The Snurks

Last night I took a trip down to Fred Myers to pick up some tricks and treats for the Ghouls and Goblins that might be arriving at my front door. While at the check out, I saw the usual three sided stand of movies. I wanted an animation movie selection but here lies the quandary, my two choices were, the 2D and rather well publicized Brother Bear (produced by Disney) movie and a 3D movie entitled "The Snurks", which appeared to have well developed characters (gnomes) on the cover, but I had never heard of it. The clerk said something like, "I wouldn't get either of them, but especially not the Snurks because I've never heard of it either". I can't resist 3D, or I can't resist the opportunity to rebel, either way (probably both ways), I ended up tossing the Snurks into my cart.
When the movie started the narration voice was recognizable, "hmm that sounds like Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) from Star Treck, and it was. With an actor like that, it does hold some instant credibility - although the movie would have to still live up to it, famous person or not. I recognized immediately (from an animators point of view) that this was good quality animation, it was pure and clean eye candy, I admired the animators work. Sure, it didn't have the big production value script of say The Incredibles. Due to this The Snurks might have gotten swept under the rug.
If there was one flaw it was merely a personal pet peeve of mine that the smart scientist was the "mad scientist" and of course the antagonist of the story. Some day, there will be a story of the reverse, it is my hope that it would be more than a story but a reality - science helping us open broader doors, to say a disease free world among other things. Until then I still enjoyed the movie, it was some good lighthearted fun and I'm very glad I bought it.
Although it's not on my cover sleeve, the movie is often cited as "Boo, Zino & the Snurks", I've also spotted it as "Back to Gaya".
A few links:
The official website.
I found the Back to Gaya game, but it appears to be unavailable, at least at Amazon.
I found a few "inside of the program" images here.