Smurfs - in Prospect Park??

Since we didn't go to the park today - avoiding the anti-West Nile poisons sprayed all over last night, - I decided to visit the cinematic Prospect Park. A while ago (May 13, 2010), I blogged about seeing the set for the new Smurf movie at the Boathouse and waterfall, and said I'd probably have to go see it, even though I expected to hate the movie. Well, the Park scenes looked beautiful and the movie wasn't that bad - good news. Of course, the film has relocated the Boathouse, waterfall, etc. to Central Park!!

I had no idea what parts of the film were being made last May. No movie people around during off-leash hours, just people guarding and protecting the scenery. They had put lots of potted flowers and plants around, cleaned the place up, and it did look nice. The Boathouse turned out not to be the cafe I had thought, but a perfume launch. sort of. The PP scenes are at the very beginning and end. Smurfs arrive through a hole in the waterfall, but then they climb up on rocks, and there is Manhattan! What bothered me is that they don't mention PP at all in the half hour of credits at the end of the movie.

The movie? Good wins over evil, Clumsy Smurf becomes Hero Smurf, and there are lots of famous Manhattanites at the Boat House party (Doogie Hauser, Tim Gunn, Liz Smith, Sofia Vergara [from modern Family], others I recognized but couldn't remember the names.)

I first became aware of Smurfs in Virginia in the early 80's, when we lived without any television. My cousin gave Smurf figures to to children. I was impressed with the androgyny, and the lack of extreme gender roles. Then she told me, no, they're all male except for the 1 Smurfette, who dresses like a slut. I was so glad we didn't have TV. But the Smurfs did not fade away, and they have come up with an explanation of 1 female is all you get. Anyway, Prospect Park looked fantastic.