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. 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.
5. 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.
6. Much like the rest of season 2 episodes, the writters weren't credited.
7. 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?
8. 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, 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. At least the Smurfs are still likable for the most parts.
3. Good animation and voice acting as always.
4. 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.

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.

Comments

Loading comments...