The Smurfs (1981)

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The Smurfs (1981)
Being a Smurf is good and that's why we sing all day, doing things the Smurfy way!
Genre: Comedy
Fantasy
Running Time: 22 minutes
13 minutes (Season 9)
23 minutes (Half hours)
Country: United States
Belgium
South Korea (Animation production)
Release Date: September 12, 1981 – December 2, 1989
Network(s): NBC
Created by: Pierre "Peyo" Culliford
Distributed by: Worldvision Enterprises (United States)
IMPS (International)
Starring: Don Messick
Lucille Bliss
Michael Bell (Season 9)
Paul Winchell (Seasons 1-8)
June Foray
Frank Welker
Charlie Adler
Jack Angel
Bob Arbogast
René Auberjonois
Ed Begley, Jr.
Bernard Behrens
Jonathan Winters
Julie McWhirter
Pat Musick
Jered Barclay
Hamilton Camp
Seasons: 9
Episodes: 256 (417 segments)


The Smurfs (1981) is an American-Belgian animated-fantasy comedy children's television series that aired on NBC from September 12, 1981 to December 2, 1989. Produced by Hanna-Barbera, it is based on the Belgian comic series of the same name, created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo (who also served as story supervisor of this adaptation) and aired for 256 episodes with a total of 418 stories, excluding three cliffhanger episodes and seven specials.

Why It's Smurftastic

  1. The show is very faithful to the source material, despite the violence being toned down due to TV regulations.
  2. Memorable and likable characters such as Papa Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Smurfette, Clumsy, Gargamel and Azrael.
    • Johan and Peewit also have a separate fanbase. While not as well-remembered as The Smurfs, fans still care about them, and they are a good addition to the series overall.
  3. Wonderfully lush and classical music scores, even though they act more as musical accompaniments rather than specific-scene scores, as typical for Hanna-Barbera cartoons before 1994.
  4. The animation improves in Season 6 and onwards, when Hanna-Barbera began to farm their animation work overseas.
    • Animation became much more consistent across episodes. While some episodes from previous seasons had good animation (Once in a Blue Moon, The Purple Smurfs, The Incredible Shrinking Wizard, The Smurfs Who Couldn't Say No), others were not as dynamic.
    • Beginning in season six, some of the episodes were colored by Hanna-Barbera's computerized digital ink and paint system. A majority of season eight had been digitally colored as well.
    • The later seasons started to gain dynamic camera angles and paid less attention to repetitive background pans and recycled animation from earlier seasons. More characters had line-of-action and squash and stretch, thus making the animation more cartoony and dynamically posed.
  5. It's nice to see Brainy and Clumsy as best friends in the series. In the original comics, Brainy doesn't have a best friend and is hated for very little reason.
  6. The voice acting is top-notch for the most part. Sometimes, the Smurfs' voices vary in pitch due to the audio editing.
    • The French dub of the cartoon, airing on Gulli, has even more impressive voice acting, compared to its American counterpart.
  7. Memorable episodes with large number of memorable characters and moments.
  8. Various memorable villains, not just Gargamel and Azrael.
  9. Good writing, with well-written relationships/friendships and slapstick humor.
  10. Along with Snorks, the show has a good sense of comic book-style humor.
  11. It is the only series to be produced in the whole 80s from start to finish.
  12. It has its own trademark theme song, the "La La Song" (A.K.A. The Smurf Song)!
    • The theme songs in the French dub are also memorable, such as "Le Bebe Schtroumpf" and "Le Petits Schtroumpfs".
    • "The Smurfy Way" is considered this in European UK markets, and it is considered really catchy.
  13. King Gerard is one of the few characters to go through character development. He started off as being held prisoner by his evil aunt Imperia, who lies about her nephew having an illness. But thanks to the help of the Smurfs and Clockwork, she is finally disposed of, and Gerard becomes king. He is also the protector of the Smurf Forest, as shown in the episode, "Lumbering Smurfs".
    • Princess Sabina also applies to this, where she is both an action girl and a proper princess. She keeps her "action girl" side a secret from Dame Barbara most of the time. Sadly, her character was written out after season two and she had a non-speaking cameo in Season 4's "Blue Eyes Returns".
  14. We get the brief backstory of how Smurf Village came to be and the disappearance of Hotap, as shown in the episode, "Papa's Family Album". Although not explained further, it was interesting to see the male Smurfs as babies and gradually evolve into Smurflings.
  15. Smurfette's origins were changed for this series. Instead of leaving the village like in the original comics, she proves to be a real Smurf by saving her loved ones from Gargamel. She also displayed flaws like having too much Smurfberry candy and her intended refusal to practice her dancing. The comics also followed suit and Smurfette became a regular ever since.
  16. The Johan and Peewit episodes from seasons 2 and 3 were amazing, despite them being separated from the original Smurfs series when it was shown in European markets.
    • In reality, the cast of Johan and Peewit were added into the series for the third season as main and supporting characters under the "Smurfs" title after their segment was dropped.
    • Enchanter Homnibus became the most prominent character until his final appearance in the eighth season. Peewit still appeared as the main focus from time to time until his final appearance in "Peewit's Unscrupulous Adventure".
  17. The theme song's instrumental piece still sounds pleasant to hear without its super annoying lyrics (look for Season 4).
  18. The international theme, "The Smurfy Way" is a little more catchier than the one back in America. It discusses of what the Smurfs do all day, their pursuits of Gargamel and Azreal and the idea of no one finding their hidden village.
  19. Some of the Smurfs were given accessories and clothing to tell them apart, unlike the original comics by Peyo (for example, Hefty wearing heart tattoos on his forearms, Vanity dons a flower for his hat, Handy wearing overalls, etc.).
  20. The show is famous for its television specials, which have even better plots and animation. There are classics, such as:
    • The Smurfs' Springtime Special
    • The Smurfs' Christmas Special
    • My Smurfy Valentine
    • The Smurfic Games
    • Smurfily Ever After
  21. "The Purple Smurfs" changed the color of the infected Smurfs from black to purple to avoid racial connotations. However, the change ended up becoming successful in America and the English translation of the original comic did the same censorship in the 2010 Papercutz release (Except for the 1994 video game that released after this show was cancelled).
  22. Despite its later decline in popularity (thanks to the birth of the Renaissance Age of Animation), it managed to air on Saturday mornings for a whole decade until its cancellation in 1990.
  23. Wild Smurf has its origins about him being lost as a baby Smurf in the infancy of Smurf Village. When he was found 150 years later, he was welcomed to visit from his hut.
    • He finally learns the Smurf language in the 1998 comic adaptation, "The Wild Smurf". This version came eight years after the cartoon show had been off-the-air from NBC and eleven years after its seventh season premiere, "Smurf on the Wild Side".
  24. Other characters and villains (who didn't appear in the original comics) were introduced, such as Hogatha, Lord Balthazar, Chlorhydris, Selwyn and Tallulah Quarrel (and the ghost Fenwick Quarrel), Tharp, and some more. These new recurring characters and villains were created to keep the show from becoming strictly formulaic with just Gargamel and Azrael.
  25. When the comic stories were adapted for television, Smurfette was added to most of the stories where she didn't to begin with in the original version. This was done to prevent the viewers from believing that the male Smurfs were attracted to each other, as shown in the infamous Eskimo kissing scene from the 1976 film adaptation to The Smurfs and the Magic Flute.
  26. The series became more story-driven in Season 3, with better plots and new one-shot characters to keep the storylines fresh. Handy's inventions are more homage to modern technologies, unaware to the humans that are still using medieval techniques. It is a vast improvement over some the episodic one-off stories that emerged in the first two seasons, which are more slapstick-driven. However, it still reused most of the running gags and continued to end most of their episodes in a nonsensically comedic fashion.
  27. Despite the show's popularity being no longer relevant, there are some promos spawned from Cartoon Network. For example, The Smurfs Dating Competition is about Smurfette and the Smurfs on a game show. The original voice actors came back to reprise their roles as well. Smurfs-related skits and promos continued until the show was taken off of reruns in 2003.
  28. It received a revival reboot in 2021 of the same name, which is just as good as this series, if not, even better.
  29. There are lots of funny moments, such as Greedy explaining a recipe in the middle of an adventure.
  30. The last season introduced specific title screen art relating to each episode which is a huge improvement over the previous seasons, as they reuse the same four basic artworks that don't relate to each episode.

Bad Qualities That Gargamel Hates

  1. Smurfette's crying sound "boo-hoo", and sometimes even her voice, can be grating to listen to and Baby Smurf's wailing can sometimes come off as unpleasant and annoying rather than cute. This also happens while the Smurfs are having a conversation about Baby's diaper problem in his debut episode, "Once in a Blue Moon".
  2. Papa Smurf had an aggressive and short temper in the first season, being heavily based on the original comics. He would blatantly yell or insult the other Smurfs whenever they misbehave or never listen to him. He would often express anger in more ways than one, such as the opening scene in "Paradise Smurfed" when he forces Lazy to fetch a pail of water and near the end of "The Hundredth Smurf" where he kicked Jokey out of the village just for playing a joke on him. Over time, he would transform into the kindly father figure we know and love today.
  3. One episode, "Romeo and Smurfette" had Papa Smurf attempt to marry and/or impress Smurfette, which is considered pedophilia by today's standards.
  4. A few animation errors may occur (Papa Smurf's pants are miscolored white, Greedy's hat is misdrawn as a regular Smurf hat, animating a character to the wrong voice, etc.).
  5. Some episodes can range from weak to downright terrible, such as
  6. The ninth and final season, while good, is considered to be the weakest out of all as it mostly focuses on time traveling instead of Mushroom Village which is really out of place.
  7. The series finale "Hearts 'n' Smurfs" ended the series on a cliffhanger as it ended with the Smurfs going to another time period. Because of the show's cancellation after this season, it was never known if the Smurfs returned to their original time period.
    • Thankfully, it resolved it, when the video game, "The Smurfs: Travel the World" was released in 1996.
  8. Brainy Smurf was flanderized into a completely unlikable annoying smart aleck and spoilsport. He is also the Butt-Monkey of the series since he gets thrown out of the village by the other Smurfs when they rebuff his advice. He is considered incompetent in most episodes trying to help around the village, usually resulting in anger from the others (especially Papa Smurf). Not only that, but he is occasionally miscast as the antagonist dozens of times whenever Gargamel or the other villains are absent from an episode, even though he's supposed to be one of the good guys.
    • His villainous side debuted in the cartoon adaptation of "King Smurf". He ruled the village like a tyrant and started a civil war, though he does apologize at the end and is not as worse as his later appearances. In the original comic version, he was held captive as one of King Smurf's prisoners and is not the antagonist.
    • He was also unlikable in the episode "Clumsy Luck", since he was responsible for all the trouble Clumsy went though (when Clumsy broke Vanity's mirror, Brainy claimed that Clumsy got bad-luck by using the cliche about people getting bad luck from breaking a mirror and even tried to quarantine him, preventing him from having fun and seeing the meteor shower. And after Clumsy escaped from his house, a meteor crushed his house, causing the other Smurfs, especially Papa Smurf when he returned from Homnibus' place, to think Clumsy got killed and make a funeral for him. Brainy is also mourning as well (although it was all his fault, making him a hypocrite).
      • Thankfully, Clumsy returned, and much to everyone's surprise, they were happy to see him alive and well the whole time (Brainy also got what he deserved, but he never learned anything from it).
    • "The Smurfy Verdict" is another example. He framed Clumsy for the disappearance of Baby Smurf, although it was his responsibility to take care of him in the first place. He doesn't even apologize for framing his best friend and claims to finish off his case instead, lacking any empathy whatsoever. Being thrown out at the end doesn't trigger his empathy side either, he just complains about "Some justice."
    • In a few episodes before the first three aforementioned episodes above, Brainy has tried to act like he was second-in-command of the Smurfs because he was "Papa Smurf's assistant", when he was actually Papa Smurf's assistant for being his apprentice (or mostly, lab assistant) in his lab, meaning Brainy mistook his job of being a lab assistant to being second-in-command when Papa Smurf is absent.
      • Brainy Smurf also boasts on and on, making him a talkative Smurf and an annoyance to the other Smurfs.
    • He also lacks a sense of humor and can't take a joke, as shown in "April Smurf's Day".
  9. Most of the Smurfs (besides Brainy) can be unlikable at times, even though the Smurfs are supposed to be kindhearted and forgiving, especially to each other.
    • In "Vanity Fare", when Vanity is welcomed back with a trick mirror from Jokey, the other Smurfs (including Papa) laugh at him as he ran off into the forest, making the joke feel more mean-spirited than funny.
    • Some episodes where they tease Brainy Smurf at the end by making jokes about him or get annoyed with his endless talking, even if Brainy did help save the day or remained an innocent victim who suffers the most abuse, making the Brainy gag feel rather pointless at times (though it can be excusable at times since Brainy often brings this to himself).
      • They're also known to act hypocritical at times, in "The Lost City Of Yore" they keep scolding Nosey for sticking his nose into other Smurfs' businesses, even though in some episodes before said episode, they're prone to sticking their noses into other's businesses.
    • They even act like humans to Jokey whenever he plays a joke on them, and while Jokey needs to learn that jokes are only funny when someone thinks it's funny, they often punish him in the harshest way possible to the point where it comes as less like Jokey getting karma and more like Jokey getting tortured for playing even the most harmless joke to them, which also shows that they have no sense of humor and can't take a joke. It also doesn't help that the other Smurfs always says that Jokey always pranks them for his own amusement, even though its basically their own faults for always falling for Jokey's pranks, no matter how many times he pranks them more than once.
    • In "A Hug for Grouchy", Hug-a-Smurf Day almost became "Torture Grouchy Day". They keep on stalking Grouchy while trying to hug him and, instead of at least apologizing or at least promising to give Grouchy a hug if he clearly asks for one, they continue to stalk him. It's teaching viewers that you should share your feelings with others... by violating others' feelings when it comes to being touched! What's worse is that Papa Smurf encourages them to hug him, showing that none of the Smurfs really care about Grouchy's feelings and only care about what he should learn about.
    • In "A Mere Truffle", Poet and Harmony throw Grouchy out of the village just for saying that he doesn't like truffles, showing that they often like to force other Smurfs to like something they don't really like.
      • The same thing happens to Tracker Smurf for going on and on about truffles, making the others hypocritical on what they like. Tracker did nothing to deserve this treatment.
    • In some episodes, they often try to impress Smurfette and ask her to be their bride at times (even if she says that she loves them equally), implying that they see her as an object of affection instead of a real Smurf.
  10. With the exception of Papa Smurf, none of the other Smurfs believe Dreamy that he saw an alien and continue to think he's crazy, as shown in "It Came From Outer Smurf".
  11. Some characters can come off as one-dimensional without enough personality and/or having a lack of backstory:
    • Nosey Smurf only exists to constantly snoop into other Smurfs' businesses and hardly has respect for their privacy. His only appearance was in "The Lost City of Yore".
    • Dame Barbara is none other than a governess and tutor to Princess Sabina. She often gets mad at Peewit whenever he runs into her and usually chases him around the castle for unintentionally and deliberately mistreating her. She doesn't even know when to loosen up for once, excepting a few episodes such as "Johan's Army" and the end of "The Black Hellebore". Not only that, but she is also a bit bossy and overbearing when it comes to teaching Sabina. Like Brainy Smurf, she serves no purpose to the story other than being a gag character. Her character in the series is a bit similar to that of Miss Grundy from the Archie Comics.
    • Pushover Smurf, while still a good character, was never given a backstory of his own. Fans for years are wondering why he's such a pushover and doesn't have the chance to say "No" in his Smurflinghood.
    • While Nobody/Somebody Smurf has his fans, he is basically a flat character compared to the other Smurfs and is not well-defined at this stage. He was abandoned after his debut episode and none of the writers had the time to develop his character.
    • Don Smurfo can be considered a Gary-Stu in his storybook, but the same can't be said in one of his later episodes when he escapes into the real world.
    • Like in the comics, Smurfette has no personality traits other than being a girl, luckily this got fixed in the 2021 reboot series.
    • Snorks The Snorks is one of those exceptions, since they were created in Belgium. The only difference is that it takes place in modern times and has characters with a variety of colorful skins. Although not as popular as The Smurfs, the show had a sizable fanbase.
  12. One episode, "A Loss of Smurf" (although teaching the lesson to never take bad advice from strangers), introduces a one-time character named Lofty, who is a British-accented elf who claims himself to be an "elf-extrodinare" of perfection. He is the one who tricked Vanity by telling him that he will become more beautiful once he takes a bog bath, and after what really happened to Vanity of becoming a Wartmonger, Lofty was never to be seen throughout the rest of the episode (since it then switched the topic to Vanity almost becoming a member of the Wartmongers and making it look like he sacrificed himself as "King Vanribbity" to a monster who attempted to devour King Bullrush) or the rest of the series and never got defeated or confronted by the other Smurfs, making him the only character in the show to not receive any comeuppance for his actions (in other words, making Lofty a Karma Houdini, as well as the episode being the only one where an antagonist doesn't get any comeuppance for his/her actions.
    • It would've made viewers think Lofty would be the main antagonist of the show when he was a minor character who served as a cheat and fraud to a character.
  13. Some jokes in most of the episodes can be irrelevant, hit-or-miss, painfully punny or just plain silly.
    • For example, Farmer Smurf makes fun of Brainy's pig form in "The Littlest Witch" with pig jokes.
    • At the end of "The Magical Meanie", Grouchy hates genies, but the other Smurfs are annoyed by it. Grouchy had every right to say it, knowing that a genie double-crossed them all. It could've possibly happened because Grouchy always says what he hates, which is the running gag of the series.
  14. Because the Johan and Peewit episodes from the second and third season of the series got separated from the show in European markets, it kind of messed up the series since the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th seasons had episodes where Peewit appears on his own, as well as episodes featuring Homnibus and "Peewit's Unscrupulous Adventure" (in which the aforementioned episodes and appearances were included in the European release), so it would be confusing of how the Smurfs met Peewit, Homnibus, the King, and Johan who appeared in "Peewit's Unscrupulous Adventure".
  15. In syndicated prints on some of the episodes, the Smurfs and Gargamel sound more helium-ish than normal. This is due to the pitch of the soundtrack doubling two semitones of its pitch octave when being sped up.
    • The first two seasons also had some scenes missing in syndication, retaining their original pitch. For example, "The Smurf's Apprentice" is missing two scenes:
      • Papa Smurf went off to discuss of Clumsy's disappearance and the other Smurfs feel sorry for him.
      • The ending is missing as well. Clumsy is now accepted by his fellow Smurfs, despite his clumsiness.
    • The episode, "Squeaky" is another example. The syndicated version cut out the scene where Papa Smurf's lab was on fire, right before the scene where Squeaky dies.
  16. Some characters such as Sweepy Smurf and Don Smurfo, may feel out of place for a medieval fantasy setting, but are fan favorites nonetheless.
  17. Continuity errors on this show are spotty at best and nonsensical at worst.
    • "Denisa's Greedy Doll" is the worst offender. Not for its plot, but for Poet speaking in rhyming couplets. In previous appearances, he usually doesn't rhyme unless he works on poetry. But in this episode, he talks like this all the time (which can be confusing to viewers who watched the early seasons).
    • "Clumsy Luck" shows us that Papa Smurf doesn't believe in superstitions, when in the cartoon adaptation of "The Hundredth Smurf", he does. In the original comic story, the Dance of the Hundred Smurfs was originally the Dance of the Moon. It was also a ceremony held every 654 years, rather than a ritual to prevent them from bad luck.
    • Gargamel's motivations aren't clear in the cartoon show, as they vary from one episode to another. He would turn Smurfs into gold, cook and eat them alive, or destroy them.
    • The episode "Crooner Smurf" shows that Harmony is a bad singer as much as how he is when it comes to playing the trumpet and only sang perfectly and naturally with the use of an amulete Papa Smurf created for him. This contradicts a minor event in "A Mere Truffle" where Harmony is shown to be good at singing when he sings a song about truffles.
  18. Sassette's voice in the French dub sounds more masculine than feminine, meaning Sassette sounded like a boy in the French dub.
  19. Plot holes can be spotted in most of the episodes:
    • In "The Gingerbread Smurfs", Clumsy is making cookies with Brainy and is never seen throughout the rest of the episode. It is unknown whenever or not Clumsy got punished for helping Brainy make cookies that terrorized the village.
  20. Most episodes make it look like there's going to be character development on one of the main characters or one-shots, but due to status quo being more prominent in the series, they go back to their usual personalities. This is because the show wasn't made to be serialized and is in an episodic format like most slapstick comedy cartoons.
    • In "Chlorhydris' Lost Love", Chlorhydris got her heart broken when her boyfriend, Manfred, accidentally sat on her black heart arrows. She reverts back to her miserable self in "Smoogle Sings the Blues".
  21. One of the lyrics from " The Smurfy Way", "To Papa Smurf who always have a plan" is not entirely true. There are some episodes where the other Smurfs come up with their own solutions without the aid of Papa Smurf.
  22. The series would sometimes use running gags and practical jokes as boring filler to pad out the story's running time (either 13 or 23 minutes).
  23. Oliver, Homnibus' teenage servant, was omitted from the show when the Johan and Peewit stories were adapted for television, especially in episodes where Homnibus appears.
  24. The lip-sync in the French dub is way off, despite the Smurfs coming from southern Belgium. What makes it even more off is that only La Cinq airings used the theme song from the UK version. Instead, since the show aired on multiple channels including Antenne 2, La Cinq, Télétoon and currently Gulli in France, the dub had many different themes.

Reception

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Trivia

  • This show had noticable running gags, such as Brainy getting thrown out of the village and landing on his head (as well as his role of being the Butt-Monkey, a smart alek, and a spoilsport at times), Clumsy being his true nature, Harmony being tone-deaf and playing awful music on his trumpet, Grouchy stating what he hates (which could be that he states those things because he's only saying that due to his behaviour), Jokey giving surprise boxes to the other Smurfs, only for them to explode, Lazy Smurf always seen sleeping, and Vanity always looking in his mirror and worrying about his physical appearance.
  • The Smurfs are rarely seen without their hats, as seen in "Hats Off To Smurfs", where Vanity finds a new hat and takes of his old one offscreen (because he was behind a bush) right before he wears the new one. However, in "Gormandizing Greedy", when Greedy was forced to show he was hiding a cake under his hat, he took it off, partly revealing he is bald, meaning the Smurfs (mainly the male ones, not counting Smurfette who has hair and the female Smurfs from the comics and the third Smurfs film not related to the first two infamous theatrical live action films who don't appear in the cartoon because it was released 36 years before the film was released) were bald.
  • The episode "Handy's Kite" marks the only time Johan and Peewit were in the same episode with Gargamel, Azrael, and Balthazar. Balthazar appeared in the next Johan and Peewit episode "The Moor's Baby", and Peewit appeared in the episode "Baby's First Word". However, neither Johan or Peewit ever referred to Gargamel or Balthazar by name in the first aforementioned episode, Balthazar didn't interact with them in the second aforementioned episode, and Peewit, although seeing what happened in the third and last aforementioned episode, didn't interact or refer to Gargamel by name.
  • This show was one of the first Smurfs-related franchise to feautre Johan and Peewit characters since its departure in 1970 and appearing in the film "The Smurfs and The Magic Flute" in 1976. (1979 in the UK and 1983 in the USA)
    • There have been a few different versions of the US dub, with Johan being called "John" in the 1984 VHS release and a different voice actor for Papa Smurf. The original 1983 TV version of the dub also moves the Smurfs' party scene to the beginning of the film and adds narration.
  • The show is currently in reruns on Boomerang, Discovery Family (with the syndicated edits) and MeTV Toons and the first four seasons are streaming on HBO Max (uncut, restored and remastered). In France, the show's reruns are on Gulli for now.
  • Despite it's popularity, there are detractors, such as Trevor Thompson and PhantomStrider, who have a good reason why they dislike the show. They criticized it for changing the Smurfs from being mischievous in the original comics into easygoing little elves who are friendly to each other and sing happy songs. The stories were also panned for their overuse of practical jokes, running gags, their reuse of concepts, and grating voices (wasting the talents of classic actors). The former points out that Len Janson and Chuck Menville were the ones responsible for making changes to the comic stories while developing the show in its first season, despite them being talented artists themselves.
  • The show's reboot was announced in 2017. Dupuis Audiovisuel is planning to make the show more faithful to the comics. New stories would be made without the involvement of Hanna-Barbera, and it won't be a continuation of the 1980s series. The show premiered on September 2021 on Nickelodeon.

Episodes With Their Own Pages

Videos

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