The Smurfs are back like never before, and they’re bringing a few familiar faces (and voices) along for the ride. In a film intended to reinvigorate the Smurfs franchise with a new visual style while staying true to Peyo’s original comics, director Chris Miller opened up about the creative challenges that came with trying to maintain that balance. “There were a couple of goals,” Miller told Blavity’s Shadow and Act during our cast interview. “For me, I wanted something because I hadn’t seen it, and it really spoke to me, the original DNA of those comics, right? Like, style, aesthetic, made into a contemporary way, like, it’s a comic, but it’s got volume.” “It’s beyond that, and always going back to that, and making sure that kind of looks like and feels like that and has that vibe. I tried to look at the movie like, OK, I want to treat this like the first Smurfs movie that’s ever been made. I know, generationally, there are so many examples, and I respect them all. I love them,...