Die Schlümpfe

Anyone who flipped on cartoons from 1981-1989, or was under 10 in those years, knows The Smurfs. It's as standard as Superfriends, and just as Hanna Barbara -esque. As such, you'll never not see it on Cartoon Network.

Still a good percentage of the classical music I know I first met through the background music on The Smurfs.

Retrospectively, the thing that amazes me the most was how much of a springboard it was for all the actors involved. Click on any name above, and you'll see that almost every character is still making major features. You'll recognize those whom they became. Azrael was the voice of the Martians on Mars Attacks! and Bandit on Johnny Quest. Gargamel became Dick Dastardly. Vanity Smurf was Skeletor. Papa Smurf was the same as Droopy Dog.

Basically, everyone who ever touched this show became an industry-standard in voice-overs.

There's no competition there. This is THE series of my childhood. I considered myself the biggest fan ever. I bought every kind of Smurfs merchandise I could afford and even dressed up as Papa Smurf at Purim (the Jewish equivalent of Halloween).

The series was cute without pushing it. The Smurfs were charming and adorable. The storyline were child friendly, but still clever and inventive. I will never forget my favorite episode where a spooky mosquito bites a smurf and turns him to a purple zombie who then bites other smurfs, turning them all to zombies one by one. It was quite spooky and the climax was better than many horror-thriller movies I've seen. Classic magical stuff.

*Sigh* Today's series are either too quirky or too mushy.

I used to watch "Smurfs" every day as a kid, and at 18 I remember the show with such fondness. It is a real shame I haven't seen Smurfs on TV for such a long time, it was a cartoon classic. It had great animation with nice, clean colouring and well drawn characters, a catchy theme tune and clever background music, fun, gripping story lines that often taught something, strong writing and most of all unique and endearing characters. Who can forget Papa Smurf, Handy, Clumsy, Smurfette, Greedy, Smurfy, Vanity and Baby? And of course villainous Gargamel and his somewhat cute feline sidekick Azrael? These are great characters and are well voiced by the likes of June Foray, Don Messick, Frank Welker, Alan Oppenheimer, Alan Young and Lucille Bliss. Overall, a cartoon that I will always revere as a classic. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I used to love The Smurfs when I was a kid. They were a true highlight. I've been hearing lots of stuff lately that they were socialists and all the stuff about stereotyping, but I think that's digging in a bit too deep. The show was obviously aimed at kids. What do kids care about such things? I didn't. I thought the Smurfs were cute and the episodes were all good. For some reason, I've never been able to get such episodes as "The Purple Smurfs" and "Forget-Me-Smurf" out of my mind. Those episodes made huge impact on me. I think every kid would be enchanted by these little blue creatures. I loved them.

*** out of ****

This is one of the more famous cartoons of the '80s. Like He-Man, Thundercats, G.I. Joe and Transformers, this cartoon was pure '80s. The difference here is that Smurfs was a Saturday morning toon, opposed to being an after school weekday toon like the others. And it was probably the best made Saturday morning toon of the '80s. Waking up at 6 in the morning to see these toons was a treat that kids in the '80s will always remember.

Wow I feel old because I actually remember watching the very FIRST episode of Smurfs as it originally aired in 1981. I must have been about 5 or 6 years old. It's a vague memory, but it's there. My older sister who was 11 at the time watched it with me with just as much passion and awe.

I'm really surprised to find out that this series ran through the entire '80s and even into 1990. That's really something. No wonder this show has so many fans that are a lot younger then me. I always wondered why this series has so many fans so much younger then me, and finding out that "The Smurfs" ran into 1990 explains that part. I guess I thought this show must have been cancelled around 1986 or 1987, because I remember I stopped watching this show at that time when I was around 11 years old. It's a great toon and it's too bad they don't release these on VHS or DVD.