OY! The day I feared would one day come … has come at last. That beloved cartoon from the 80′s, The Smurfs, is getting a modern CGI make-over for a new movie version of the ‘toon … and here is our first look at what the little guys will look like … behold:

This first image of a CGI Smurf from Sony Pictures Animation’s upcoming Smurfs movie was posted online last night, but we had to take a few more steps to make sure it was the real deal. It turns out that the studio ran the promo image, of which you can find a scan below, in a magazine recently. Opening in theaters on December 17, 2010, the film will be directed by Raja Gosnell. “The Smurfs” were created in 1958 by Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford, known throughout the world as Peyo.

Let me be the first to say, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I don’t like it. I much prefer the 2D version of The Smurfs over … this. My inner child is crying out for a return to the original animation. What do y’all think?

[Source]