CANCUN: Popular actress and recording artiste Demi Lovato will lend her voice to play the bubbly Smurfette in Get Smurfy, an upcoming computer animated feature from Sony Pictures Animation.

This was announced today at Summer of Sony Pictures, a week-long film event currently taking place in Cancun, Mexico, until Thursday.

The day also coincides with Global Smurfs Day celebration.

Get Smurfy will see the original vision from the Smurfs creator Peyo (Pierre Culliford) translated to the big screen.

It will be directed by Kelly Ashbury (Shrek 2, Gnomeo and Juliet) and is scheduled to be released in March 2017.

“The continued popularity of the Smurfs is unmistakable and this new outing will return them to the fully animated world that launched them,” Ashbury said.

Get Smurfy will be produced by Jordan Kerner.

“We felt it was important to take a very different approach with this origin story. It returns to the roots of Peyo’s creation in this CG (computer-generated) animated adventure,” Kerner said.

“I hope it will delight not only fans but audiences worldwide. We couldn’t be more excited with the talented new cast we’re starting to assemble for our Smurfy reboot! We have gathered a group of film-makers and artistes who have grown up with these lovable characters and Get Smurfy will be imbued with the same spirit of adventure that first made all of us lifelong fans of these little blue guys… and a girl,” Kerner continued.

Joining Lovato to play characters in the animation are Rainn Wilson as the villain Gargamel and Mandy Patinkin as Papa Smurf.

The Smurfs universe first came to life in Peyo’s comic books in 1958. It was made into a popular animated TV series (1981-1990) and later adapted into a live-action feature The Smurfs (2011) starring Neil Patrick Harris and Hank Azaria.

It spawned a sequel The Smurfs 2 (2013). To get more updates on Summer of Sony Pictures, follow the writer at Twitter @journoguy.

-www.nst.com.my