The Smurfs ( TV Series 1981 - 1990 )





 

Plot

The Smurfs is a comic and television franchise centered on a group of small blue fictional creatures called Smurfs, created and first introduced as a series of comic strips by the Belgian cartoonist Peyo (pen name of Pierre Culliford) on October 23, 1958. The original term and the accompanying language came during a meal Peyo was having with his colleague and friend André Franquin in which, having momentarily forgotten the word "salt", Peyo asked him (in French) to pass the schtroumpf. Franquin replied: "Here's the Schtroumpf  when you are done schtroumpfing, schtroumpf it back" and the two spent the rest of that weekend speaking in schtroumpf language. The name was later translated into Dutch as Smurf, which was adopted in English.



 

The storylines tend to be simple tales of bold adventure. The cast has a simple structure as well: almost all the characters look essentially alike  mostly male, very short (as tall as 3 crab apples high), with blue skin, white trousers with a hole for their short tails, white hat in the style of a Phrygian cap, and sometimes some additional accessory that identifies a personality. (For example, Handy Smurf wears overalls instead of the standard trousers, a brimmed hat, and a pencil above his ear.) Smurfs can walk and run, but often move by skipping on both feet. They love to eat sarsaparilla (a species of Smilax) leaves, whose berries the smurfs naturally call smurfberries (the smurfberries appear only in the cartoon; in the original comics, the Smurfs only eat the leaves from the Smilax). Smurfs are almost never seen without their traditional white hat on, but the few exceptions suggest that smurfs have no hair, with the exception of Smurfette and later Sassette, who are technically not smurfs.

The Smurfs fulfill simple archetypes of everyday people: Lazy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, and so on. All smurfs, with the exception of Papa, Baby, Smurfette, Nanny and Grandpa, are said to be 100 years old. There were originally 99 smurfs, but this number increased as new Smurf characters appeared, such as Sassette and Nanny. Smurfette is not one of the original smurfs because she was created by Gargamel, the evil wizard.



 

Smurf Language

A characteristic of the Smurf language is the frequent use of the word "smurf" and its derivatives in a variety of meanings. The Smurfs replace enough nouns and verbs in everyday speech with "smurf" as to make their conversations barely understandable: "We're going smurfing on the River Smurf today."

 

When used as a verb, the word "Smurf" typically means "to make," "to be," "to laugh," or "to do." When a word is replaced in a statement, that same replacement is made in every repetition of it, even by other Smurfs: as an example, the statement "A dragon that breathes fire" becomes "A smurf that smurfs smurf", no matter which Smurf says it.



It was implied a number of times that Smurfs still understand each other due to subtle variations in intonation. Humans have found that replacing ordinary words with the term "smurf" at random is not enough: in one adventure, Peewit explains to some other humans that the statement "I'm smurfing to the smurf" means "I'm going to the wood," but a Smurf corrects him by saying that the proper statement would be "I'm smurfing to the smurf"; whereas what Peewit said was "I'm warbling to the dawn." So "I'm smurfing to the smurf" is not the same as "I'm smurfing to the smurf." This is somewhat contradicted in The Smurfs and the Magic Flute when Peewit brags that he has mastered the Smurf language and "proves" it by asking for a drink of water ("Dear Smurf, I want a smurf"), leading to a musical number in which each of the Smurfs interprets "smurf" differently.

 

So that the viewer of the animated series is able to understand the Smurfs, only some words (or a portion of the word) are replaced with the word "smurf." Context offers a reliable understanding of this speech pattern, but common vocabulary includes remarking that something is "just smurfy" or "smurftastic."



In Schtroumpf vert et vert Schtroumpf (see Smurf Versus Smurf), published in Belgium in 1972, it was revealed that the village was divided between North and South, and that the Smurfs on either side had different ideas as to how the term "smurf" should be used: for instance, the Northern Smurfs called a certain object a "bottle smurfer," while the Southern Smurfs called it a "smurf opener." This story is considered a parody on the still ongoing taalstrijd (language war) between French- and Dutch-speaking communities in Belgium.



 

Smurf Village

When they first appeared in 1958, the Smurfs lived in a part of the world called "le Pays maudit" (French for "the Cursed Land"). To reach it required magic or travelling through dense forests, deep marshes, a scorching desert and a high mountain range. The Smurfs themselves use storks in order to travel long distances, such as the kingdom where Johan and Peewit live and keep up-to-date with events in the outside world.

 

In the Johan and Peewit stories, the Smurf village is made up of mushroom-like houses of different shapes and sizes in a desolate and rocky land with just a few trees.



However, in the Smurf series itself the mushroom-like houses are more similar to one another and are located in a clearing in the middle of a deep forest with grass, a river and vegetation. Humans such as Gargamel are shown to live nearby, though it is almost impossible for an outsider to find the smurf village except when led by a smurf.



 

Smurf Economy

The Smurfs' community generally takes the form of a cooperative, sharing and kind environment based on the principle that each Smurf has something he or she is good at, and thus contributes it to Smurf society as he or she can. In return, each Smurf appears to be given their necessities of life, from housing and clothes to food without using any money in exchange. This has led to the Smurfs being labeled, associated or praised as communists. On the other hand Peyo's son, Thierry Culliford, has stated in an interview that his father "wasn't interested in politics at all."



 

Characters

Papa Smurf is the leader of the community. Other smurfs are generally named after their personality disposition, for example, Brainy, Greedy, Vanity, Lazy, Clumsy, Hefty, Jokey, Dreamy, Grouchy or their profession, for example, Poet, Actor, Handy, Harmony, Farmer, Clockwork, Painter, Tailor, Miner, Architect, Reporter, Timber, Barber and Doctor Smurf. Other smurf characters include Grandma Smurf, Grandpa Smurf and Smurfette. The non-smurf characters who would appear later would include the evil Gargamel, his cat Azrael, and the page Johan, who went from print to film and TV. Johan appeared on the Smurfs TV series in the 80s, and on the same show, Peewit became Peewee, Johan's young friend.