I must admit the inner child got hold on me when I saw this fun looking Papa Smurf icon in the iTunes app store. Clicking it took me to Capcom’s Smurf Village game which amazingly is free to download!
I was sold within seconds and just had to try it out!

Oh boy, downloading The Smurfs’ Village certainly wasn’t dissapointing. The game is just gorgeous. Graphics, music and gameplay are spot on.

Smurfs Village lets you rebuild the Smurfs homes after Gargamel stumbles upon their village. You get to construct Greedy Smurf’s bakery, Smurfette’s house, Papa Smurf’s laboratory, bridges and paths and loads more.
It’s your personal white and blue version of game classics like SimCity or The Settlers.

Building is great, but Smurfs get hungry too. That’s where the Farmville cloning happens. You can put your smurfs to work by sowing and harvesting crops. Speeding things up is easy too by building Farmer smurf’s home close to your fields.

But there’s more than farming and building! You’re sent on quests by notable Smurfs like Papa Smurf, Greedy Smurf and Sleepy Smurf. The quests are amazingly entertaining minigames. Those earn you money and experience points.

Smurfberries can speed things up and buy you lots of extra’s. The berries can be bought in the Smurfberry shop – and here’s the catch – for real world money. And I must admit – in a first – I went on a premium Smurfberry shopping spree which cost me $19,99. I haven’t regretted it for one second! And I’m not the only one in less than three months “Smurf’s Village” had become the most profitable game in the app store, beating previous record holder “Angry Birds” by a mile.

The Smurfs’ Village is magical and wildly entertaining. The game is top rated in the iTunes store and over 360.000 people have joined the game’s Facebook fanpage.

The Smurf’s village is available as a free download for the iPod, iPhone and iPad in the iTunes app store.

Did you know 2008 is the year of the smurfs?

The little blue guys celebrate their smurfy 50th birthday with a promotour through Europe, 2 new comics and much more including a 3D animated movie (more on that later).

The Smurfs will also shortly be commemorated by the Belgian Postal Services on a special series of stamps. You’ve got a Smurfette stamp, a Papa Smurf one but also Jokey Smurf, Gargamel, Poet Smurf and Brainy.
Have a look at the previews!

The smurfs were created by Belgian comic artist ‘Pierre Culliford’ or Peyo and they later starred in a US-made Hannah Barbera cartoon, which ran from 1981 to 1990.

They’re still one of the worlds most treasured franchises and they seem to be following the same path of that other world famous comic hero ‘Tintin’. No one other than Steven Spielberg and ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Peter Jackson are preparing a 3D Tintin animated movie… but also the Smurfs are getting their own movie trilogy…

3D Smurfs on the way!

Making a smurfs movie seems an adventure on itself as the project has taken years to get to the practical phase and has been postponed yet again. The movie release now is expected in 2010. Shrek writers David Stem and David Weiss are currently working on the screenplay on what is supposed to become a Smurfs movie trilogy.

Legend has it that smurfs can be transformed into gold, Gargamel is sure of it! So maybe there’s some smurfy gold to be found at the boxoffice in 2010?!

Nerio, by then in a wheelchair, disabled by a terminal desease ends up dead on a sidewalk. Thrown of his penthouse terrace over a hundreds floors down, murdered…

And then everyone’s taken by suprise… Nerio has an heir!

An adopted son, hidden away in Europe, protected from Nerio’s ennemies: Largo. And then the adventures really start…

In short that’s the setting of the hugely popular comic series ‘Largo Winch’. It’s creator Jean Van Hamme, one of the most succesful scenario writers of the moment (Largo Winch, Thorgal, XIII,…).

Over 10 million copies sold, popular Largo games made by Ubisoft, a great TV-series with model/actor Paolo Seganti in the leading role and now finally… the movie! To be released 17 December 2008.

Unfortunately not a huge Hollywood production, but still a promising French production. The trailer is definately worth a look!

The Unofficial English language Trailer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaY1iyT8uKU

The TV-series

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiR1Jnvrqsw

> Love the Largo Winch TV-series? Collect the comic books or watched the Largo movie trailer?

Only three more days to go before Marvel unleashes their latest blockbuster? The Incredible Hulk. But will it really be a blockbuster?

Marvel Studio’s first homemade release proved box office gold as “Iron Man” made the top 10 of biggest (non-sequel) opening weekends ever. The movie has raked in $537,747,640 so far and is still performing extremely well for a movie released over five weeks ago.

Will the green monster perform as well?

Judging by the decent, yet disappointing performance of the 2003 ‘Hulk’ movie some analysts believe it’s a risky bet. But actually, it’s one of Marvel’s best moves yet. Recycling a superhero wellknown by the masses with yet untapped potential.

So far, the movie itself is getting good reviews by the few who’ve seen it. It’s the fastpaced actionmovie many thought the 2003 version would be.

As with “Iron Man” featuring Robert Downey Jr. and Kirsten Dunst the cast of the movie was meticuously chosen. Huge names as Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt and Edward Norton guarantee a stellar acting performance.

And if all above doesn’t help, even Iron Man himself will lend a hand. “The Incredible Hulk” will feature a short cameo appearance by Tony Stark AKA Iron Man AKA Robert Downey Jr.

So far Marvel has done everything right in preperation of its movie releases. And now it’s just waiting for the june 13th release of “The Incredible Hulk”…

UPDATE: Boxoffice results! On its opening day ‘The Incredible Hulk’ raked in a superhero haul of $21,615,000! Opening Weekend numbers soon! (see above)

> How about you? Seen Iron Man or The Incredible Hulk?
Or would you rather see some other superhero make the Big Screen?