Quiet, you vile blue rats. I'm thinking.
ASBURY: And the effects coming up here, I just...
The lighting in this,
and even back there, the little animation on the Smurfs in the centrifuge,
they're still alive and they're still moving around and they're watching,
and then this effect,
it's just fantastic.
HAWKINS: Yeah. It looks cartoony, but it's fitting in this...
The shape of that fire that's coming out, the power,
that's really awesome.
ASBURY: And there wasn't a lot of back-and-forth.
The effects department just sort of showed me things,
and I told them what was too much or too little,
but they came up with this great effect that I thought, you know, really...
It's unexpected, but it's so magical and it's so fun in a movie like this.
JEFFORDS: They are definitely the heroes of this part of the scene.
ASBURY: Yeah. Fantastic.
- We bring back Smurfboarding. - HAWKINS: Yeah.
ASBURY: I think this was Bryan that recalled this...
Then there are some more of the stars that we all like so much.
- (JEFFORDS LAUGHS) - HAWKINS: Very satisfying punch.
JEFFORDS: Monty getting his comeuppance. ASBURY: Yeah.
What I also think accidentally, from a filmmaking standpoint,
I mean, I wish I could take full credit for it,
but I didn't really notice it till after we were done,
is this section, sort of feels like, "Okay.
- "The Smurfs have won. The movie's over." - JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: And you have the comeuppance of the villain...
JEFFORDS: (LAUGHS) I love this. ASBURY: ...it's really fun.
ASBURY: So the villain has lost, and everyone's free, the spell is broken.
JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: I really think it's very successful how you feel like,
"Hey, okay. Well, now, we're gonna have our big finale scene."
JEFFORDS: Yeah. "We did it." ASBURY: Yeah.
And then this unexpected shock happens,
and I think what's really, storytelling-wise,
is you really don't know what they're gonna do now.
Like, is it true that we, you know...
I want the audience to think,
- "Have they killed off Smurfette?" - JEFFORDS: Right.
(HAWKINS LAUGHS)
ASBURY: Which, you know, we can't do, but how are we gonna get her back?
And it's a sad moment, and this song that's coming up
after Mandy Patinkin's great performance with Papa here,
which really tears your heart out.
And then, all these little moments,
Denise Koyama boarded this, and...
JEFFORDS: It's always a challenge in animation, right, to have a sad moment
and not have the audience go, "Well, it's an animated movie,
- "so it'll all work out." - ASBURY: Right. Yeah.
JEFFORDS: You have to let them guess.
They have to be in suspense, like, "What's going on?"
ASBURY: But we worked really hard on, you know, Papa tries to find a spell.
JEFFORDS: Oh, Mandy's performance is so wonderful here.
ASBURY: And he can't. JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: So, they are really without any answers at this point.
And I like that no one knows what's gonna happen here.
And then this song only punctuates the emotion in the very best way.
Chris Lennertz came up with the idea for this song
and played it for me privately because we weren't intending to have a song here.
JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: And he said, "I want you to hear it before anyone else."
I heard it one time,
and I said, "Chris, this has to be in the movie. It has to be."
JEFFORDS: You mentioned it to me and I completely forgot about it.
So, when I watched the movie for the first time, it just really hit me.
HAWKINS: I haven't heard it yet. It'll be a surprise.
ASBURY: Well, we ruined it for you. HAWKINS: Yeah.
(ALL LAUGH)
JEFFORDS: The lyrics, everything, are so powerful.
ASBURY: And this was a tough scene to come up with a ballad
because, you know, this kind of scene...
Look, it is an animated movie,
and we've seen characters come back to life
- in animated movies dating back to the '30s. - (JEFFORDS LAUGHS)
JEFFORDS: The funeral scene. ASBURY: The funeral scene,
but I think what's nice here is, the Smurfs themselves
don't really know the magnitude of their power together.
Now that they've joined hands,
and now that they have stated their love for Smurfette,
and Papa says, "She was the truest Smurf of all of us."
I think it's nice that they don't even know
what they can accomplish until they get together here.
And it feels acceptable.
I think it feels like, "Okay, this is a new spin on something that's been done a few times."
HAWKINS: Yeah.
JEFFORDS: And it's also an example of a scene
that didn't need a lot of dialogue.
ASBURY: No, it did not. JEFFORDS: It was purely visual.
ASBURY: The more dialogue we put, the more it felt like a funeral.
And we decided, you know, we can't really have a funeral.
But I think we hit the right notes here. I hope we did.
HAWKINS: I hadn't seen this one lit until just now, really.
The lighting is gorgeous.
ASBURY: Spectacular. The effects are spectacular.
HAWKINS: Mike Ford and his team,
they took all of the different pieces from all the departments
and put them together just right.
ASBURY: And Noelle Triaureau's color script for this movie was brilliant.
She really is brilliant. And it's come across.
JEFFORDS: Your idea here... (CHUCKLES) I think it's yours, Kelly, of Clumsy.
I saw this after you guys had an edit. It's perfect.
- To undercut such a serious scene. - ASBURY: Yeah. We wanted to undercut it.
We didn't want it to just be, you know, magic and happiness.
We thought,
- "No, let him not know what happens." - (ALL LAUGH)
HAWKINS: It's a good transition out of that. ASBURY: Right.
- It lifts you. - HAWKINS: Yeah. Yeah.
ASBURY: I think it also enhances the joy of the moment.
It's like, "Oh, my goodness. Look."
(GASPS)
You're all right!
HAWKINS: Lot of Smurfs in these scenes.
We've got everyone from both towns. It's a lot.
JEFFORDS: I didn't see any of this stuff, too. HAWKINS: Two hundred...
JEFFORDS: I love that Hefty picks her up
- and twirls her around. - ASBURY: Oh, really?
JEFFORDS: I don't know if you guys did that in animation, or what...
ASBURY: Oh, yeah, that was... JEFFORDS: ...but all that stuff.
Each character sort of gets their moment with Smurfette.
HAWKINS: Yeah.
JEFFORDS: And you save Papa for last.
ASBURY: And the lighting in this sequence, and this expression in this hug,
it's so sincere,
and I think sincerity is what this movie has going for it.
We never wink at the audience and say,
"Okay, you know, it's a smart alec little movie."
We really let these characters believe what was happening.
JEFFORDS: Yeah. HAWKINS: Yeah.
ASBURY: And now we get into the Meghan Trainor song, which is a very interesting...
This is a funny thing as a director to have to tell
because what happened here is,
we had a completely different way we were gonna end the movie.
We didn't really ever know exactly a strong way to get out of it.
We had these testimonials which we liked,
- but that was gonna be the end of it. - JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: And then, everyone said, "Kelly, people wanna see Smurfs dance.
"They wanna see Smurfs dance."
JEFFORDS: You fought it. ASBURY: I did fight it,
because almost every animated movie has a dance number.
Then Meghan Trainor wrote this song and we all fell in love with it.
We didn't have any storyboards for this.
I told the animation department, and, Alan, you can speak to this,
"Just take all these things and have Smurfs dancing to this click track
"and we'll get the song in later."
We built this sequence completely backwards.
It was all pretty much just thrown together as we went,
and it came together beautifully.
So, it just shows you what teamwork can do.
JEFFORDS: It's hard for me to point out what my favorite bit is in this.
I really love the running man, Scuba Smurf. (LAUGHING)
But all of this stuff is so fun.
ASBURY: And, Alan, you know, what was it like for you guys to just be told,
"You know what, go... Give me footage"?
- Just basically, "Give me footage." - HAWKINS: We had a lot of options.
Like you said, everyone had to work together very quickly
because this was towards the very end of the production, too,
and so, we gave, basically, a scene to almost every animator that we had at the time,
and said, "Come up with a fun, funny dance."
- We threw a lot of it at Bret in editorial. - ASBURY: Right. Yeah, Bret.
HAWKINS: He had to put it together and make it work.
ASBURY: Bret Marnell really did cut this as he went, and it was... I mean... (LAUGHS)
- It was really quite a pastiche of ideas. - HAWKINS: Yeah. And I mean...
The animators really came up with some great stuff that was fun.
ASBURY: Then we end up with our selfie. HAWKINS: Yup.
JEFFORDS: That's a combination of Denise and Jen Kluska, that last shot.
ASBURY: Yeah.
All of these little title cards were drawn by Brandon and me under duress.
(ALL LAUGH)
- Coming up with things over... - JEFFORDS: "More ideas! More! Now! Go!"
ASBURY: And then it came down to, "Okay, who gets what card?"
And then we had a title company come and take it
- and really turn it into something special... - JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: This movie was a lot of fun to make in the end.
We made it quickly,
but I don't think we could've done a better movie than what we ended up with.
I'm proud as I can be.
HAWKINS: Yeah. All the animators had a great experience. It was a lot of fun.
There's still one more scene. There's the big Gargamel walking,
which is, I think, one of the longest scenes we've ever animated,
- and it's thousands of frames long. - JEFFORDS: Oh, wow.
HAWKINS: The animators had to do that pretty quickly, but luckily, it's from behind,
so, it's all broad arm gestures and not a lot of face stuff.
But that walking over the hill that Gargamel does
is also a huge, and maybe a first, in terms of just how long it is,
which is a huge challenge for not just the animators and every other department,
but just the rendering alone on something so large is a big challenge, too.
JEFFORDS: I like, too, that we've, in this movie,
only touched a little bit upon the new village,
and it seems like there's more adventures out there that are...
ASBURY: Oh, yeah. JEFFORDS: You know?
ASBURY: I mean, yeah, there's a whole world to open up. I sort of feel like...
I look at it as, this is kind of, you know, a Smurf Tom Sawyer,
and now, we need a Smurf Huckleberry Finn, which opens the world up
because I always thought Huckleberry Finn is like the ultimate sequel.
JEFFORDS: Yeah.
ASBURY: It took the characters you love and gave them a bigger world to play in.
And if we ever do a sequel, I would want to look at it that way.
JEFFORDS: (LAUGHS) Some of these title cards I'm seeing for the first time.
- They're genius. - ASBURY: They're very well done.
HAWKINS: Yeah.
ASBURY: So, we'll just keep talking until we get to the Gargamel piece. (LAUGHS)
It's just gonna be banter now.
There's our cast. All of them did great.
I see my name, I see Brandon's name.
Sorry you didn't get a part, Alan.
HAWKINS: Next time. ASBURY: That's all right.
You know, we had an actress that worked with us on a lot of things,
Melissa Sturm, who really was...
She contributed a lot to the scratch dialogue, and we ended up...
She actually was a Smurf later. She played a huge role, don't you think?
JEFFORDS: Yeah. HAWKINS: Who is she?
Who did she end up as?
ASBURY: She's one of those girl Smurfs. I forgot exactly which one.
I forgot the exact name, but she's going places. I know that.
JEFFORDS: She's an extremely talented voice actress,
and she is almost always our go-to female character.
ASBURY: Yeah.
JEFFORDS: And so, she did the scratch track for Smurfette originally.
ASBURY: Yeah. So, it's...
Yeah, it all comes down to Melissa, I think. Most of the time.
- (ALL LAUGH) - ASBURY: Sorry.
She's gonna cut us. I don't know what to talk about.
Oh, wait, here we go. Here comes... Now, this...
This was just Rainn at the microphone going crazy.
Needless to say,
it's funny and we just used it.
And, Alan, this is the longest animation in the whole movie.
HAWKINS: Yeah. I mean... Maybe that we've...
Definitely in any Sony Pictures Animation movie,
there has never been a longer scene,
but maybe there's something else that Imageworks has done.
But I don't know. I'm kind of hard-pressed to think of anything that's longer.
I mean, this is thousands of frames long.
I think it's like a minute, or I don't know, but it was a lot of work to put together.
ASBURY: What's really funny about it is if you watch it though,
the characters still remain true.
Like, Azrael is still just sort of putting up with listening to Gargamel.
Gargamel is ranting.
And after all this adventure,
- Monty is just looking around for food... - (ALL LAUGH)
ASBURY: ...and just clueless to the whole thing.
HAWKINS: Yeah. Yeah.
ASBURY: And Gargamel's just going on and on.
It's was Rainn's idea to start pointing out pieces of the credits.
JEFFORDS: Yeah. HAWKINS: Did he have it
in front of him at the time?
ASBURY: He had a list of departments. HAWKINS: Ah, okay.
ASBURY: And so, we timed it out to where
Look Development ended up where it was supposed to be.
It was a lot of fun to get that to work.
JEFFORDS: Rainn was always good at that sort of improv.
If you remember, at the beginning, you had me playing Azrael,
and I actually had to say real things instead of "meows."
ASBURY: (LAUGHS) Right. JEFFORDS: So he could play against them.
- And that was a lot of fun. - ASBURY: It worked.
So, that wraps up our commentary. I hope everyone enjoyed it.
Alan Hawkins, Brandon Jeffords, and Kelly Asbury signing off.
JEFFORDS: Goodbye.