This is the Smurfs' take on Charles Dickens' famous Christmas Carol. It was made 4 years ago and first let me say that regardless of what you think of the recent Smurf movies, but putting a 22-minute short film on the DVD as an extra is amazing with all the mediocre DVD extras that are usually included. So thumbs up for that. This little movie is, so far, the only directorial effort by Troy Quane. The protagonist in here is Grouchy (voiced by George Lopez) and he is obviously the perfect choice for the grumpy anti-Christmas character. There are more known names in the voice cast such as Fred Armisen, Anton Yelchin and Hank Azaria, who is Gargamel just like in the movies.
The best thing about this short film was probably that it had 2 styles of animation. Really nice idea to use the traditional one for the dream sequence. Everybody knew it was a dream or dream-like sequence anyway, so no point in trying to hide it. And there is also some nice heart in here. This story definitely works with Smurf characters. I must say I enjoyed the watch, liked the Christmas music and totally preferred this one to the Sleepy Hollow Smurf movie that came out a couple months later. Check out this little movie here during the upcoming holidays. If you like the Smurfs, you will not regret it. Thumbs up.
The best thing about this short film was probably that it had 2 styles of animation. Really nice idea to use the traditional one for the dream sequence. Everybody knew it was a dream or dream-like sequence anyway, so no point in trying to hide it. And there is also some nice heart in here. This story definitely works with Smurf characters. I must say I enjoyed the watch, liked the Christmas music and totally preferred this one to the Sleepy Hollow Smurf movie that came out a couple months later. Check out this little movie here during the upcoming holidays. If you like the Smurfs, you will not regret it. Thumbs up.