James Cameron’s Avatar Trailer (The Real Thing)

realavatartrailer

As everyone sits waiting for the first official Avatar trailer to go online over at Apple.com, the French MSN has apparently beaten them to the punch. Although the trailer is in French, there really isn’t much dialogue anyway. So go ahead and marvel at the first footage released online from James Cameron’s first action film in 15 years!

The environments do look quite beautiful and I have to say, I’m intrigued by the idea of people stepping into these mind-controlled versions of themselves. That said, the CG does look like CG, and I think it’s going to be hard for a lot of people to accept that most of the action is essentially fully animated. I am still very curious to see how the 3-D aspect will play into the film, and how much extra detail will be visible on the big screen. I will be seeing the 25 minute IMAX preview tomorrow night, so I’ll report back on that sometime soon. In the meantime, check out the first Avatar trailer after the jump and let us know what you think!

Update: The Apple version is now online, so you can also watch it in HD here.

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Comments (104)

  1. LOL.. I predict a massive increase in suicides amongst the fanboy crowd by the end of the day.

    All you have to do is read the treatment to see this was a joke from the get go.

    People of the world, meet Cameron’s episode I

  2. Im seeing the 16 minute advanced screening in IMAX tomorrow afternoon, but i couldnt wait and had to watch the trailer.
    It looks completely mental, i havnt read the treatment and know nothing of the story, Im just hoping there is a story and we arent just watching 3d fireworks for a couple of hours. WE.SHALL.SEE

  3. Massively, mind-blowingly mediocre!
    Bombastically boring!
    Amazingly average!
    with
    Cartoony colours, too!

    Cameron’s cavalcade of costly calamity?

  4. From the trailer it doesn’t look that special at all to me. The CGI isn’t thát great. It all looks like a videogame cutscene imo. I wonder what it will look like when we see a real human next to one of those Navi’s or whatever theyre called.

    Maybe it looks different in 3D, I dunno…

  5. It looks cool but what about all the talk about the new CGI technology…looks like standard CG to me. Maybe it will be better in 3-D? I’ll see it but breakthrough? I don’t know.

  6. Wow. Looks pretty awesome to me. Can’t wait.

  7. It looks fine. The hype is going kill this movie for a lot of people. It may be a great film, it may be a good film, but they won’t enjoy it because Cameron didn’t invent a holodeck.
    That said, it does let me appreciate the effects in D9 a lot more.

  8. The CGI really does look like video game graphics…. how disappointing.

  9. >> It looks fine. The hype is going kill this movie for a lot of people. It may be a great film, it may be a good film, but they won’t enjoy it because Cameron didn’t invent a Holodeck.

    Yea, Cameron and the studio hype machine going on about how this was going to change the industry forever blah blah blah did a disservice to the film.. but the real problem for me is the story and not the effects.

    Yea Yea I know its undoubtedly changed from the original script treatment.. but Cameron’s heavy handed depiction of Indian “Aliens” praying to Gaia and chanting when trees die and then defeating 22nd century technology with bows and arrows is too absurd to be taken seriously. It’s an out of touch Lucas-esque fantasy at its worst.

    If this cliched, anachronistic sci-film was coming from someone else I would have simply chuckled to myself and moved on, but coming from Cameron this is a HUGE letdown. The guy was a personal hero of mine. Aliens and the Terminator Franchise were examples of genius on so many levels.

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when I finished reading the treatment all I could think to myself was that Cameron had lost his damn mind. No way in hell the same man that created those films could write such drivel.

  10. Damndirtyape – you need to put your money were your mouth is and refuse to see the film if the trailer and a LEAKED treatment has you so convinced the story is crap. I have read about the film too and as a screenwriter I don’t see how a having a lead handicap character, getting a chance to run free due to a corporate system of plugging him in to an alien’s body for unscrupulous motivates, then that character learning to feel for the alien world and fight for them is anything but a GREAT idea for a film. That concept alone has Lucas’s episode one beat. Seriously dude chill out.

  11. this is the best fan made trailer so far!
    nice work

  12. Its basically Dances With Wolves In Space, and that is one of my favorite films.

  13. We all should of known this talk of “photo-real” CG was garbage. Shame on you for tossing that term around Cameron.

    Still, this looks like a fun movie that I’d wanna see even if an unknown director was attached. Just not even close to photorealism.

  14. Rus don’t worry your pretty little head – I will not be seeing it.

    It cracks me up to see the fanboys come out to defend this crap, just like they did with Episode I. Most of them are STILL in denial about that film and I;m sure it will be the same with this.

  15. The movie could be fun, and i’m still curious to see what comes out of it, but all i’m saying is that the visuals just aren’t that great, and i think they’ll possibly pull me out of the action scenes and such.

  16. Oh please. Now we are going to hear about how the CGI was “crap” in this as well. What utter bullshit. The CGI in this looks fucking amazing. It’s the designs that are crap though.
    It’s the same when people were giving the CGI in The Hulk a bad time. Again, utter bull crap. Of course an 8 foot green giant is going to look out of place in a real environment, the same goes for 8 foot blue giants with cat like faces.

  17. Actually Swarez your right, the CG does look fine, it’s just that to me the characters are really weird and off putting.

  18. Yeah, my biggest gripe are the character designs. They just look terrible and way to cartoony.

  19. You know….at least it’s something a little different. We’re not looking at another toy franchise from the 80’s. That being said…it does look a bit like some of the obscure cartoons from that decade…maybe just the color scheme, I don’t know. lol. Does anybody else get that vibe?
    I think it should be fun. I was never overly excited about this in the first place, maybe thats why I’m not disapointed like some others. I completely understand how you could be though. That shot where Sam had just been turned into an Alien looked pretty “Spiro the Dragon” to me. lol.

  20. Papyrus font, James Cameron? PAPYRUS FONT!? For shame!

    I don’t know. It could be good. I saw Moist in the background! :D

  21. THIS LOOKS SMURFY!!!!!!

    I agree with this looking like normal CG stuff with a small tweak.
    I am not into the character designs but maybe… they will grow on me.
    It looks like an movie mashup with Aliens, Smurfs and American Indians.

    I will still check it out.
    And it is not a reboot or rehash of old crap. So it gets points in my book for that.

  22. Smurfs? Because the characters have blue skin? If anything there was a very WoW vibe to it all…

  23. …Swarez…

    good point on the CGI comment with the Hulk and being out of place no. No matter how you cut the loaf you will get the heal when the characters look unlike anything we have seen. I wonder if people in make up would of worked better with this. (Think Hell Boy) Would it look more real because it is really there or because it is more in human proportions?

  24. I’m speechless.

  25. I don’t understand any of the hate some of you people have for it. Sure, the CGI isn’t as great as Cameron boasted (Also, its not complete CGI yet), but the movie itself looks fantastically fun.

  26. all i know is that what i saw awed me! don’t see how this is a ‘let down’ as some of you smarties are saying. everything looks very epic and pleasing to the eye.

  27. More cartoony than I excpected, but I’ll still check it out. I have to agree the character design is a bit off putting. I know they are alien creatures, but something doesn’t feel instinctively right about their look. Who knows, maybe it’s because I’m not used to it all.

    I still think the CGI is pretty impressive overall, but I thought Cameron was going to go for a darker and more realistic look. Honestly though, I think it will help when you can see the scenes with the sound FX and music – those two elements go a long way – not to mention the story but of course. Overall looks intriguing.

  28. I don’t understand any of the hate some of you people have for it.

    Its because the trailer can’t possibly live up to the movie that exists in people’s minds.

  29. This looks like good CGI for a computergame cutscene, not exactly the cutting edge stuff that Cameron has been raving about.

  30. What I find interesting is that there is only one piece of dialogue in the whole trailer.

  31. one criticism that i have is that the CG world looks very video game-esque which is a little disappointing i guess. i’m more interested in seeing how well they blend the live characters with this CG world.

  32. >> Its because the trailer can’t possibly live up to the movie that exists in people’s minds.

    Or that Cameron has been bragging about, what with his “paradigm changing” emotion-control 3D and all..

  33. apocalypto meets jurassic park

  34. film junk should be the official avatar news site.

  35. “one criticism that i have is that the CG world looks very video game-esque”

    How is it video game-esque?

    The only reason people have this claim is because of the fantasy creature design and how they are too cartoony in appearance. There is no way they can claim that the quality of the graphics in this is on par with what’s in today’s video games.

    You are dealing with blue alien creatures battling dragons and monsters, of course your brain is going to say that it is fake.

  36. the semi-realistic cartoon characters look sweet. the detail is missing a bit, anyone know if they used zbrush for modeling?

  37. Looks cool. The characters do look like something out of WoW. I may skip the preview tomorrow night cause I’m already going to see the movie on opening day anyway. If District 9 taught me anything, it’s that the less you know going into a movie, the more impact it will have. That’s also why I’m avoiding any write ups on Inglorious Basterds.

  38. >> the semi-realistic cartoon characters look sweet. the detail is missing a bit, anyone know if they used zbrush for modeling?

    Offhand, I think WETA did the characters in which case Mudbox was most likely used. Any critiques are more of an art direction decision than a technical thing – Cameron obviously wanted that exact look. It would have been easy to dirty them and make them look more visceral but he didn’t want that.

  39. just wait until computer artists take over the world!

  40. Photorealistic animation and design for creatures always look like shit. I’m glad they went with a more stylized design, but that’s only a small portion of successful CGI. The animation itself looks boring. Did they use motion capture? That shit’s the worst.

  41. The more I think of this the more I say give me a person in a good costume any day of the week. I stress the word Good.

    All being said… the story is what is gonna make or break this movie. Give me a good story over effects!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some of my favorite movies have the worst special effects ever and some of the movies I hate have great effects. But all the movies I like have good stories.

  42. good effects over story!!!!!!

  43. It’s weird but I wasn’t really blown away by this trailer and in fact it felt somewhat underwhelming. I don’t know perhaps I was spoiled by the visuals in District 9, they felt much more tactile and visceral than what I saw in the Avatar trailer. Mind you this film is supposed to be seen on the big screen in 3d so I could be singing a different tune when it’s released.

    Nevertheless the visuals felt overly saturated and pretty cartoony (Final Fantasy Spirits within, Phantom Menace), nothing looked real which is what James Cameron is known for. In fact had you told me that it was being done by Tim Burton I would have believed you. That aside I feel that this film will kick ass as I have all the confidence in James Cameron’s abilities as a master story teller.

    Oh by the way the music for this trailer really hurt it as well. It’s a cool track on it’s own ( “off of the 28 Weeks later soundtrack”) but felt out of place.

  44. looks awesome to me, the na’vi i guess look cartoony but the environment looks absolutely unreal

  45. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

    Hilarious. My Nintendo 64 had more realistic looking characters. Unreal. I think old people simply don’t get how young people can spot CG a mile a way.

    When you grow up being impressed by claymation King Kong, I’m sure these CG blue guys look totally bitchin’ but if you’ve grown up with CG characters in all your movies then you can spot them a mile away.

    It’s been said 20 times already but it bears repeating – this looks like a bad viedo game cutscene. Truly awful.

    Why has there been NO significant improvment in realism since Jurassic Park??? The dinosaurs in JP STILL look better than this crap.

    DAMN IT!

  46. I think this is a bitching trailer. I’m worried that there’s going to be akward love scenes, but the action looks killer. I love this colorful nonsense!

  47. So now it just doesn’t look like a cut scene, but a bad one.

    By the end of the day people will claim the fake flash trailer looks more realistic then this one. I can’t wait.

  48. Over here (in Switzerland) this movie will not be shown in IMAX and 3D is not very popular. I’ll wait for the DVD.

  49. Yes. A bad one.

    Looks like a friggin pokemon.

  50. i realize now thats its sonic the hedgehog

  51. Blue Man Group with mullets.

  52. “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

    Hilarious. My Nintendo 64 had more realistic looking characters. Unreal. I think old people simply don’t get how young people can spot CG a mile a way.

    When you grow up being impressed by claymation King Kong, I’m sure these CG blue guys look totally bitchin’ but if you’ve grown up with CG characters in all your movies then you can spot them a mile away.

    It’s been said 20 times already but it bears repeating – this looks like a bad viedo game cutscene. Truly awful.

    Why has there been NO significant improvment in realism since Jurassic Park??? The dinosaurs in JP STILL look better than this crap.

    DAMN IT!”

    You’re an idiot.

  53. Should have just hired these guys and saved 100 Million.

    http://www.arrowhead.on.ca/images/stories/blue_man_group.jpg

  54. I noticed something. Are those alien clones born with weaved ponytails?

  55. Swarez,

    Nu-unh you are!

    Blow me. If you think that friggin blue pokemon looks more realistic than the CG dinosaurs in Jurassic Park you are lying to yourself. Fanboy.

  56. i would be born with a fusion indian hairweave if i had a say. i wonder if they were born with the large gauge ear plugs

  57. when theres that scene in that trailer where theres the navi jumping on the human ships and taking them down and theres just a big cg mind fuck on screen it just made me think….transformers. too much going on! how district 9 clearly showed you dont have to splash 100s of millions of dollars to wow people with cgi… and i got a kind of disney vibe from it all as well…

  58. remember those big ass fights in dc vs marvel.

  59. A 6 pack, a gallon of blue paint and a dime bag would have saved Cameron 100 Million, stimulated the economy, minimized his carbon footprint, and given us something believable to watch.

    http://www.arrowhead.on.ca/images/stories/blue_man_group.jpg

    tsk-tsk

  60. @Shut-Up Ed

    Still an idiot.

  61. $5 Shut-Up Ed was dumped during a screening of Titanic.

    You want in on this Swarez?

  62. Hahahaha. “Old people”. That’s rich.

  63. Cameron should have either made the entire movie CGI or use only real actors. The effects are far from perfect and mixing cartoony virtual characters with real people will look and feel fake. That being said, this will probably still look rather decent in 3D on the big screen, and people who will see it this way will most likely enjoy it. Everybody else, though, won’t probably be very happy with the end result.

  64. is it just me or does non of the characters look like they have weight to them?

  65. Matt.
    Done and done.

    But on the plus side he has more time then to watch Jurassic Park and confuse animatronics with CGI.

  66. My expectations weren’t really up for this one but the trailer seems decent. I’m up for at least an attempt at something different over another T-Formers 2 or fuckin’ comic book movie(and I LOVE comic books!). I trust that Cameron will at least give us some interesting ideas and visuals. I don’t love the designs either, but Cameron’s always been able to create a decent action sequence. The overwrought message of the film seems heavy handed but he’s tread this ground before in The Abyss. I’m definitely interested to see where this goes… if not a little apprehensive.

    @Shut-Up Ed,

    Do you actually like ANYTHING? You seem like you’re trying to be Filmjunk’s version of DannyGloversDickBlood but you’re not funny or insightful in any way and you definitely don’t seem to have any real film knowledge. This means that you’re probably just a 15-16 year old kid who found a site that didn’t have a resident obnoxious troll and figured you’d fill the position. It’s too bad that you don’t follow up on what your name promises and just Shut the Fuck up… Ed.

  67. As with any highly touted movie, we’ll have to wait and see the entire movie before really passing judgment. It looks like it could either be Heaven’s Gate or the Godfather. It’s just interesting how back in the day nobody knew shit about upcoming movies and you actually looked forward to watching trailers and be surprised at what was coming out. Now everyone sees the trailers the split second they hit the Web.

  68. i want trailers to be longer and movies shorter. i want commentaries to have action sequences and extra features have rated x content.

  69. Shut-Up Ed is in middle east defending your freedom to eat non lean processed meat parts – you will show some respect

  70. Rus,

    Yeah, I’m Canadian, so Ed ain’t defending shit to me(or arguably to you either). OUR troops are still in Afghanistan where the REAL war should’ve been fought all along… but that’s another argument not for this thread.

    Regardless of who he is and what he does, he’s an idiot. that is all…

  71. I must apolagize to everyone. It seems my tax dollars are going towards paying for SUE’s Internet connection.

    My bad.

  72. Oh shit that means my measly US tax dollars go to him as well. Aw man.
    Yes I pay taxes in the US. The perks of being a minor one hit wonder.

  73. @Swarez

    That you for bringing up J-Park.

    That movie has always come up when I get into arguments with my friend on the merits of special effects in recent years.

    A prime example was Van Hellsing. My friends all gave those effects a pass saying that it was years ago in the early 2000’s and it wasn’t fair to compare them to 2008 or 2009 effects.

    Jurassic Park still looks better and is probably one of my favorite movies because of it.

    P.S
    And those raptors look real as fuck.

  74. “found a site that didn’t have a resident obnoxious troll”

    :) .

    Jurassic Park has like 50 CGI shots, most based on animatronics. By comparison, Star Wars 3, which looks closer to something like Avatar, had over 2,200 CGI shots. So I think comparing the effects is stupid, you should compare the movies instead, but since nobody has seen Avatar, I guess it’s to be expected that stuff like this is what people talk about. Remember though, that Cameron also did T2, which has pretty good visual effects as well.

  75. That’s because they were “real” David. The wast majority of the time they used puppets. There are only 6 minutes of actual CGI dinosaurs in the film, and only when they are seen from head to toe, the rest is all Stan Winston puppets.

    Jurassic Park does not look better than this. Plain and simple.

  76. >>>How is it video game-esque?

    The only reason people have this claim is because of the fantasy creature design and how they are too cartoony in appearance. There is no way they can claim that the quality of the graphics in this is on par with what’s in today’s video games.
    <<<

    but it does look like that! if someone showed the CG parts to me without telling me that it’s the avatar trailer, i’d have thought it’s from some new video game.

    i’m sorry, that’s the ONLY thing i can’t really get behind. the rest, i loved! this is gonna be a breath of fresh air for Hollywood. i’m sick of sequels and remakes! finally we are getting something that is totally original!

  77. The Na’vi’ and much of the forest scenery is stylized, not photoreal. To say the effects suck is an overstatement. They are not “bad”, but they are not convincing as photoreal. Neither is the motion of the Navi. The human eye is incredibly adept at sensing the most subtle cues of human motion and expression so naturally its the last hurdle to cross.

    If you look at some of the better game cinematics from studios like Blur or Digic Pictures (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki1stxSd08E) you can see that Avatar sequences fall in line with the level of realism of game trailers.

    A lot of the problem I think people are having with the Na’vi’ is, as Swarez has stated, the character design. But I think some of it DOES have to do with technical limitations as well. They look and feel rubbery and do not appear to consist of hard skeletons covered with muscle that attach to insertion points which are covered with flesh that stretches and contract and jiggle under motion and stress. Some of that is design and some of it technical.

    Despite Cameron’s boasting to the contrary, the Uncanny Valley has not been crossed yet. The technology needs a few more years to cook I think before we are fully there.

  78. Fern Gulley meets Battle for Terra.

  79. Looks like Arthur and the Minimoys

  80. “$5 Shut-Up Ed was dumped during a screening of Titanic.”

    If this isn’t some web comic’s basis for a strip, it needs to be.

  81. In with the camp that says CGI looks good, but designs are bad. Looks like James Cameron’s version of Delgo. Ick. Would probably see it anyways.

    I’m not disappointed though because I have always thought James Cameron was overrated. I don’t even like T2.

  82. I will say this looks significantly better in the HD version thats up now.

  83. http://www.moviefill.com/Avatar-Teaser-Trailer-18171/

    This was ALSO taken verbatim and put on MovieFill. Does FJ have an arrangement with that site, or this guy a leach? Your D9 article is the big banner feature on his main page.

  84. Yes, we have an arrangement with them. They aggregate content from us, Rotten Tomatoes, Rolling Stone, Film Drunk, among others.

    But it’s pissing me off that they’re getting all the Digg traffic and we’re getting nothing.

  85. Well I guess I thought it was a ripoff since the credit is buried at the bottom, and I never saw a link to them from this end or anything.

    Yeah man, sorry, that really sucks that they’re getting all the hits from your great article. Hope you can at least get some enjoying from reading the digg thread.

  86. This movie look’s like ASS who care’s about this fucking film?(would take a bag full of apple’s up the ass than see this fuck’in movie!)

  87. Someone is obsessed with ass.

  88. Oh, and fuck Digg.

    Reddit 4 Life.

  89. Yes i like ass but the movie will still blow, so it matter’s not how much i like ass.

  90. In with the camp that says CGI looks good, but designs are bad. Looks like James Cameron’s version of Delgo. Ick. Would probably see it anyways.

    Posted by Goon on August 21st, 2009
    =========================================================

    I think its intriguing to take on something alien and unsettling. Humans interacting with some bizarre culture from another world is never a bad thing. I always liked to think that if Aliens from outer space came to Earth, it will be mind bending.

  91. It feels like jaime cuts and pastes from youtube comments sections :P

  92. Seriously, how does that guy type with hoofs for hands?

  93. The 16 minute clip was very good. Fantastic CG and the 3D brought the whole thing together.
    I did not see it on an IMAX screen but I imagine this flick being pretty fucking sweet on that.

  94. I just saw district 9 and 90-95% of the CG was believable. Was it the big screen or was it that good? Was it the story that pulled me in and made me look past any CG flaws? I did not think it looked that good in the online trailer but in the movie theater it did look sweat. So will the theater experience/3-D improve the effects in AVATAR for me? Only time will tell but today proved to me it can happen with D9.

  95. Jurassic Park for the win.

  96. look at this link… and yes both look computer animated.

    http://img.denihilation.com/delgovatar.html

  97. Wow.

    Nice link Big Hungry. Is Delgo a video game or a cartoon? Either way, it looks pretty damn familiar!

    Maybe the Navi on the planet ARE actually made of smooth, shiny, blue plastic with no skeletal structure or skin texture to speak of… I mean, they ARE aliens!

    Jurassic Park for the win. F swarez.

    http://www.arrowhead.on.ca/images/stories/blue_man_group.jpg

  98. @Shut-Up Ed

    Yeb…still an idiot.
    No amount of posts will change that. It’s just how you are.
    An idiot.

  99. Big Hungry – that link is really interesting..I don’t know what it means, but interesting

  100. rus in chicago-Not sure what it means either but I agree it is interesting. I ran across that on another site yesterday. One might be able to do that with a lot of movies in comparison shots but It is interesting. I do think it makes the shots look more CG but not sure if would help if it were next to live action comparisons.

    I am not going to say what I really think of the movie AVATAR.. because I can not… I have not seen it. (no brainer comment) just the the trailer. So I will hold my judgment of the movie as whole till I see it. The trailer and/or the cg effects in the trailer did not blow me away but the movie might. And I hope it does. I have liked most of Cameron’s movies and hope this one gets added to the list of likes.

  101. that blue man group jpg looks totally fake. photoshopped, totally cgi.

    I could care less about the CGI in this movie, it looks like a videogame because of the art design, not the technical graphics…yes battlemech robots vs. elves…that is videogame crap (or George Lucas crap)…

    Not anything I want to see, its a Disney chick flick cartoon…just face it. I’ll go see BOOK OF ELI instead.

  102. most ppl are bashing it cuz most ppl are bashing it. i think its become “cool” to be part of the crowd that doesn’t think it looks all that great. if you look at the details like the hair and the backgrounds at the beginning when the protagonist is getting on that aircraft in the beginning, the cgi does look pretty amazing. Of course the Na’vi’s arent going to look 100% real. Are you expecting them to look exactly like humans but blue? i am excited for this and the trailer looks pretty bad ass but i will say that there are insane similarities to this and video games.
    1. The landscapes (mainly the floating land masses of rock on the bottom and forest on top) look almost EXACTLY like some areas in Final Fantasy 11 (the online one). in fact, thats the first thing i noticed when i first saw the trailer.

    2. Navi was the name of the fairy that is Links companion throughout Zelda: The Ocarina of Time

    3. Avatar has been a common reference in a lot of RPG/Fantasy video games including (yes again) Final Fantasy 11 (and other FF’s as well)
    The blue creatures and even some times the characters remind me of Carbuncle.

    It seems like the visuals and maybe even some of the story was completely ripped off from Final Fantasy and RPG/adventure games in general.I’ll give you harsh critics that. But i’m still gunna be an advocate of the film and go see it. I’m sure it will be amazing just like the hype is saying and you all will wish you put your foot in your mouths for ever bashing it.

  103. and before you haters start hating… Yes i know that the word Avatar was not invented by game writers but they certainly made it more popular and turned it into an actual character.

  104. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha !

    SouthPark, Season 13 Episode 13 ‘Dances With Smurfs’

    Awesome…

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