/ David Pescovitz / 9:35 am Mon Dec 19, 2011

Smurf town in Spain votes to stay blue

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The small city of Juzcar in southern Spain was painted blue as a film location for The Smurfs movie. Sony Pictures offered to repaint all the homes but the residents voted yesterday to stay blue. From The Independent:

Ever since the pueblo was converted into the set of Smurftown for Sony's hit, it has been cashing in on its new-found celebrity status. Previously, about 300 tourists a year would pass through Juzcar. In the past six months, an estimated 80,000 followers of "Los Pitufos", as the Smurfs are known in Spanish, have made the trek to the remote village high in Malaga's sierras.

The village has eagerly embraced its new role, holding events such as a Smurf moonlight fun run, Smurf painting competitions and permanently running Smurf trade fairs. There are even Smurf-themed weddings to keep fans of the squeaky little blue folk coming.

However, the biggest draw for Smurfophiles is surely Juzcar's 175 buildings, uniformly repainted light blue from traditional white for the filming. Even the church and gravestones were transformed, with 4,000 litres of blue paint applied to one of Spain's famous 1,500 "pueblos blancos".

"Spanish village happy to be left feeling blue by Smurfs"

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  3. The gravestones thing makes this kinda creepy. Imagine doing a bunch of genealogy, tracing your family roots all the way back to this town in Spain, seeking out your great-great-great-grandfather’s tombstone, and finding it’s been painted blue for some movie.

  5. I can get why people would make a pilgrimage to Star Wars or LOTR filming locations, but the bloody SMURF movie? Even if you like the original Smurfs (the comic books are actually quite alright) that movie was an abomination.

  7. I hope the money keeps flowing in for them, because I find that color scheme a bit oppressive.

    And given my choice of little blue people to champion, I’ll take a Feegle every time and they dinna care what color ya paint yer house. I’m not sure they know what paint is, though they have a idea or two about what you can do with turpentine.

  8. So do you think they got the equivalent of the cost to repaint their village paid in blue touch up paint?

  11. I find this depressing. That the studio asked this town to paint their houses blue in the first place, and that they’ve decided to keep them blue for the tourism. All for a crappy, crass piece of mass entertainment with no artistry, taste or charm.

  12. Lame and derivative, Tarsem had a real blue city in his film The Fall:  “Jodhpur, the blue city, is a Brahmin city where you’re only supposed to paint your house blue. I made a contract with the city; we would give them free paint. We knew legally they could only choose blue. So they painted their houses blue and it looked more vibrant than it ever had before.”

  13. Juzcar is near where I live and I fully understand why they’re sticking with the blue. Even in the cities around here unemployment is above 30% and Juzcar is way up in the mountains along a wiggly road. Smurfs are crap but seeing a pueblo blanco that’s worth the (difficult) trip is always a pleasure.

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