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Topic: Character Development & Designs for Smurfs Movie 2025 (+++ smurfy secrets!)
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 01:02 PM
Smurfette by Artist Gabby Zapata, Margaret Wuller, Tristan Poulain, Paulette Emerson
Paramount Animation
Gabby Zapata is a character designer & visual development artist in the animation industry who worked on the Smurfs Movie (2025). She focused on main and secondary character designs, costume design, character surfacing, poses, turnarounds and packaging handouts.
Gabby helped visualize what Smurfette, Ken, Ron, Moxie, Razamel, Gargamel, Azrael, Grimoire Books, Jaunty, Joel and more characters would look like for the film. She even shares some characters that were cut from the movie. Learn about the process, enjoy some amazing artwork and find out some smurfy secrets about the 2025 Smurfs Movie!
Smurfy Highlights:
Smurfette's Hairstyles
Ken's Tattoo Designs
Ron's Sheild Details
Razamel's Bad Haircut
Joel's Outfit Explorations
Azrael's Turnaround
Gargamel's Construction
Grimoire Books Options
International Smurfs Costumes
Moxie's Facial Expressions
The Smurfs Movie Cut Characters
And More!
(Note - You can click on each image below to enlarge it to see all of the details!)
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 04:02 PM
SMURFETTE VISUAL DEVELOPMENT
Growing up watching the Smurfs in Spanish, “Los Pitufos”, on a Saturday morning, never did I imagine to be working on such a legacy show as an adult. Being able to play with so many beloved characters was such a core memory that it’ll never forget.
I was brought early on before prepro to help visualize what our girl Smurfette would look like for this film. At the time, we were exploring a variety of different styles- so many to even count- and before I knew who our star would be, I was taking guesses to see who would play her.
Smurfette Explorations - Body Shapes & Hairstyles
Smurfette Explorations - Costume, Styles & Silhouettes
In the end, Rihanna loved the classic legacy look of Smurfette with a few magic touches that we’ve added to freshen her up. We also wanted to honor Peyo, the creator, by keeping many elements of her style and appeal while adding a few modern twists here and there.
A lot of the shape language that was built into the smurfs, was including Peyo's signature brush strokes in his comic book style. That was an important element we wanted to bring into all of their designs.
To help our other designers down the pipeline, we created guides to show the specificity of each stroke- down to the tapering of the tip!
Smurfette Hair Lines Styles
We also had to make sure that every angle, she looked appealing as she did in her Peyo comic book style. You'd imagine it would be such a simple task, but in reality there were so many layers to her hair construction- that it required a lot of visualization to make it happen!
Smurfette Hair Without Hat Structure
Because this was a hybrid show, we had to think about how her hair worked in movement and how each layer of her hair would animate. My favorite was calling them lasagna slices to describe each layer, haha.
Smurfette Hair Breakdown
So much went into her hair construction and function that, it’s where I spent the majority of my efforts on. Translating an original 2D hair design had its challenges, and lots of tricks were used to make her classic hairstyle remain the same in a 3D world for every angle you see her in. It was definitely a team effort between Paulette & Tristan and I to make her come to life!
The team at Cinesite also did such an amazing job at translating our work into her final look!
By Gabby Zapata for Paramount Animation
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 04:03 PM
SMURFETTE DRESS DEVELOPMENT
Smurfette Dress Inspiration - 60's Era
Smurfette Dress Inspiration - Avant Garde
Smurfette Dress Inspiration - Mushroom
When we were working on her dress, we explored various different styles, including going more avant garde. We looked at the era in which Peyo was created and tried to hone in on the 60's era with the simple shapes with fun patterns.
We looked into a lot of organic shapes that are within the Smurf world to help shape her dress. The shape of her dress ended up being inspired by the way mushrooms look on the bottom, by making a fun balloon-shaped bubble and realized this was the way to go for her outfit. Figuring out how it mechanically worked, was also a challenge, but since this film was a hybrid in terms of style, anything could happen!
Smurfette Surfacing Call-Outs
By Gabby Zapata for Paramount Animation
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 04:04 PM
SMURFETTE HAIR OPTIONS
Before we landed on her final hair, I must have designed over 100 hairstyles & colors! We tried to look at all the hairstyles Rihanna has done over the years to see if we could somehow incorporate it into our modern day Smurfette. But as I mentioned earlier, we ended up mostly honoring her classic look to make our viewers appreciate the classic Peyo style.
Smurfette - All Hair Options
We tried to incorporate Peyo's signature squiggle throughout her hair and we found it was challenging in so many ways because it would have to be adjusted for every angle.
There are a lot of animation tricks done, by the talented team at Cinesite, that were done to help make her design possible
For a very close second, she almost had a cute little side pony tail that I thought was super fun and fresh for her! But we realized making it appealing on every angle would be a big challenge and decided on her fluffy hairstyle instead
Smurfette Hair Options (Top 2 Favorites)
Smurfette Hair Back Detail Options
By Gabby Zapata for Paramount Animation
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 04:05 PM
NEW ADDITIONS TO THE SMURF FAMILY
KEN & RON
The Smurfs Movie: Papa Smurf's Brothers - Ken & Ron
Let’s talk about Ken (top) & Ron (bottom)!
These were a fun new addition to add to the Smurf family. There were many iterations but we still wanted to keep them very similar to Papa Smurf since they’re all brothers in this film. I had lots of fun exploring! These were just a few poses exploring their personality since they’re more on the tough side.
Ken voiced by Nick Offerman
Ron voiced by Kurt Russell
The Smurfs Movie: Ron - Early Concepts
The Smurfs Movie: Ron - Surfacing Details
The Smurfs Movie: Ron - Poses
The Smurfs Movie: Ken - Surfacing
The Smurfs Movie: Ken - Poses & Expressions
The Smurfs Movie: Ken - Various Arm Tattoos
The Smurfs Movie: Ken - Orthos Notes
The Smurfs Movie: Ken - Beard
By Gabby Zapata for Paramount Animation
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 04:07 PM
GARGAMEL & AZRAEL
The Smurfs Movie: Gargamel Hair Details
The Smurfs Movie: Azrael Surfacing Packing
The Smurfs Movie: Azrael Turnaround
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 04:07 PM
TURTLE
The Smurfs Movie: Turtle Turnaround
The Smurfs Movie: Turtle Details
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 04:08 PM
BABY JAUNTY
Meet baby Jaunty! One of the 4 (used to be 5) grimoire books in the story. After I left, baby Jaunty changed a little bit in the script. He used to be a boy but then they got a different voice actor to play the role. So lashes were added after I left
The Smurfs Movie: Baby Jaunty
Baby Jaunty was shown in a short sequence. Long before, Jaunty had a bigger role and we were able to see more of him up close with all the cool magical glow and whatnot. My role for him was create packaging for the other departments to have. He was designed by my fellow talented artist friend, Tristan Poulain and the trim details were done by Chloe Bristol. Both incredibly talented artists!
Then comes older version of Jaunty! The magical grimoire book that Razamel was looking for in the film. Texturing him was so fun and figuring out the material call-outs are always fascinating to me. Some find it tedious work, but I like to learn all different types of materials and textures that exist out there.
In his design, we continued to call out Peyo-inspired details like his mark-making in comics and signature squiggles. I would try to see where I could sprinkle that in into his design.
JAUNTY
The Smurfs Movie: Jaunty Details
The Smurfs Movie: Jaunty Possession Stages
By Gabby Zapata for Paramount Animation
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 04:09 PM
GRIMOIRE BOOKS
Going back to the grimoire books, there used to be a total of 5. There was an initial joke that one of the owners/wizards was Ben Affleck, haha. But that didn’t work out. It was still fun to put that in there!
The Smurfs Movie: WIP Grimoire Books
The Smurfs Movie: Grimoire Books Evil Face Options
During the end of the film, the books end up possessed in Razamel’s final evil plan. So I had to explore different ways of how they would look like. I must have done over 20 different variations of them! These were top contenders.
The Smurfs Movie: Grimoire Books Zombies
In the end, this is how they ended up becoming! We wanted to keep their top engraved details to be able to tell which book was what.
The Smurfs Movie: Grimoire Books Orthos
The Smurfs Movie: Grimoire Books Dancing
The Smurfs Movie: Razamel Skateboard
There is a funny sequence when Razamel tries to exit the building once he possessed Jaunty and I was tasked to figure out how he would get on the book. I believe B was the one that was chosen
By Gabby Zapata for Paramount Animation
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 04:10 PM
RAZAMEL
The Smurfs Movie: Razamel Bad Hair Cut
The Smurfs Movie: Razamel Details
The Smurfs Movie: Razamel Shoes
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Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 04:11 PM
JOEL
The Smurfs Movie: Joel Hair
The Smurfs Movie: Joel Outfit Explorations
The Smurfs Movie: Joel Costume
The Smurfs Movie: Joel Watch & Headset
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Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 04:13 PM
INTERDIMENSIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH SMURFS & MOXIE
The Smurfs Movie: Neighborhood Watch Smurfs
The Smurfs Movie: International Smurfs
The Smurfs Movie: Interdimensional Neighborhood Watch Smurfs Call-Outs
The Smurfs Movie: Moxie - Expressions
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Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 04:15 PM
CUT CHARACTERS - BEAST MAN & PANTHERA
Below, is a couple characters that got cut in an earlier script. They were incredibly challenging, but I loved the opportunity I had with them!
The Smurfs Movie: Beast Man
Tristan also designed this super cool robot. My task was to texturize him! Turns out painting chrome is not as easy as it seems, haha. For me at least. There was a specific style that our PD was looking for and so pulling reference images from the classic 80’s airbrushed metal was the best way to show what we wanted for this character. He originally showed up in the intro sequence along with this robot panther below.
The Smurfs Movie: Panthera
I had the challenge to design him and figure out his mechanics. He was also cut from the film, haha. But that’s okay because I designed something out of my norm and that was exciting for me. I had to think about the materials, how would it bend, run, joint placements, etc. Learned a lot about mechanisms and all kinds of hinges!
The Smurfs Movie: Panthera
The Smurfs Movie: Panthera Concepts
The Smurfs Movie: Panthera Update
By Gabby Zapata for Paramount Animation
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 04:51 PM
DRAGON
The Smurfs: Portal Dragon
The Smurfs: Portal Dragon Details
The Smurfs: Portal Dragon Expressions
The Smurfs: Portal Dragon Design Options
The Smurfs: Portal Dragon Color Options
Let’s talk about a dragon! This dragon I designed used to have a longer screen time sequence. Unfortunately, as things needed to get trimmed/edited down, it got shown in one shot for a split second, haha!
If you watch the film, I challenge you to tell me where this dragon shows up on screen blink and you’ll miss it!
She was a lot of fun to design, for someone that draws cute things haha. We had to make sure all designs fit within the Peyo world, so it was cool to play around with various designs of what the dragon could look like. She had a larger role for a second and we had to make a few expressions and poses etc.
By Gabby Zapata for Paramount Animation
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 05:09 PM
MAMA POOT
The Smurfs: Mama Poot
The Smurfs: Mama Poot - Crystals
The Smurfs: Mama Poot - Accessory Options
The Smurfs: Mama Poot - Costume Action Reveal
Let’s talk about, MamaPoot! The Queen of snooterpoots. She was designed by Tristan Poulain and packaging/costume done by me!
Snooterpoots were such a quirky fun character creatures for the Smurfs film. They resemble a bit like cute little pugs.
Since she lived in the caves, we were exploring how she was as a character. Did she collect gems? Did she wear a costume? Disguises?
We played with the idea that maybe we wouldn’t know what or who she was when the Smurfs met her, More mysterious sort of speak.
At some point, we toyed with the idea that she had a googly eye as a third eye as a form of being like some sort of trickster which I thought was hilarious. Last slide shows the action of that, haha. You would see her googly eye first, then slowly reveal she was faking it as a form of disguise.
There was also a bit of snooterpoots collecting various things from things they’ve found. So I tried adding gems from the caves as a form of costume for MamaPoot which I thought was cool addition to reflect off of where she lived. She’s played by Natasha Lyonne which I thought had a very fitting voice for her!
By Gabby Zapata for Paramount Animation
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-03-2026 05:14 PM
SMURFETTE FINALE DRESS
The Smurfs Movie: Smurfette Finale
The Smurfs Movie: Smurfette Daisy Dress
By Gabby Zapata for Paramount Animation
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Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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cloverrr74
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posted 10-03-2026 07:49 PM
Oooh, thank you so much for posting these! It's been so much fun seeing more and more concept art of this movie come out online. Gabby Zapata, along with Tristan Poulain, did a fantastic job with the visual development. Zapata's mod-inspired Smurfette is absolutely adorable and Poulain's warm-up drawings of the cast (not seen here) have been huge inspirations for me since originally seeing them. If anyone's hungry for more, James Schauf and Paulette Emerson have more goodies listed on their Artstations, and are well worth a look!
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Biggest, most unapologetic fan of Joel and Smurfs (2025) <3
Posts: 6 | From: A spooky castle in the outskirts of Munich | Registered: Sep 2026
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Smurfy1For2
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posted 10-04-2026 09:41 PM
This is great!!
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u wished u rocked as i
Posts: 2012 | From: Fairfield, VA | Registered: Nov 2005
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cloverrr74
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posted 10-05-2026 07:26 AM
Chloe Bristol also posted some concept art! A really nice illustration of the outskirts of Smurf Village, along with some edits that imply it's connected to the unused "Beast Man" character, and some more takes on the books and Gargle and Raz's parents.
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Biggest, most unapologetic fan of Joel and Smurfs (2025) <3
Posts: 6 | From: A spooky castle in the outskirts of Munich | Registered: Sep 2026
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Sassette
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posted 10-05-2026 06:00 PM
Smurfaroo!!! Thanks for sharing more from the talented artists that worked on the Smurfs Movie! I love seeing all that goes into developing the characters to create the visual story. It's such a treat to see!
And now for some smurfy environments from the Smurfs Movie Universe...
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-05-2026 06:00 PM
SMURF MOVIE ENVIRONMENTS
I was very fortunate enough to have had the chance to develop a lot of the environments within the Smurfs universe! My first task, was to work with my PD Max Boas and AD Margaret Wuller to develop the look of picture for the film! It was a very gratifying experience!
By Angie Duran for Paramount Animation
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-05-2026 06:01 PM
DISCO CLUB LOUNGE
Disco club lounge I designed for when the Smurfs come face to face with Papa Smurf’s brother… Ken. It was a really fun challenge to mix the Peyo style with more sleek chrome materials. We were aiming for a cool and calm environment that’s completely different from the colorful village that the Smurfs know and love.
By Angie Duran for Paramount Animation
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-05-2026 06:02 PM
RAZAMEL'S MASTER BEDROOM
A look into the evil Razamel’s master bedroom. It was fun to get to mix modern and medieval styles and to figure out how this man lives.
By Angie Duran for Paramount Animation
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-05-2026 06:03 PM
TORTURE TABLE
By Angie Duran for Paramount Animation
*** Note - no smurfs were actually harmed during the making of this film
![[Wink]](/ubb/wink.gif)
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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Sassette
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posted 10-05-2026 06:03 PM
SNOOTERPOOT VILLAGE
This was the assignment I had the most fun with! I was in charge of designing the Snooterpoot Village! Originally, it was proposed that they mine the underground cavern, where they live, for magic, candy-like stones. I had to figure out how they maneuver through their environment and how they play through the landscape.
By Angie Duran for Paramount Animation
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Have a smurfy day!
Posts: 5120 | From: Smurfingland | Registered: Jul 1999
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