The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow

The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow  is a direct-to-video American animated comedy adventure short film based on The Smurfs comic book series created by the Belgian comics artist Peyo. A sequel to The Smurfs 2 (2013), the short was written by Todd Berger and directed by Stephan Franck, and it stars the voices of Melissa Sturm, Fred Armisen, Anton Yelchin and Hank Azaria. The film was produced by Sony Pictures Animation with the animation by Sony Pictures Imageworks and Duck Studios. The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow was released on DVD on September 10, 2013. The film is loosely based on Washington Irving's 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

Plot
As the story begins, Clumsy, Hefty, and Panicky (voiced by Anton Yelchin, Gary Basaraba and Adam Wylie) are out in the forest at night with a cart full of smurfberries that has a broken wheel. Unable to fix the wheel, the three of them sit together around a campfire roasting smurfberries when Clumsy has the idea of telling a ghost story to pass the time. Narrator (voiced by Tom Kane) then joins the three Smurfs to tell his own kind of ghost story.

In Narrator's story, the Smurfs gather around for Papa Smurf (voiced by Jack Angel) to announce the Smurfberry Harvest contest in which the Smurfs who collect the most smurfberries will be awarded a medal. Brainy (voiced By Fred Armisen) shows up at the gathering wearing multiple medals that he has won in the past nine years, gloating about how he's going to win this year's medal as well. As the Smurfs collect their buckets and then go out into the forest to pick smurfberries, Gutsy (voiced by Alan Cumming) follows Brainy to find out where he's been getting all the smurfberries for winning the contest. He discovers that it is in a place called Smurfy Hollow, an area where the legendary Headless Horseman resides, where there is a secret patch of smurfberries growing plentifully. Gutsy decides to give Brainy a scare by creating a shadow figure of the Headless Horseman, which sends the bespectacled Smurf running in fear. However, while Gutsy uses this opportunity to collect the smurfberries in the secret patch, Brainy finds himself walking into a trap set up by the evil wizard Gargamel (voiced by Hank Azaria).

By the time the contest ends and the Smurfs have appeared with their buckets for Papa Smurf to judge the winner, Gutsy shows up with a bucket overloaded with smurfberries and thus is declared the winner. However, Suspicious Smurf begins to wonder where Brainy is, since he hasn't shown up with his bucket of smurfberries. Realizing that he may be found out for cheating, Gutsy goes out into the forest alone to find Brainy, but is soon joined by Smurfette (voiced by Melissa Sturm), who finds out from Gutsy that Brainy is in Smurfy Hollow. They both go together and find Brainy in a cage trap set up by Gargamel, only to soon join him in cage traps of their own. Azrael (voiced by Frank Welker), who was prowling the forest by himself, is soon alerted to the Smurfs' presence and goes to get his master to inform him of the captured Smurfs.

Gutsy, Brainy, and Smurfette work on a plan to get themselves out of their cages, and soon Gutsy swings his cage repeatedly until it bumps into Brainy's, which then bumps into Smurfette's, and the cages continue to bump into each other until Gutsy's and Brainy's cages break, freeing them. However, Smurfette is still stuck in her cage, and Gutsy and Brainy try to figure out how to get her out of there when Gargamel appears with Azrael, and so they go into hiding while the evil wizard opens the cage to deal with the one Smurf that is still captured.

But soon the five of them have a new problem to deal with—the presence of the Headless Horseman, who rides around looking for his next victims. They start running for their lives toward the covered bridge, which legends say is the only thing that keeps the Headless Horseman trapped in Smurfy Hollow. But as the Smurfs see that they would not get to the covered bridge in time to escape from the Headless Horseman, they hitch a ride on the back of a bat and fly to the top of the covered bridge, safe from the spectral rider's grasp. Gargamel and Azrael soon reach the bridge that the Headless Horseman cannot pass through, and safe inside the bridge, the evil wizard taunts the ghost, who then responds by throwing a flaming pumpkin that causes the floor beneath him and his cat to break, sending them down the river and over the waterfalls.

With the three Smurfs returning safely home, Gutsy and Brainy begin to apologize to each other for what they did, with Gutsy admitting that he was jealous about Brainy always winning and Brainy admitting that he was selfish in keeping the secret patch of smurfberries all to himself. Glad to see that two of his little Smurfs have learned their lesson, Papa Smurf proceeds to reward Gutsy with the medal, but Gutsy decides to give it to Brainy instead, who then insists that Gutsy should have it, and so the two Smurfs fight over who should get the medal when it flies out of their hands and lands looped around Lazy's neck, thereby declaring him to be the winner. As the Smurfs gather around the stage to see Gutsy and Brainy dance with each other, Papa Smurf goes out into the forest to thank the Headless Horseman, who turns out to be a goat that he used his magic on to make him appear as a ghost.

With Narrator Smurf's ghost story now over, Hefty claims that he wasn't scared, but finds himself jumping into Narrator Smurf's arms at the sound of a bat screeching. Clumsy sees that they are now surrounded by bats, which scares all four Smurfs and sends them running back to the village.

Voice cast

 * Fred Armisen as Brainy Smurf
 * Melissa Sturm as Smurfette
 * Jack Angel as Papa Smurf
 * Alan Cumming as Gutsy Smurf
 * Anton Yelchin as Clumsy Smurf
 * Hank Azaria as Gargamel
 * Tom Kane as Narrator Smurf
 * John Oliver as Vanity Smurf
 * Gary Basaraba as Hefty Smurf
 * Adam Wylie as Panicky Smurf
 * Frank Welker as Azrael

Release
The film premiered on June 11, 2013 at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. The film was released on DVD on September 10, 2013. ABC Family aired the network television premiere of the film on October 27, 2013.

Critical response
The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow was met with positive reviews from critics. Greg Ehrbar of Indie Wire gave the film a positive review, saying "The CG animation in the bookend sequences certainly looks as rich and detailed as they did in the last Smurf feature (and most likely were made from elements carried over from that production into this one)."