‘Smurfs’ director calls Fil-Am visual effects producer a ‘magician’

MARICEL Pagulayan, Fil-Am special effects producer, “did an amazing job” and kept the project under budget.

LOS ANGELES – The Smurfs are not the only magical beings in the live-action movie version of the popular comic and TV franchise, according to its director Raja Gosnell.

In our chat with Raja in Cancun, Mexico, he hailed Maricel Pagulayan, Filipino-American visual effects producer of the movie which stars Neil Patrick Harris, Hank Azaria, “Glee’s” Jayma Mays, Sofia Vergara and such talents as the voices of the lovable mythical blue beings – Katy Perry, George Lopez, Jonathan Winters, Anton Yelchin, Alan Cumming and Fred Armisen. Maricel was born and raised in the US except for two years when she lived and went to a high school in the Philippines.

“Maricel is a magician,” Raja said. “Maricel’s job is not only to manage all the data because we have data leaving the editing room to go and be animated, data coming back and forth. And this goes over three or four different vendors. That also requires tracking how much money is being spent per shot and why is the shot delayed. So basically, she had to manage this massive budget and the immensely complicated portion of the movie when the film is winding down but certain shots aren’t done.”

Always a crisis

Raja added, “There’s always a crisis, always someone not delivering. Maricel did an amazing job and kept us under the budget. The most important thing to any director is when you come to your producer on the 11th hour and say, ‘Maricel, I need one more shot. Can we figure it out?’ She’ll say, ‘Let me figure it out.’ She’ll move money around, find the thing, sort of beg, because we knew the studio wasn’t going to approve any more money. She was a master at making all that happen; that’s why I call her a magician.”

A HIT animation series in the 1980s spurred a “Smurfs” craze.

Maricel, whose “magician” credits include “Avatar,” “X-Men 2,” “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Superman Returns,” worked on “The Smurfs” for a year and a half. About Raja, who was the editor of such films as “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Pretty Woman” and “Miracle on 34th Street,” Maricel said, “He comes from an editing background so his approach was refreshingly direct and concise. Raja did a great job in visual effects. We usually ask the director to use his imagination a great deal before we can show anything on the screen. He’s great with artists and production people, not just CG characters.”

Asked if she got the catchy “Smurfs” theme song out of her mind yet, Maricel quipped, “The tune is a toe tapper. It’s contagious.”

Maricel, whose family is from Tuguegarao and Laguna, said she’s savoring her break before taking on another project. “I’m being courted for a number of interesting projects,” she said. “But right now, I’m in need of a good rest between pushing pixels.”

Another Fil-am

HANK Azaria as Gargamel, the evil wizard

The Smurfs have quite an adventure in contemporary New York in their screen incarnation (another Fil-Am, John Butiu, worked on the film’s pre-visualization phase). Hank Azaria as Gargamel, the evil wizard, and his cat, the equally wicked Azrael, steal the movie. Hank, virtually unrecognizable, goes to town and is a hoot with the villainous role while Azrael has some of the best lines. “The cat was 90 percent live action,” Raja explained. “We did a little bit of facial animation on it and then full CG when the cat had to do something physical that might injure him, like when Jayma hits him with a bag or he falls off the bench in the end. So it was a mixture.”

“The Smurfs” began as a comic strip by Belgian artist Peyo in 1958. A hit animation series in the 1980s spurred a “Smurfs” craze. “Our first and biggest priority was to honor Peyo’s original creation,” said Raja, who directed “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” and the “Scooby-Doo” movies. “Although Peyo is no longer with us, his daughter Veronique Culliford is. Every creative decision regarding the Smurfs was cleared through her. She was very much involved.”

Bible, rules

THE SMURFS have quite an adventure in contemporary New York in their screen incarnation.

Yes, there is a Smurfs bible, Raja confirmed. “There are certain rules to Smurfdom,” he said. “These are rules that have been established over the years of publishing. We wanted to honor not only Peyo but the longtime fans. We didn’t want to buy a title and forget about all that mythology. Even though it’s a new story and it takes place in a new land, our main goal was to make sure that when people watch the movie, Grouchy was Grouchy and Brainy was Brainy, for example.”

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