The Smurfs
- This article is about the Cartoon characters. For alternate meanings, see Smurf (disambiguation)
The Smurfs are a fictional race of small blue creatures that live in a forest somewhere in Europe. They were created by the Belgian cartoonist Peyo, but are best-known to English-speaking audiences through the animated television series by Hanna-Barbera Productions.
History
"Johan & Pirlouit"'
Peyo was the creator of a comic strip serial in Le Journal de Spirou called "Johan & Pirlouit" (translated to English as Johan and Peewit). Set in the middle ages in Europe, Johan is a brave young page to the king, and Peewit (pronounced Pee-Wee) is his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midget sidekick. Johan rides off to defend the meek on his trusty horse, while Peewit gallops sporadically behind on his goat, named Biquette. The pair are driven by duty to their king, and the courage to defend the underpowered.
On October 23, 1958, Peyo introduced a new set of characters to the "Johan & Pirlouit" story. This alone was nothing so exciting, as the brave duo were constantly running into strange new people and places. This time, they were charged with recovering a Magic Flute, which required some sorcery by the wizard Homnibus. And in this manner, they summoned a Schtroumpf.
"Schtroumpf" appears to be an invented word — it sounds like the German word "strumpf" ("sock"), but this might be a coincidence — and would later be translated to nearly 30 languages. One of those languages would be the English version, "Smurf". In any case, the tiny blue people were a sudden hit, commercially speaking. They quickly moved into their own comic series, which became a tremendous success.
Animated Smurfs
In 1965, a black and white 90 minute animated film was made about the Smurfs, Les Aventures des Schtroumpfs. It received little attention, and not much is known about it.
However, in 1976, La Flûte à six schtroumpfs (an adaptation of the original "Johan and Peewit" story) was released. Michel Legrand provided the musical score to the film.
In the late-1970s, Smurf merchandise made its way to America and was a huge success. NBC Television executive Fred Silverman's daughter had a Smurf doll of her own, and Silverman thought that a series based on the Smurfs might make a good addition to his Saturday morning lineup.
The Smurfs secured their place in pop culture immortality in 1981, when the Saturday morning cartoon, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions finally debuted on NBC. The show became a major success for NBC, winning numerous Emmy awards, and spawning spin-off television specials on an almost yearly basis.
In 1983, an English version of La Flûte à six schtroumpfs was produced, and titled The Smurfs and the Magic Flute.
Satanic rumors
During 1983, rumors of The Smurfs actually being satanic figures were spread across Puerto Rico. Those who believed the theory claimed seeing Smurfs below plants in their houses, next to their beds, dressed as The Devil, etc. As The Smurfs had just begun to be telecast by Telemundo Puerto Rico that year, there is a possibility that those rumors might have been started by a rival television channel.
Shortly thereafter in the United States various conservative Christian groups were also to label the Smurfs as "Satanic" due to the positive light in which the use of magic and sorcery were portrayed.
Later Years
The Smurfs television show enjoyed continued success until 1990, when, after a decade of success, it was cancelled by NBC due to decreasing ratings
The fate of the Smurfs was effectively sealed when, in late December, 1992, Peyo died in his hometown of Brussels.
It is definitely worth noting, with the commercial success of the Smurf empire came the merchandising empire of Smurf miniatures, Smurf models, Smurf games, Smurf toys. There are whole collecting clubs devoted to collected PVC toys. A scare story that claimed Smurf figurines used leaded paint circulated in Britain in the 1970s, leading Jonathan King to release a single, Lick a Smurf for Christmas (All Fall Down) under the name of Father Abraphart and the Smurps.
For a while Smurfs were used to advertise Renault garages and — in the United Kingdom at least — the figurines were given away when petrol was purchased.
Many people don't realise that the smurf figurines given away with the petrol promotions are actually still being produced today. The popularity of the Smurfs in countries such as Belgium and Germany has never waned and Smurf collecting is now a growing hobby worldwide. The PVC Smurf figurines were actually first introduced in Germany in 1965 with over 400 different figures having been produced so far. New smurf figures are still being produced, in fact there have only been two years (1998 and 1991) where no new smurfs were introduced.
Smurf Universe
The Smurfs
The storylines tended to be simple tales of bold adventure. The cast had a simple structure as well: all the characters look essentially alike — male, very short (just "three apples tall", a French expression), with blue skin, white trousers with a hole for their short tail, white hat, and some additional accessory that identifies each one's personality. (For instance, Handy Smurf wears overalls instead of the standard trousers). They can walk and run but often move by skipping on both feet. The Smurfs are never seen without their hats, which leaves a mystery amongst the fans if they do have hair or not. According to a canonical source, they are indeed bald: one episode of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon has Greedy Smurf removing his chef's hat to give Papa Smurf a pie he'd concealed under it, revealing a bald head.
The Smurfs fulfill simple archetypes of everyday people: Lazy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, and so on. All smurfs are said to be 100 years old, and there are normally 100 smurfs. This number goes higher as new Smurf characters appear.
- Papa Smurf is 542 years old, has a bushy white beard, and red hat and trousers. Papa Smurf is the oldest and therefore the wisest of all Smurfs, officially the leader of the village.
- Smurfette, a female smurf, who was chemically created by the sorcerer Gargamel, having more delicate features than the smurfs, wearing a white dress, white high heels and having long wavy blonde hair.
- Baby Smurf (male-gendered) joined the village later, brought in by a stork , which led the number of smurfs up to 101.
The number went eventually higher, as more Smurfs appeared.
In the mid-1980s, the Smurflings were introduced:
- 3 young boys (Slouchy, Snappy, and Nat). Originally, those kids were normal Smurfs from the village, but one day, they went inside a wizard's house under a request by Papa Smurf and then accidentally entered inside a magical grandfather clock. The clock, by a time spell, turned the three Smurfs into children.
- A little girl named Sassette. She is a redhead with braided hair and wears pink overalls. She was originally magically created like the Smurfette, but by the three kid Smurfs instead of Gargamel. The three kid Smurfs felt sorry for Smurfette who was lonely as being the sole female in the village, so they broke in Gargamel's mansion and stole the magical recipe book that was the origins of Smurfette's creation. They then created Sassette from it.
- An older version of Papa Smurf, Grandpa Smurf, was introduced several years later and was soon followed by Grandma Smurf. They are original to the animated series and don't appear in the original comics.
Gargamel
Their most nefarious enemy is the sorcerer Gargamel, and his cat Azrael. The bumbling duo's source of hatred for Smurfs was never made especially clear (even less so when the story was adapted for television). In the original comics, Smurfs are said to be the secret ingredient of the Philosopher's Stone, a point that was made clear in Gargamel's very first appearance on paper (In comic book volume 1: "The Dark Smurfs", "The Smurf Stealer" episode). This is sometimes mentioned in the animated series, but at times, Smurfs are also sometimes simply an excellent delicacy (mostly for Azrael who always wants to eat any Smurf it can find). Whatever the reason, it is very clear: Gargamel is the plague of everything Smurfy.
Smurf Language
Characteristic of their language is the frequent use of the word "smurf" and derivatives of it in a variety of meanings. The Smurfs replace enough nouns and verbs in everyday speech to make their conversations barely understandable. It was implied a number of times that the Smurfs all understood each other due to subtle variations in intonation that couldn't be detected by Johan or PeeWee (or the viewers). The Smurfs even made war between themselves about the use of the "smurf" word, whether to use it as a verb or as a noun.
Smurf Villiage
The Smurfs live secretive lives, in houses made from mushrooms or houses that just look like mushrooms (as they are often made of stone), somewhere in the middle of a deep forest. Johan & Peewit would make visits, as well as a number of other forest natives.
List of Smurfs
Baby, Baker, Bashful, Brainy, Clockwork, Clumsy, Dabbler, Dreamy (aka Astro), Farmer, Granny, Grandpa, Greedy, Grouchy, Handy, Happy, Harmony, Hefty, Jokey (aka Prisoner), Lazy, Miner, Nat (aka Natural), Nosey, Painter, Papa, Poet, Sassette, Scaredy, Sleepy, Sloppy, Slouchy, Smurfette, Snappy, Tailor, Timid, Tracker, Vanity, Wild.
Voices in the Hanna-Babera series
- Don Messick -- Papa Smurf/Azrael/Dreamy Smurf/Sleepy Smurf
- Paul Winchell -- Gargamel/Baby Smurf/Nosey Smurf
- Lucille Bliss -- Smurfette
- Barry Gordon -- Brainy Smurf
- Frank Welker -- Clockwork Smurf/Hefty Smurf/Peewit/Poet Smurf/Puppy
- William Callaway -- Clumsy Smurf/Painter Smurf
- Alan Young -- Miner Smurf/Farmer Smurf/Scaredy Smurf
- Hamilton Camp -- Greedy Smurf/Harmony Smurf
- Michael Bell -- Grouchy Smurf/Handy Smurf/Lazy Smurf/Johan
- June Foray -- Jokey Smurf/Mother Nature
- Linda Gary -- Dame Barbara
The Smurfs in other languages
- Basque: Pottokiak (singular: pottoki), after the Basque pony race pottoka. Early editions used pitufoak, straight from Spanish.
- Catalan: Barrufets (singular: barrufet)
- Czech: Šmoulové (singular: Šmoula), name based on their light blue colour.
- Danish: Smølferne (singular: en Smølf)
- Dutch: Smurfen (singular: Smurf)
- Finnish: Smurffit (singular: Smurffi)
- French: Schtroumpfs (singular: Schtroumpf)
- German: Schlümpfe (singular: Schlumpf, also a family name in German)
- Italian: Puffi (singular: Puffo), the name has been reinvented from scratch because in italian language the "schtroumpf" or (in Italian spelling strumpf) reminds speakers of Italian of the Italian word "stronzo", literally meaning 'piece of excrement'. Note that the dialect word 'strunz' is even closer to 'strumpf'. The fantasy name "Puffi" is derived from word "buffi" (singular: buffo, as in opera buffa) a word meaning at same time "funny" and "strange".
- Hebrew: dardasim (singular: dardas)
- Portuguese Estrumpfes (singular: Estrumpfe)
- Romanian Ştrumfi (singular: Ştrumf)
- Slovak: Šmolkovia (singular: Šmolko)
- Slovenian: Smrkci (singular: Smrkec)
- Spanish: Pitufos (singular: Pitufo; later used as a slang word for 'local cop' in Spain, after their blue uniforms). In an early time, they were published by the magazine TBO under the name of tebeítos.
- Swedish: smurfar (singular: smurf)
- Turkish: Şirinler (singular: Şirin)
- Serbian: Štrumpfovi (singular: Štrumpf)
More Smurf names (http://www.timelesstrinkets.com/Smurfs/CollectorPages/Languages.html)
- The Snorks were a similar, though less popular, fictional people.
External links
- The Smurfs Official Site (http://www.smurf.com/homepage.html)
- Blue Imps (http://www.blueimps.com) - Formerly known as Smurf Valley, this is a collectors' resource and features photos of many collectible smurf items, as well as detailing the history of how the Smurf story began.
- The Smurf Community (http://www.kittyscavern.com/forum) - Smurf forum moderated by several experienced Smurf enthusiasts
- BlueBuddies.com (http://bluebuddies.com/) - Smurf Compendium featuring over 2,000 different Smurf products.
- WebSmurfer (http://websmurfer.devnull.net/) - translates web pages into Smurf language, allowing you to "smurf the web"
- Papa smurf is a communist! (http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/1709/) website trying to prove exactly that
als:Les Schtroumpfs ar:سنفور de:Schlumpf es:Pitufo fr:Les Schtroumpfs nl:De smurfen sv:Smurf