Puss In Boots New The Smurfs Movie in Director

Oscar nominated director Chris Miller (Puss in Boots) has signed on to direct the new 2024 Smurfs musical movie for Paramount and Nickelodeon. Puss in Boots filmmaker Chris Miller will direct the upcoming Smurfs musical movie. Previously, Sony Pictures Animation released three Smurfs movies from 2011 to 2017, all of which received mixed responses from audiences and critics. Later, however, Nickelodeon acquired the global rights to the Smurfs IP and announced that it would team with LAFIG Belgium and IMPS to produce multiple films within the franchise. A Smurfs musical movie, tentatively scheduled to release on December 20, 2024, is the first project happening under the new deal. Now, THR reports that Oscar nominated director Miller has signed on to helm the Smurfs musical movie for Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation. Miller, who also previously directed Shrek the Third, will work off a screenplay by South Park’s Pam Brady.

Miller’s experience with animated features like the Shrek movies positions him as an ideal candidate for directing the new Smurfs. Since the new film will altogether be a different production than the Sony movies, Miller can freely exercise his creative liberties to develop a Smurfs project that is both endearing and mindful of its source material. The previous movies were critically panned, but now, Miller has the opportunity to redeem the franchise’s cinematic reputation and deliver a charming new Smurfs musical movie that is reminiscent of the original comics. This, however, is only possible if studio interference is limited and the right resources are allocated to the film on time.

Puss In Boots 2 Looks So Different To Shrek With a focus on stylized storybook action over realism, the Shrek spinoff’s sequel recalls Arcane: League of Legends and the Spider-Verse before it. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, long-delayed by executive and parent company shakeups at DreamWorks, is set to open September 23, looks surprisingly different to Shrek. However, in so doing, its release will follow and expand on a greater industry trend. In the time that has passed since the original’s 2011 release (and the introduction of the titular feline in 2004’s Shrek 2), much has changed in the animation industry. In particular, the visual styles of these films have been slowly altered and modified, following a now-established pattern in the genre.

The film’s recently released trailer, 2.5D stylized animation is heavily featured. 2.5D stylized animation, unlike the more realistic style that past animated films (including the previous Shrek films) have utilized, evokes a choppy and illustrated feel straight out of a comic book or a painting. As a result, characters, backgrounds and objects are shaded in a two-dimensional sheen, with frames dropped and smoothed out to accentuate the stylization. For a series like Shrek and its Puss in Boots spinoffs, which have run for over 20 years, such a stylistic refresh makes sense. However, it is not the first series or franchise to test these waters.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was released in 2018, the trend it set for animated films with the 2.5D style was unmistakable. With Spider-Verse’s comic book stylings and multiversal chaos, it only made sense for it to evoke the style, eschewing the more polished MCU Spidey films for something more comic-accurate. Leaping off the pages of a comic book and putting the various Spider-People in the film worked for it, and the guidebook for using that style or a variation on it was set for several franchises. Similarly, as they have progressed, the Shrek series and its Puss in Boots counterpart have boasted an offbeat and fractured take on the fairy tale genre. By following the 2.5D wave, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish could take the Shrek series to the next level, employing a successful brand of highly stylized, yet appropriate action and restoring some of the movies’ anarchic and energetic tendencies. The move to 2.5D ultimately explains why Puss in Boots: The Last Wish looks so distinct, and also why it could herald a return to form for the franchise.