Los Pitufos

I used to watch the Smurfs back when I was at least 5. And the appeal of the show hasn't dimmed. BTW: I'm 18 now.

Recently I read (or should I say "smurfed"?) one of the original Belgian comics, "L'Oeuf et les Schtroumpfs" ("The Smurfs and the Egg", where a giant egg begins to grant wishes), which also featured "Le Centième Schtroumpf" ("The 100th Smurf", where Vanity's mirror creates a new Smurf) and "Le Faux Sctroumpf" ("The False Smurf", where Gargamel disguises himself as a Smurf). And I enjoyed them all, despite the fact that they were in French (a language I studied in school)

And the cartoon is still a "smurfy" cartoon. Worthy of a smurf next time it comes on.

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.

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 ****

I'm really surprised when I see that so few user comments on such a hallmark show. To me the Smurfs defined the 80's. And most importantly, it was what a cartoon should be - plain and simple fun, a touch of morale lessons and most importantly, very little violence.

When you consider other cartoons that were popular in the 80's like Thunder Cats, the Smurfs come out way up ached, in all departments. What makes the Smurfs more interesting than its counterparts is the fact that it also was intellectual, not just a shallow action adventure cartoon, so even grownups can have fun watching it.

If you ever get a chance to watch it, don't miss it.

Trust me.

I absolutely loved watching the smurfs, i first watched it after the series finished in 1990, i never knew that there was a good cartoon series called the smurfs, when i first heard about them in 1996 i thought they were new for the 1990's but then i heard that they were popular in the 1980's. I was mad on smurfs when they released their song "I've got a little puppy". I thought that song was fantastic.