00:01In the Smurfs' world, Azriel the cat is the sidekick of the villain Gargamel.
00:06Although with Azriel's attitude, he probably thinks of Gargamel as his sidekick.
00:17Three specially trained cats were used to play Azriel in the movie.
00:21Cheeto, Mr. Krinkle, and FG.
00:25Mr. Krinkle was the most featured cat during the shoot,
00:28so he was the one we used as reference for our digital Azriel.
00:33To allow the filmmakers to cut between the real cat and our digital version,
00:37we needed to match the real cat perfectly down to the smallest detail.
00:42Hundreds of reference photos and measurements were taken from every angle.
00:48Not only the look, but the body language had to feel like a real cat.
00:53Studying how a cat moves became the foundation for our animated character.
00:58Replicating a real cat was only the first step in the process.
01:02We needed Azriel to perform with personality and tons of attitude.
01:07This sequence is a typical mix of real cat and digital cat.
01:11Meow.
01:13Many of our shots involved animating Azriel's face on top of a real cat.
01:17In this shot, Mr. Krinkle was directed by his trainer to walk to the window and stop.
01:22At Sony Pictures Image Works, we match-move the real cat's performance
01:26in order to replace the face with an animated performance
01:29to make Azriel look suspicious, then surprised.
01:38I like this idea in the movie that family isn't defined by genetics.
01:43that the nuclear family that existed, you know, in the 50s and 60s,
01:49the, you know, mother, father and their kids and everything's happy.
01:53It doesn't really work like that so much anymore.
01:55And that the movie, the Smurfs sequel, Smurfs Duh,
02:00Duh.
02:00deals with these ideas that family is more about who owns and loves and cares about you.
02:10I like that theme.
02:12Yeah, and I love the fact that kids can easily walk away with the idea
02:19that it doesn't matter who you are or where you're from,
02:21but what matters is who you are on the inside.
02:24And, you know, that idea can actually get very complex as you become an adult.
02:27But I like that it's also a simple message that kids can take away.
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