I first spoke with Chris Miller in 2011 for the release of his Academy Award nominated DreamWorks feature Puss in Boots. He returns to the animation director’s chair for Paramount’s new Smurfs, which is now playing in theaters nationwide. Just a few hours after I saw the film, we reconnected for a conversation about how working on this adventure ‘blue’ him away. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: It’s rare for me to talk to the director of an animated movie actually on opening day. What is going through your mind here on opening day?

Chris Miller: Just mantras of calmness and positivity. Obviously it is surreal. I think that’s probably the most obvious statement to make. But I feel good. I’m proud of the movie. I’m excited that audiences can now go to a theater, like you did a few hours ago, and experience the movie. That’s why I make movies. It’s to create a connection with an audience. So we’ll see how it rolls out. I’m excited.

JM: It turned out fun. I enjoyed it. I think lots of families will as well. And why do you think that generation after generation, for families and for animation storytellers, there has been this fascination with the Smurfs?

CM: I have learned so much since starting this three years ago. You just hit on it, generational connections to these little blue woodland creatures. They don’t wear shirts, they only wear pants and they got hats. (laughs) And it’s pretty insane. I grew up on the Hanna-Barbera series. That was my introduction to Smurfs, and I just found that show… that period of Hanna-Barbera in particular always kind of blew my mind ’cause it was always just weird and strange and wonderful. And that’s what the Smurfs were to me. I’m like, “What is this? I love it.” And then only after that did I discover the Peyo comics. And that blew my mind, in particular the pureness of that design, the appeal, the style. Iconic to me in a way… like Mickey Mouse iconic, and it’s kind of unexplainable. It’s just sort of like how an image connects or hits the viewer.

And then always somewhere in the back of my mind, if I ever get a chance to make a Smurfs film, I wanna honor that. I wanna honor those original comics — the DNA, the style, the tone. If you look at those old comics from way back when in the 1950s, they move on the page. We took those comics to give to every animator. “This is your guide.” This is a blueprint for how they should feel. [I] wanted that handcrafted feeling and in a contemporary, volumetric way. The other thing… nearly every person on this film, and cast in particular, had some connection to Smurfs… from their childhood or when they were teenagers. It was an extraordinary experience that way.

JM: Very nice. And as I’m watching this interpretation of the Smurfs, I’m looking at their eyes, and there’s so much expression in their eye movements. You can feel a lot of the emotion there. Did you put a lot of effort into those details? That really came through.

CM: Oh, that’s great. Thank you for saying that. I appreciate it. Yeah. A lot of attention was paid to that — and once again honoring the comic. So we really tried to keep that part of the face flat not volumetric, but create an inner life and thought behind actions. Everything’s gonna connect through the eyes, right? And they’re [a] pretty simple design. I was really pleased that we could draw so much emotion out of the eyes.

JM: And speaking of emotion, I have to imagine since you worked on some DreamWorks Animation films with the late Kelly Asbury, who [I spoke with] about “Smurfs: The Lost Village”… that he influenced you in some way when making this Smurfs movie. How has his work meant so much to you?

CM: Kelly and I went way back on the original “Shrek” and “Shrek 2”. Kelly was a mentor to me in terms of storytelling and the approach to storyboarding, which is how we both came up. I think about Kelly all the time. I was thinking about him this morning, actually, and “The Lost Village”. He was a huge influence on my career and a good friend. A good guy, and a great storyteller. Passionate.

JM: I love his films and your work as well. In this story, Papa Smurf needs to be rescued. He gets taken by Razamel, Gargamel’s brother. We also have this arc of No Name Smurf, voiced by James Cordon, who gets to sing in this. And it was lovely to hear him sing again. Emotional arcs clearly mean a lot to you, and you and James Cordon in working together must’ve put a lot into the arc of this character over the course of the film.

CM: Yeah. Something that James could relate to, I can relate to, I think everybody can relate to is a character who has this feeling of not belonging. How do I find my place? How do I fit in? He has a song. He’s always on the outside looking in. And James is an amazing singer. Soulful. Great scene and a great delivery by him. We start with that point of, “How do I fit in?” In a world where every Smurfs has their thing already sort of preassigned… everyone’s very confident and secure in who they are… he’s the no-name character. They can’t feel like they are a part of something unless they have that personal ID. So he is a bit obsessive in his journey to try to find that. I think completing the arc, it’s the realization. He finds his thing. It’s a big deal. It’s kind of a game changer, but the real journey ends with the realization of, “I can know who I am. I can feel confident about who I am… my place as an individual in the world”. But the bigger takeaway is, “I’m part of a community.” That’s what actually helps define how he fits in, how he belongs. Really the Smurf superpower is that family, that community, and that’s built on kindness.

JM: Smurfette is voiced by Rihanna. The marketing has been great when it comes to emphasizing that and what she’s been doing for the film. And there’s a scene where the Smurfs go into a nightclub and “Don’t Stop the Music” is playing, which is perfect because it’s one of the quintessential modern day… nightclub rave music songs of all time.

CM: Yes. Agreed. It plays beautifully. Nice little nod to Rihanna outside of her as Smurfette. I think she’s amazing in this movie. Her performance is so spot on. She has a couple songs in the movie, one in particular in the body of the film that I think is just brilliant. And then she sings later on in the movie the traditional Smurf anthem. And I just love the choice that she made in the song in the body of the film. And even just that end anthem… she’s both delivering her music as an artist and the integrity and authenticity of Rihanna. But she’s also delivering it as a character. She has this really hyper specific ability to never lose sight of playing a character in a film.. while also offering new music. Great storyteller. She really gets it.

JM: As we go into the second half of the movie and the third act, there’s a lot of visual magic. Magic is a big theme of this and you do a lot with dimensions and the visuals. Was that really challenging? Some of it is kind of mind blowing.

CM: Oh, good. That’s the idea. Your mind should have exploded. We tap into different styles of animation. I wanted to bring that to the movie. Animation has given me so much. There’s a zoetrope reference before that and then an opportunity to take the Smurfs and just look at them differently with different styles of animation. And that was a blast. That was my favorite part. And that’s nostalgia for me. There’s a lot of nostalgia for Smurfs. That was, for me, a way of combining nostalgia for Smurfs and weird stuff that I grew up on. If you really study that stuff, it’s kind of Rankin-Bass influenced and old Atari gaming machines and kid drawings and all kinds of stuff.

JM: I like the Zoetrope moment too. So when it comes to this [and] the other movies you’ve worked on — “Puss in Boots”, “Shrek the Third” and voicing Kowalski in the “Madagascar” franchise — a common theme is teamwork. How do you really respond to that as a theme?

CM: Yeah! That’s vital to me when I’m directing a movie. It’s important to me to collaborate… have strong collaborations with great artists. I’ve always been that way. It’s important to find projects that I could connect with personally. But honestly, it’s more about the folks involved and working hand in hand and sharing a vision and creating that sort of collective consciousness. It’s the best feeling. And that’s what inspires me because any great idea can come from anyone, anywhere, at any time. You just have to keep your heart open and your mind open to those events.