Jun 15, 2015

Are you ready to "get Smurfy-

Click to enlarge.

After its repeated delays, Sony Pictures Animation has decided the public is ready to take a wider look at its next Smurfs film, arriving March 31, 2017.

Directed by Kelly Asbury, Get Smurfy is the newly revealed title of Sony's fully-CGI Smurfs film, and features a separate cast from its live-action predecessors. Frozen hitmaker Demi Lovato plays Smurfette, while The Office's Rainn Wilson takes over for Gargamel from The Simpsons voice-over legend Hank Azaria who portrayed the hapless villain in the live-action films. Check out Sony's first-look images of the actors below.

That's about where Get Smurfy's twists end. The Princess Bride's Mandy Patinkin is on board as Papa Smurf in a wandering origin story about Smurfette and her brothers in search of “a fabled Smurfs village,” according to an announcement from Sony. Sony also suggested that those waiting for an answer to the eternal Smurfs question - “Why are there 99 boys and only one girl-” - may find one in Get Smurfy.

“We felt it was important to take a very different approach with this origin story,” said producer Jordan Kerner. “It returns to the roots of Peyo's creation.”

“The continued popularity of the Smurfs is unmistakeable, and this new outing will return them to the fully-animated world that launched them,” added Asbury, who also directed Gnomeo & Juliet and co-directed Shrek 2.