Call him Dr. Horrible or Barry Stinson from HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER all you want - - Neil Patrick Harris will always be Doogie Howser to me. The forever- teenage doctor will soon be smurfing with a vengeance, as Deadline reports that he’ll be starring in a big screen feature about the Smurfs for Sony. Apparently, he won’t be getting spray-painted blue to play Brainy Smurf, though. He’ll just be a normal dude in this mix of live-action and CG-animation to be directed by SCOOBY DOO-helmer, Raja Gosnell.
It’s been many years since the Smurfs have made any appearance on screen, so it behooves me to explain what the Smurfs are to young-ins. They’re a society of tiny, gnome-like creatures with blue skin who live in mushroom stalks and are constantly on the run from the evil, gold-lusting wizard Gargamel. Their patriarch is the red-capped Papa Smurf, most of their names are just adjectives like Brainy & Brawny and there’s only one female in their entire community - - Smurfette (figure out how that works). Oh, and they have a tendency to replace verbs with the word “Smurf” - - leading to a history of snarky jokes about pseudo-swearing.
They started off as a comic strip by Belgian artist Peyo, but are best known for their cartoon series from the 80s. It’s a bit of, dare I say, “retrojunk”… so I’ll show you the opener for that show…
Watching that again, after so many years, I’m reminded of my urge to eat the Smurfs. It all has to do with going to this ice-cream shoppe one day that had a special blueberry-flavored milk shake called the Smurf Shake. Ever since then, I’ve just wanted to eat them. EAT THEM! Am I alone, here, oh blue-skinned Comic Vine community?
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia Comics. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com.