The filmmakers cast Katy Perry without knowing it was her: "They had done a blind test where they took certain voices from previous interviews and matched them with the character. They liked my voice without even knowing who it was, and when they found out it was me, they thought that would work out. My personality was just a plus!"

Katy Perry, who voices Smurfette in this film and The Smurfs 2 (2013), wasn't allowed to watch the original The Smurfs (1981) series as a child. Her parents were highly conservative pastors, and didn't consider it to be good for their children.

During filming, each Smurf was represented by a different colored dot on the set, and actors and actresses had to remember which dot was which Smurf.

268 Sony Pictures Imageworks employees spent around 358,000 hours animating the Smurfs.

Anton Yelchin, who voices Clumsy Smurf, described his role as a little sweeter than in the original cartoon: "Clumsy isn't trying to mess anything up for anybody, he's just clumsy, and actually, he's tired of being clumsy."