Happy Unhappiness Day to You (The Smurfs, 1981)
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| Happy Unhappiness Day to You (The Smurfs, 1981) | ||||||||||||
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 We are clearly unhappy with this episode.
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"Happy Unhappiness Day To You" is a Season 5 episode from the 1980s Smurfs cartoon show.
Plot
Gargamel and Azrael try to find the Smurfs with a happiness radar, but end up finding other happy creatures. Meanwhile, the Smurfs are celebrating unhappiness day.
Unhappy Qualities
- This episode is one of the most plotless of the 1980s Smurfs series. It had two different stories meshed into one with no connection between them. "April Smurf's Day" was the same, but it had a connection between the two plots. Gargamel captures a handful of Smurfs on April Smurf's Day, with Papa and Jokey Smurf rescuing them at the end.
- But here, the problem is The Smurfs and Gargamel are far too distant from each other. Why bother adding a subplot into the episode? On top of that, Gargamel and Azrael appear to be more incompetent than usual.
- It had the Smurfs all participating in their sadness for the whole day. Neither one or two Smurfs go out of participating away from the village. Even the Smurflings aren't safe from this when hiding in the Smurf Forest.
- Brainy Smurf is technically the real antagonist of the episode and spies on every Smurf to make sure they are unhappy. He is obviously bland at his approach, since he avoids magic to use on the other Smurfs to force them to be miserable all the time.
- Speaking of Brainy, he was never appointed to be a spy by Papa Smurf and just outright snooped on the others himself. Why can't he leave them alone and focus on his own unhappiness for a change?
- This episode includes a Gargamel and Azrael torture subplot, where they try to find the other Smurfs (but end up with other happy creatures instead). Also, when they hear the Smurfs being happy again by the end of the episode, the radar is destroyed and is beyond repair.
- Speaking of Gargamel and Azrael, this episode makes you sympathize with them more than the other happy creatures themselves. At one point, they get beaten up by Bigmouth for disturbing his bathtime.
- The Smurfs are unaware of Gargamel's evil doing. Neither is Gargamel and Azrael aware of the holiday. Justified since the latter two never heard of Unhappiness Day and wasted the whole episode being attacked by other happy creatures.
- This episode hardly has any dark overtones and there are no adventures to speak of, as with later seasons of the show prior to Season 9. Along with "Smurf Me No Flowers", this episode suffered a sitcom-esque plot with the lack of dark elements. It feels more like filler without a set story and the subplot should've been changed and/or cut out entirely.
- And like most episodes, this one has little to no conflict. The Smurfs, Gargamel and Azrael barely ever interacted with each other.
- The concept of spending a day of sadness is a fairly good one, but suffered from poor execution. Like "Crying Smurfs", they tried too hard to include unhappiness into a plot. But unlike that episode, this isn't a crybaby fest.
- Unfortunately, Papa Smurf encourages Brainy and the Smurflings to cry in one scene, which is pretty cringeworthy to hear.
- Although Greedy threw Brainy out of the village at the end of the episode, he was outright mad at him for ruining his happiness (which was supposed to be the whole point of Unhappiness Day).
- He was one of the Smurfs to be spied on by Brainy, who was hiding in the cabinet while Greedy was making food in his kitchen.
- Strangely, Clumsy Smurf doesn't appear in this episode. He isn't there to help Brainy spy on the other Smurfs to make sure they're unhappy.
- On a side note, various other characters such as Hefty, Handy and Jokey don't appear either, meaning it is unknown how they would react to Unhappiness Day.
Happy Qualities
- Good animation and voice acting.
- This plot was never brought up again after this episode.
- Gargamel and Azrael are still likeable characters.
- Some funny moments, like Brainy calling some medic Smurfs after snooping on Smurfette.
- Brainy Smurf gets comeuppance for his actions at the end of the episode.
Trivia
- As mentioned above, this is one of the most plotless episodes of the 1980s Smurfs series.
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