The Box of Dirty Tricks (The Smurfs, 1981)

The Box of Dirty Tricks (The Smurfs, 1981)
This is the box for one of the most poorly executed episode of the whole show.
Series: The Smurfs (1981) Part of Season: 2 Episode Number: 44 Air Date: December 2, 1982 Previous episode: "The Stuff Dreams Are Smurfed Of" Next episode: "Papa's Wedding Day"

"The Box Of Dirty Tricks" is a Season 2 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.

Plot

A box that plays tricks on others appears in the Smurf village after Gargamel accidentally throws it to the river.

Why It's Dirty

1. The plot isn't that great as it is poorly executed, because Gargamel accidently throws the box that play a trick in the river and they do damages to the Smurfs villages.
2. It is a torture episode for the Smurfs due to the box that play tricks on them, at least in the second half since because of the dirty trick box, they got captured by Gargamel.
3. It is one of the most boring episode of the whole show because not only does the pacing is horrible but also, the story while interesting on paper, is barely even interesting because of the poor ececution, much like "Aw Hell No" from the 2024 reboot of Ren & Stimpy.
4. Most of the Smurfs are out-of-character. While they make odd choices sometimes, they would never actually make a choice like this, which is opening a box and being caught by Gargamel.
   • They were all caught by Gargamel again in A Gift for Papa's Day, except they were trying to retrieve the hat Papa had to ambush rather than having a nonsensical food fight with no one to stop them and tell them off.
5. The beginning is very rushed, as Gargamel and Azrael show up out of nowhere and discovered the old man of the mountain, get the box that belonged to him, and loses it very quickly.
6. Many mean-spirited moments, particularly in the scene where everyone begins fighting (unaware that a Dirty Tricks cloud caused all this and got off scot-free without the Smurfs' acknowledgment).
7. ""Animation Errors:""
   • When the Smurfs argue to who should open the box, Greedy is seen wearing a regular Smurf hat instead of his baker hat and napkin, as he was seconds earlier and seconds later.
   • When the Smurfs help Hefty open the box, Brainy is not wearing his glasses.
   • When the Smurfs discover the box is empty, Vanity's mouth disappears.
   • There were eight Smurfs in Gargamel's pot, but when Papa rescues them, there are 13 of them (not including Papa).
   • Brainy was not seen in the pot, however he was heard at the end of the episode.
8. A continuity error that is impossible in later seasons: in this episode, Clumsy angrily reacts to being pelted by smurfberries. But in later episodes (such as "The Masked Pie Smurfer"), he is creamed with a pie and reacts with confusion instead.
9. The scene where Brainy Smurf got thrown out of the village came out of nowhere, with no explanation how he got punished. Instead, the episode cuts to Gargamel and Azrael walking through the forest and spot Brainy being thrown out of the village.
10. Wasted potential, where it would've set up the climax where only one or two Smurfs escape from Gargamel's clutches, be aware of the Pink Cloud and tell Papa Smurf about what happened to the others the next morning. Instead, all the Smurfs were captured by Gargamel after they acted like complete fools and Papa Smurf wound up saving them from the evil wizard.
11. The ending felt rushed, where neither of the other Smurfs actually apologize for their mistakes when learning about the dangers of the box and then we cut to the dirty cloud chasing Gargamel. The reason why it's rushed because it is structured incorrectly.
    • """I hope you learned a valuable lesson."
    • """Oh, we have, Papa Smurf!"
    • """Good! And I sure hope Gargamel has learned his lesson."""
12. There's one annoying part of the episodes where the smurfs themself almost started a fight because they all wanted to open the box first, though fortunately it was quickly stopped.
13. For some reasons, Papa Smurf does not appear for most of the episode until the ending, which feel off especially because of what happened in the episode and also because of the fact that he one of the most important characters of the whole series, even though in the end he at least helped the Smurfs to get out of Gargamel castle.
14. Much like the rest of season 2 episodes, the writters weren't credited.
15. Plot Hole: if the box play trick as soon as you own it, then why did Gargamel in the beginning didn't got a trick and instead just accidently throw it in the water?
16. Despite the ending being satistying for the fact that Gargamel was chased, the Smurfs didn't apologise for what happened and the ending also feel rushed.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Decent Ending: Despite WID#8 and also despite being rushed, Gargamel did get his consequences from capturing the smurfs and got chased by the Pink Cloud itself, and the Smurfs were saved by Papa Smurf.
2. Good animation and voice acting as always.
3. The concept itself is great, but unfortunately it was terribly executed due to being very boring and overall being a poorly done torture episode for the Smurfs.
4. Papa Smurf is likeable, as he saves his little Smurfs from Gargamel.
5. The other Smurfs dreaming about their favorite things through cloud bubbles is pretty creative.
6. Brainy gets some comeuppance for his actions, despite their being no logical explanation.

Trivia

• A few scenes have been cut out in the syndicated version.
  • The cloud scares Smurfette and makes Jokey the culprit by putting the bedsheets over his head. Then the cloud kicks Hefty's backside and caused Handy to take the blame.
• In this episode, Clumsy angrily reacts to being pelted by smurfberries. But in later episodes (such as "The Masked Pie Smurfer"), he is creamed with a pie and reacts with confusion instead.
• One of the most rushed Smurfs episodes, where it could've been expanded into a 22 minute episode. Other episodes that involve this problem include TBA, TBA

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