The Purple Smurfs (The Smurfs, 1981)

"The Purple Smurfs (The Smurfs, 1981)"
"GNAP!" - Purple Smurf
Series: The Smurfs (1981) Episode Number: 20b (24 overall) Air Date: October 31, 1981 Previous episode: "Haunted Smurfs" Next episode: "The Fountain Of Smurf"

"The Purple Smurfs" is an episode of The Smurfs and an animated adaptation of The Black Smurfs.

Why it Rocks

1. Despite the change of colors, this episode retains the original concept of the comic story pretty well. There wasn't that much to tone down, unlike the later episodes that came after Season 4.
2. Smurfette is a good addition, despite her not included in the comic story. She is also there to help the healthy Smurfs cure the other infected Smurfs.
3. Most scenes came straight from the comics, while some elements are fairly new material. They added the part where Brainy pretends he caught Clumsy, only to be scared and leap into Smurfette's arms (a la Scooby Doo). Ironically, Hanna-Barbera worked on Scooby-Doo before they produced this series.
4. Papa Smurf makes a promise to never complain about the behavior of other Smurfs, which never happened in the original comic story.
5. The change from Grouchy to Lazy being the first Smurf to get bit is pretty decent, but considered pointless thanks to the 2021 series.
6. The beginning is a bit more expanded and different, compared to the original comic. In the original comic, it introduced the Smurfs and the narration talked about the map to their village. But, there was no scene about Papa Smurf making an announcement to his little Smurfs about fixing the bridge.
7. Good animation and voice acting.
8. Funny moments, such as Vanity mistaking the word "Gnap!" for Lazy taking a nap and the ending where Jokey tricks the other Smurfs into thinking there's another infected Smurf in the village.
9. Like in the original comics, the "Bzz" fly disease is a good satirization of the Black Plague, where it spreads among the community of the Smurfs and the only cure for the disease is tuberose pollen.
10. Compared to the original comic, the Smurf language was toned down for this adaptation. In the original comics under their earlier appearances in the Johan and Peewit series, the Smurfs initially had a far thicker dialect of the Smurf language to the point where people have a hard time understanding them.

Bad Qualities

1. Despite being an adaptation, some scenes such as a Smurf getting the wrong thing three times, were cut from the episode. Also, the cartoon ends with Jokey talking to the audience, instead of ending with a party like in the comic.
2. The change from Grouchy to Lazy comes off as pointless, thanks to "Unsmurfable Smile", an episode of the recent 2021 series.
3. Smurfette is involved in getting bitten by the Purple Smurfs, which is unusual for someone originally made out of clay and turned to good by the village leader. How come she is not immune to the "Bzz" fly disease?

Trivia

• The episode is based on the first comic story, The Black Smurfs, but with major differences:
  • In the comic, the off-screen narrator explains about the introduction of the Smurf Village and the language of Smurf. This was changed to Papa Smurf making an announcement in the cartoon episode.
  • In the cartoon episode, Smurfette paints the dam pink. This does not happen in the original comic story.

Comments

Loading comments...