Misplaced Pages

The Smurfs

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Nights Not End (talk | contribs) at 04:05, 18 February 2006 (→Later Years: disambiguation link repair). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 04:05, 18 February 2006 by Nights Not End (talk | contribs) (→Later Years: disambiguation link repair)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) "Smurf" redirects here. For other uses, see Smurf (disambiguation).

The smurfs (les schtroumpfs in French) are a fictional people of small blue creatures who live in a forest somewhere in Europe. The Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced smurfs to the world, but English-speakers perhaps know them best through the animated television series from Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Smurfs.

File:Smurflogo2.gif
Left to Right: Smurfette, Vanity Smurf, and Brainy Smurf

History

"Johan & Pirlouit"

Peyo wrote a Franco-Belgian comics serial in Le Journal de Spirou called "Johan & Pirlouit" (translated to English as Johan and Peewit). The setting lies in the Middle Ages in Europe. Johan serves as a brave young page to the king, and Peewit (pronounced Pee-Wee) functions as his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midget sidekick.

On October 23, 1958, Peyo introduced a new set of characters to the "Johan & Pirlouit" story. This alone caused no great excitement, as the brave duo constantly encountered strange new people and places. This time, they had the mission of recovering a Magic Flute, which required some sorcery by the wizard Homnibus. And in this manner, they met a schtroumpf.

Schtroumpf/Smurf Origins

"Schtroumpf" is an invented word. According to an interview with Peyo, the word came to him as he asked a friend for salt during lunch and, struggling to find the word that eluded him, finally managed to say "passe-moi le schtroumpf" ("pass me the smurf"). It would later be translated into nearly 30 languages and, in some of those languages, "schtroumpf" became "smurf" (see The Smurfs in other languages). "Smurf" was first used in Dutch, as the comics were simultaneously published in French (in Spirou magazine) and Dutch (in Robbedoes, the Dutch translation of the magazine). In any case, the tiny blue people proved a sudden hit, commercially speaking, and quickly moved into their own comic series which became a tremendous success.

According to several interviews with Peyo, his own preference went to his "Johan & Pirlouit" series, and he sometimes expressed exasperation with the overbearing success of the smurfs.


Comic Series

The comic series is currently made out of 24 issues in French, and they are considered classics in Europe, especially in the French-speaking communities. Album titles follows, including the year of first original French publishing. The order and number of titles is different in other languages, and spin-off series have been created as well. After album 16, and Peyo's death, the albums have been published without his supervision:

  • 1: Les Schtroumpfs noirs (The Dark Smurfs) - 1963
  • 2: Le Schtroumpfissime (King Smurf) - 1965
  • 3: La Schtroumpfette (Smurfette) - 1967
  • 4: L'oeuf et les Schtroumpfs (The Smurfs and the Magical Egg) - 1967
  • 5: Les Schtroumpfs et le Cracoucass (The Smurfs and the Cracawcass) - 1969
  • 6: Le Cosmoschtroumpf (Astro Smurf) - 1970
  • 7: L'apprenti Schtroumpf (The Apprentice Smurf) - 1971
  • 8: Histoires de Schtroumpfs (Smurf Stories) (the only album not being one adventure, but an anthology of comical one-page stories) - 1972
  • 9: Schtroumpf vert et vert Schtroumpf (Smurf Versus Smurf) - 1973
  • 10: La soupe aux Schtroumpfs (Smurf Soup) - 1976
  • 11: Les Schtroumpfs olympiques (Smurfic Games) - 1983
  • 12: Le bébé Schtroumpf (Baby Smurf) - 1984
  • 13: Les p'tits Schtroumpfs (The Smurflings) - 1988
  • 14: L'aéroschtroumpf (The Aviator Smurf) - 1990
  • 15: L'étrange réveil du schtroumpf paresseux (The Strange Awakening of Sleepy Smurf) - 1991
  • 16: Le Schtroumpf financier (Finance Smurf) - 1992
  • 17: Le Schtroumpfeur de bijoux (The Jewel Smurfer) - 1994
  • 18: Docteur Schtroumpf (Doctor Smurf) - 1996
  • 19: Le Schtroumpf sauvage (The Wild Smurf) - 1998
  • 20: La menace schtroumpfs (The Smurf Menace) - 2000
  • 21: On ne schtroumpfe pas le progrès (You don't smurf progress) - 2002
  • 22: Le schtroumpf reporter (Reporter Smurf) - 2003
  • 23: Jeux de Schtroumpfs (Smurf Games) - 2005
  • 24: Salade de Schtroumpfs (Smurf salad) - 2006

Animated Series

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.

Hanna-Barbera Series

In the late 1970s, smurf merchandise, distributed exclusively by a California company, Wallace Berrie and Co., made its way to America and became 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 North American pop culture in 1980, when the Saturday-morning cartoon, The Smurfs, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, finally debuted on NBC from 1981 to 1990. The show became a major success for NBC, spawning spin-off television specials on an almost yearly basis. The Smurfs was nominated multiple times for Emmy awards, and won Outstanding Children's Entertainment Series in 1982-1983. Parts of Modeste Mussorgsky's 1874 classical musical composition, Pictures at an Exhibition (Gnomus, Tuileries, Gargamel's theme variation about 1.5 minutes in, and a scene segue part about 10 minutes in), are used in the cartoon . The series currently airs in reruns on Boomerang, and 26 selected episodes are aired in DiC Entertainment's syndicated programming blocks.

Voices

Movies

In 1983, an English version of La Flûte à six schtroumpfs was produced, and titled The Smurfs and the Magic Flute. A few more long smurf movies were made, most notably The Baby Smurf.


Smurf Figurines

Dupuis, editor of the smurf comics, first produced smurf figurines from 1959 on. The first one was a series of three 5 cm tall figurines (Papa, Normal and Angry), followed in the next decade by some larger figurines. Those were only for sale in French- and Dutch-speaking countries. In 1965, Schleich, a German company, made the first truly mass-produced PVC smurf collectible figurines (the first three being Normal Smurf, Gold Smurf and Convict Smurf (complete with black-and-white striped prisoner's outfit). In 1966, Spy Smurf, Angry Smurf, and Drummer Smurf appeared. In 1969, five more smurfs followed: Moon Smurf, Winter Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Guitar Smurf, and Papa Smurf. In the 1970s, smurfs were also produced by rival German company Bully.

Neither Convict Smurf nor Spy Smurf ever appeared in the animated television series, although both Spy Smurfs and convicted smurfs played a minor role in the original second issue of the comic "Le Schtroumpfissime" ("King Smurf"). In this story, Papa Smurf leaves the village and a clever smurf (Brainy in the cartoon) manages to gain power by winning an election through exaggerated election promises, and later turns into a dictator-type king. Jokey Smurf is arrested for having a bomb explode in the megalomaniacal dictator smurf's face and is thrown in jail with the Sing-Sing-type striped outfit. Later, the Spy Smurfs manage to liberate the political prisoner, while Brainy Smurf gets captured in the process. A running gag through the comic is that no-one is interested in liberating Brainy Smurf.

For a while advertisers used smurfs to promote Renault, National Benzole, and BP garages and—in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand at least—the figurines were given away when petrol (gasoline) was purchased.

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 Smurp for Christmas (All Fall Down) under the name of Father Abraphart and the Smurps. This was a parody of the smurf song by Father Abraham and the Smurfs, a worldwide hit single. The lead paint scare was brought about by a group of people in the marketing department of National Benzole who decided to outsource some smurf figurines to be made in Hong Kong instead of Europe, just 4 or 5 different lines. It was later discovered that these had been produced without adhering to the necessary quality standards so they were deemed possibly unsafe. Paint dots were then introduced on the feet of PVC figurines so that they could identify the ones with paint dots as having passed quality control tests and they were also given different colors according to the different countries they were produced in.

Many people do not realise that the smurf figurines given away with the petrol promotions actually still continue in production today. The popularity of the smurfs in countries such as Belgium and Germany has never waned, and smurf collecting has become a growing hobby worldwide, with 400 different figures produced so far. New smurf figures continue to appear: in fact, only in two years since 1969 (1991 and 1998) have no new smurfs entered the market. Schleich's release of 2005 smurfs sees a return to the "classic" smurf characters, with new figurines of Papa, Smurfette, Grouchy, Brainy, Vanity, Jokey, Harmony, and Baby Smurf, while the 2006 series consists of Halloween and horror characters.

Smurfs on Ice

For several years, the smurfs were the children's act in the Ice Capades travelling ice show; for many years after they were retired from that function, the smurf suits from the show were issued to Ice Capades Chalets, the show's subsidiary chain of ice rinks, lasting until the show was sold to a group of investors led by Dorothy Hamill, and the Chalets were sold to Recreation World. The Smurfette suit in particular had a somewhat different hairstyle from what was portrayed in the Hanna-Barbera cartoons.

Later Years

The Smurfs television show enjoyed continued success until 1990, when, after a decade of success, NBC cancelled it due to decreasing ratings.

The death of Peyo in his hometown of Brussels in late December, 1992 did not stop the smurfs comics, as a studio of specialist cartoonists was already in place and continued to write and draw more of the adventures.

With the commercial success of the smurf empire came the merchandising empire of smurf miniatures, models, games, and toys. Entire collecting clubs devote themselves to collecting PVC toys.

Paramount Pictures has announced it plans to begin a trilogy of 3D computer animated smurfs films, the first to be released in 2008 through its Nickelodeon Films banner. The project had been in various stages of development since 2003. The first smurf movie is planned to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the smurfs.

The smurfs have appeared in video games made for most major game consoles (including Nintendo's NES, Super NES, and Game Boy systems; Atari, Colecovision, Sega's Game Gear, Master System, and Mega Drive systems; and the original Sony Playstation) and for the PC.

File:Smurf.Unicef.jpg
UNICEF advertisement (2005)

In 2005, an advertisement featuring the smurfs was aired in Belgium in which the smurf village is annihilated by warplanes . Designed as a UNICEF advertisement, and with the approval of the family of the smurfs' late creator Peyo the 25-second episode was shown on the national evening news after the 9pm timeslot to avoid children seeing it. The scene starts with happy peaceful smurfs and butterflies, who are then bombed by warplanes, ending with a lone Baby Smurf surrounded by prone (presumably dead) smurfs. The final frame bears the message: "Don't let war affect the lives of children." It was the keystone in a fund-raising campaign by UNICEF's Belgian arm to raise £70,000 for the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo--both former Belgian colonies. The episode was controversial and upset some children, parents, and concerned citizens. However, UNICEF spokesman Philippe Henon had stated that 70% of all feedback was positive.

Rumors

Satanic Rumors

During 1983, rumors of the smurfs' satanic activities 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 Telemundo Puerto Rico had just begun to telecast smurfs programs that year, a possibility exists that a rival television channel started the rumors.

The rumors spread like wildfire through the religiously conservative Latin America, where people went so far as to claim that small, demon-like smurfs propagated through their recorded albums and attacked those who would play their music. This was very much in tune with the prevalent belief of the 1980s of satanic propagation through recorded music, as many rock bands made open references to satanism in their work.

Shortly thereafter in the United States, various conservative Christian groups also began to label the smurfs as "satanic"--due to the positive light in which their activities portrayed the use of magic and of sorcery.

The Smurfs & Communism

Main Article: The Smurfs and communism

It is now argued by some that Peyo meant to spread communist ideas through smurf cartoons. S.M.U.R.F. is translated by supporters of this theory as "Socialist Men Under Red Father" or "Soviet Men Under Red Father". The Red Father in the cartoon is Papa Smurf, who wears a red hat and trousers. It is also noted that Papa Smurf might be a representation of Karl Marx because of his similar looking beard. Of course, as Peyo used the nonsensical term schtroumpf, placing any meaning on the word smurf is a fallacy.

An analysis of the symbolism of the smurfs also can point to that theory. Smurfs live in a village with rules similar to that of a communist society including sharing of everything by everyone, absence of currency, equality (symbolized by similar clothing), everyone serving a functional and necessary purpose in the community, etc. Gargamel is said to represent capitalism with particular emphasis being made on his greediness.

Smurf Universe

The Smurfs

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 — male, very short (just "three apples tall", a French expression--most likely crab apples), with blue skin, white trousers with a hole for their short tails, white hat, and some additional accessory that identifies each one's personality. (For instance, 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 smilax leaves, whose berries the smurfs naturally call smurfberries.

The male smurfs almost never appear without their hats, which leaves a mystery amongst the fans as to whether they have hair or not. There is evidence from a canonical source, that they may be bald: one episode of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon has Greedy Smurf removing his chef's hat to give Papa Smurf a pie he had concealed under it, revealing a bald head. Another episode, St. Smurf and the Dragon, shows Hefty's hat rising up off his bald head briefly as he and others slide to a stop. Though both Papa Smurf and Grandpa Smurf have full beards and hair visibly coming from under their hats above the earline, it is not known if this covers their entire 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 (but this number increases as new smurf characters appear: smurflings, Nanny, etc).

For a list of specific smurfs see Characters in the Smurfs.

Smurf Language

Characteristic of smurfy 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 with smurf as 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 Johan or PeeWit (or the viewers) could not detect.

So that the viewer is able to understand the smurfs, only some words (or a portion of the word) will be 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".

The smurfs even made war among themselves about the use of the "smurf" word: whether to use it as a verb or as a noun. This story is considered as a parody on the taalstrijd (language war) between French and Dutch speaking communities, still present in Belgium.

Smurf Village

The Smurfs live in houses made from mushrooms or houses that just look like mushrooms (often made of stone), somewhere in the middle of a deep forest. Johan and Peewit would make visits, as well as a number of other forest natives.

List of Smurfs

See Characters in the Smurfs

The Smurfs in other languages

  • Arabic: سنافر (sanafer) or singular: سنفور (sanfur)
  • Basque: pottokiak (singular: pottoki), after the Basque pony race pottoka. Early editions used pitufoak, straight from Spanish.
  • Catalan: barrufets (singular: barrufet)
  • Chinese: 藍精靈 (lán jing líng - blue fairy spirits/elves/pixies)
  • Croatian: Štrumpfovi (singular: Štrumpf)
  • Czech: Šmoulové (singular: Šmoula), name based on their light blue colour.
  • Danish: smølferne (singular: en smølf). Originally published as snøvserne (singular: en snøvs)
  • Dutch: smurfen (singular: smurf)
  • Finnish: smurffit (singular: smurffi) . The word is also used of meter maids and ticket inspectors operating in subways, because of their blue uniforms.
  • French: schtroumpfs (singular: schtroumpf)
  • German: Schlümpfe (singular: Schlumpf). The original French schtroumpf sounds very similar to the German word Strumpf meaning "sock" or "stocking".
  • Greek: Στρουμφάκια (stroumfakia) or singular: Στρουμφ/Στρουμφάκι (stroumf/stroumfaki)
  • Hebrew: דרדסים (dardasim) or singular: דרדס (dardas). Dardak is a small child. The somewhat rare Hebrew word "dardas" has got totally unrelated meaning (slipper and also overshoe), and therefore should be treated as an invented word when refering to smurfs.
  • Hungarian: törpök (singular: törp), and also: hupikék törpikék (singular: hupikék törpike). Please note that it is a spelling mistake to write these terms in capital letters.
  • Icelandic: strumparnir (singular: strumpur)
  • 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 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".
  • Japanese: スマーフ (sumaafu - a sound approximation)
  • Korean: 스머프 (seumeopeu - a sound approximation)
  • Lithuanian: smurfai (singular: smurfas)
  • Norwegian: smurfene (singular: smurf)
  • Polish: smerfy (singular: smerf)
  • Portuguese estrumpfes (singular: estrumpfe), (Brazil knows them as smurfs)
  • Romanian Ştrumfi (singular: Ştrumf)
  • Serbian: Штрумпфови (Štrumpfovi) or singular: Штрумпф (Štrumpf)
  • 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. In some places like Argentina they are called bolites (singular: bolite).
  • Swedish: smurfar(na) (singular: smurf)
  • Turkish: Şirinler (singular: Şirin)(feminin:şirine) the name means cute in Turkish from Persian "شيرن ― sweet"
  • Urdu: اسمرف (ismurf)
  • Vietnamese: xì trum

more smurf names

Similar Creatures

  • The Astrosniks were a similar fictional race with a space-based theme, made by figurine company Bully after they lost the license to the smurfs.
  • The Snorks were a similar, though less popular, fictional people that lived underwater and had snorkel-shaped protrusions on their heads.
  • The Littl' Bits were a fictional race of tiny forest people that resemble smurfs in their size and naming convention.
  • The Nac Mac Feegle or Wee Free Men of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. They are not smurfs, but they do have a smurf-like appearance due to their small size and blue skin-tatoos.
  • The Gnome Family, produced by Empire, was an apparent Smurf knock-off that some misidentify as Smurfs. They are similar 2.5 inch high PVC figurines, wear similar hats and pants, and are available in over 100 different models. Their skin and clothing can be found in many different colors however.

In the arts

  • Vader Abraham (actually Pierre Kartner), a Dutch singer, wrote and performed the Smurfenlied, which became an instant hit in the German language area in the late 70s. It consisted of a question-and-answer dialogue between Vader Abraham and a couple of Smurf puppets.

See also

External links

Categories: