After Sony’s The Smurfs made a great total of $563 million at the world box office a year ago, they waited a grand total of 12 days just before green lighting a follow up.  The studio has launched an official logo for the follow up, titled The Smurfs 2, but there was another amazing Smurf-related progress.  Apparently, Sony has plenty of confidence in their sequel writers Karey Kirkpatrick and Chris Poche, that they’re now offering the go-ahead on The Smurfs 3. Given that the production of The Smurfs 2 is already ongoing with much of the original cast coming back (plus a few new faces), things must be coming along quite properly.




Raja Gosnell, who helmed the first Smurfs movie, comes back as director for the follow up which also stars Sofia Vergara, Jonathan Winters, Alan Cumming, Fred Armisen, George Lopez, Anton Yelchin and John Oliver. The Smurfs 2 is scheduled for release on July 31st, 2013. 

Sony and Columbia Pictures are creating a script for The Smurfs 3 with sequel scribes, Kirkpatrick and Poche.  The couple, who in the past worked together on Over the Hedge and Flakes, will draft up a new journey for the little blue creatures, themselves original creations of Belgian comic strip artist, Peyo.  Kirkpatrick has a long list of kid-friendly fare, including James and the Giant Peach, Chicken Run, Charlotte’s Web and The Spiderwick Chronicles. For the sequel at least, new cast additions include J.B. Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm) as the “naughty” Smurf, Hackus and Christina Ricci (Sleepy Hollow) as Vexy, an evil version of the lovely Smurfette (Katy Perry).


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 Arriving June 7 to Disney XD is Tron: Uprising a midquel cartoon that happens between the first Tron film and the 2nd Tron: Legacy. The show is concerning Beck a young program who turns into a revolutionary leader in The Grid in opposition to the evil forces of General Tesler, oppressor of free systems. The legendary Tron, a program who fights for the users, educates Beck to turn into the following hero of the system if the young program can upgrade past impulsiveness to maturity. Elijah Wood will voice Beck with Bruce Boxleitner reprising his Tron role.


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Here’s a look at some new release dates of cartoon features:

    Escape from Planet Earth, featuring the voices of Sarah Jessica Parker, Jessica Alba, Brendan Fraser, James Gandolfini, Craig Robinson and Rob Corddry opens February 14th, 2013.
    Leo the Lion arrives at August 20th, 2013.
    The Trick of Treaters debuts in time for Halloween on October 25th, 2013.
    In another animated holiday feature, Santapprentice will follow up with a December 6th, 2013 release date.

Here’s the summary for the animated movie:

 Leo the Lion stars a vegetarian lion who is throw out by his fellow felines.  

The Trick or Treaters follows a gang of villains stealing from country folks until they’re charmed by an orphan girl.  

Santapprentice shows of the tale of orphan chosen to replace a retiring Santa Claus.

 Escape from Planet Earth: Gary, a friendly alien and failed inventor from Planet Baab travels to earth to find his wife and daughter who crashed while on the way to an intergalactic gymnastics meet.  Upon his arrival, Gary is captured by humans and sent to the secret alien prison known as “Area 51.”  Gary makes friends with a rag tag hilarious group of fellow alien inmates and plots the greatest jailbreak in the history of the universe, all the while, distracting his human captors with wild and crazy inventions and resisting oddball brainwashing.  Will Gary and the other aliens escape Area 51?  Will he find his family again and return safely to planet Baab?  Only time and one amazing adventure will tell!


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Cartoon Network is presenting the latest series Beware the Batman in 2013 to substitute Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which  was broadcast over the last year.  Beware the Batman will have some fun with the classic myth.  Robin is more or less substituted by the lady samurai Katana.  Alfred will carry out a more dynamic role as an ex-secret agent.  And they are going to the deep bench for the bad guys, like Anarky, Professor Pyg, Mister Toad, King Kraken, and Magpie.


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