Back in June,
during an online chat between Warner Home Video and the Home Theater Forum, the studio said "
We are working on the Smurfs and hope to release it in 2007." Then, a month later at the San Diego Comic Con, folks like Jerry Beck of the Cartoon Brew blog
got a free "Temporary Tattoo" handout at the Warner’s booth with a waving Smurf and the caption reading "
Coming to DVD in 2007." It looked like our holiday Smurf-giving fates were sealed, especially in early August when TVShowsOnDVD
got ahold of information - solid info, that included box art (see below), cost and content info - that the set would bow on December 4th.
This morning we received an e-mail from a reader, Stan Stef, who helpfully pointed out that a Warner consumer website, ClassicCartoonsDVD.com, was actually showing an earlier release date on that set: if you click in the "Shop" area it shows a "coming soon" section that says
Smurfs would be out on November 20th. We viewed this info with caution, for two reasons. First, as Stan himself pointed out, the same "coming soon" area had an obvious other mistake, saying that the next release of
The Looney Tunes Golden Collection would be the 6th volume, when we all know it's going to be
Volume 5.
Secondly, and more importantly, Warner has already issued their announcements for November releases, and for December as well. The current group of announcements from the studio are running into January, so we had to check with our friends there and ask what was up with
The Smurfs: is it really coming out in either of those months? While they could not elaborate at this time, and were unable to give us a release date, they did state that
The Smurfs would not be out before the end of 2007.
In their defense, we're quick to point out that the title - while leaked here and there in the manner we describe above - was never formally announced by the studio with a firm street date, ever. While we did boast that specific date several times, for early December, we never said it was officially announced by the team at Warner Home Video. Moreover, we know that they always make these changes with good reasons behind them, even if those reasons can't immediately be shared with us or the fans.
Stay of good cheer, though, and stay tuned! We'll bring you the actual street date for
The Smurfs - Season 1, Volume 1...just as soon as Warner makes it OFFICIAL!
