Les Schtroumpfs

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 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.

A wise portrait of community. Seductive and inspired and useful. Amusing and lovely. Because it propose the expected stories about relations and about the importance of the other, about wisedome and generosity, about innocence and way to discover reality in delicate - courageous way.

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 ****