The Root of Evil (The Smurfs, 1981)

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"The Root of Evil (The Smurfs, 1981)"
The Curtain of Cruelty of the 1980's, but worse.
Part of Season: 6
Episode Number: 31b
Air Date: October 25, 1986
Writer: Kevin Hopps (story)
John Bonaccorsi (teleplay)
Previous episode: Dr. Evil and Mr. Nice
Next episode: Tattle-Tail Smurfs


"The Root of Evil" is a Season 6 episode from the 1980s Smurfs cartoon show.

Synopsis

Chlorhydris seeds a plant that makes everyone who touches it evil, and the effect can only be reversed by Baby Smurf's magic touch.

Why it's Evil

  1. The characters in this episode are unlikable and violent due to the Root of evil, and are at their absolute worst.
  2. It's an extreme torture episode for the smurfs, even if for the most parts they're unlikable, since they always fight for no reasons, being evil because of the plant when they didn't wanted to.
  3. The idea of a plant that makes you evil when touching it is a very creepy idea, and this episode off course doesn't execute the concept very well due to what happened in the episode.
  4. Chlorhydris' flanderization has been turned up to 11 in this episode, since she want to ruin the smurfs life by making them evil, which was the reason why they are unlikable in this episode.
  5. It isn't explained why Baby Smurf isn't turning evil despite being hit by the plant, although it might be because of the fact that he's just a baby.
  6. Disturbing scenes like Homnibus threatening to whack Papa Smurf and Mother Nature sending a stormcloud to the smurfs, which is extremely mean-spirited and almost unwatchable.
  7. False advertising: The Italian VHS cover shows Vanity teaching Bigmouth good manners, it was acutally seen on Educating Bigmouth and Vanity or Bigmouth are not seen in this episode.
  8. The scene of the Smurfs accuse each other for growing the root is so pointless, and mostly serve as fillers.
  9. The concept of red-eye Smurfs, while not a bad idea, is a very traumatizing idea, and even worse, this idea will be seen again in "Chlorhydris Lost Love", which was howewer not for the entire episode.
  10. There is a one disturbing and horrifying scene where Painter says that they should burn down Mother Nature's house, which sounds very disturbing and violent for a kids cartoon, and could traumatize a lot of young children and this episode should've been banned from reruns on Cartoon Network and Boomerang for this.
  11. The pacing is shockingly terrible compared to most episodes, this is mostly because it only focus on the plant that touch the smurfs to make them evil.
  12. Plot Hole: How does Mother Nature even know Homnibus as she says that the latter told her that the Smurfs are responsible for growing the root.
  13. Animation errors like when Farmer and Miner are having a tug-of-war over a carrot, Farmer's eyes are white instead of red. In the next shot, his eyes are red.

Redeeming Qualities

  1. The first four minutes we're alright as it feel like a normal decent Smurfs episode, until they turned evil.
  2. Good animation and voice acting as usual.
  3. Baby Smurf is the only likable character as he saved Papa Smurf from being evil, and thus they both saved the smurfs from it.
  4. This episode has a lot of hilarious dialogue like:
    1. "OF COURSE, AFTER I DO GET TIRED OF LOSING TO A LITTLE BLUE BUMPKIN"
    2. "NO!, PLAYING HARD TO SQUASH EH!"
    3. "NOW PUT THAT IN YOUR HORN AND BLOW IT!"
    4. "I NEED MY BOOKS BACK, MUSCLEHEAD!"
    5. "OFF TO MOTHER NATURE'S"
    6. "WE CERTAINLY DO, HOMNIBUS TOLD ME THAT YOU WERE RESPONSIBLE!".
    7. "CROSS DE FLAMBE!, LET"S SMURF DOWN HER HOUSE!!!!!!"
    8. "GIVE IT TO ME!, NO!,GIVE IT TO ME!, NO!,GIVE IT TO ME!, NO!,GIVE IT TO ME!, NO!,GIVE IT TO ME!, NO!,GIVE IT TO ME!, NO!,GIVE IT TO ME!, NO!,GIVE IT TO ME!, NO!"
  5. Good Ending: The Smurfs we're saved from being evil and then started to beat Chlorhydris with tomatoes, which was of course deserved.

Reception

This episode was panned by fans and is often considered to be one of the worst episode of the series, if not the worst.

Trivia

  • This is one of the two episodes where the Smurfs are seen with red eyes, The second is "Chlorhydris' Lost Love".
  • The title of the episode is based on 1st Timothy 6:10, which reads, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.".
  • Though the mention of Slouchy confirms that the Smurflings were in the village at the time of this episode, it is unknown if they were affected by the root (this may also go for Smurfette and Puppy).
  • This episode uses a plot that is similar to other episodes from other animated shows, including:

Episode

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