La Flûte à six schtroumpfs

This film has a huge amount of nostalgia for me. The scenes that most people dismiss are magical to a young child and I highly recommend for the right age bracket

Though only 17 years since I've known of it, I thought I'd commemorate the 25th(!) anniversary of the film by revisiting my childhood memories of it. Being a kid of the 80's, the Smurfs was one of the cartoons I grew up on. Apparrently they've been around since the late 50's and made it to the big screen in 1976 with this Belgium feature. I still remember saying "Mom, why are their voices different than on the tv show?" Today is still puzzles me. If this was dubbed for American audiences two years after the show premiered, why did they not go with the tv voices? Still don't know. And also, the voices we do get all seem to be echoing somewhat, with the exception of Papa Smurf. And there is no Smurfette. Or Gargamuel. Or Azreal. But it doesn't hurt the film at all, as the Smurfs are secondary anyway. They don't even show up until 25 minutes in! And aren't even really seen until 35 minutes in! But when the Land of the Smurfs is reached, it's guilty pleasure time, for me at least. The three dopey songs featured are somehow extremely catchy. The one explaining how the Smurfs tell each other apart. Then later it's human character Pee-Wee trying to make out the Smurf language. Capped off by "We're the Smurfs, la, la!" The main story concerns the title instrument, which makes people dance upon hearing it. It's stolen by a villian named McCreep, who robs people by playing the flute, which causes them to be unable to defend themselves. They dance about and he makes off with their gold. The flute was created by the Smurfs, so a prince and a short, excitable musician from a royal court are recruited in tracking down the Smurfs for help. Harmless fun for kids, and I still get a kick out of it today. The animation if fair for a 25 year old movie, as the real star for me was Pee-Wee. So, give it a shot for youngsters or have fun taking yourself back in seeing it for the first time in awhile.

Many adults forget that children used to the animated series "the Smurfs" may be disoriented by "The Smurfs and the Magic Flute". I don't forget how confused I was when my parents brought this home from the video store. First off, none of the usual human characters in the animated series appear in the movie. (Missing is Gargamel, among others). The biggest difference is that the voices of the smurfs are completely different than they are in the show, and only a fraction of the personalities in the show are represented. The voices have an eery and, frankly, annoying sound effect on them, making them sound even more chirpy and otherworldy than they ever did on TV.

These inexplicable inconsistencies are coupled with some basic faults: The smurfs do not appear until 20 minutes into the film, long after your kids have left the room or turned on the X box. The story is hard to follow and uninteresting. The magic Flute amounts to nothing more than an oddity for "hardcore" smurf fans.

My review was written in February 1984 after a Times Square screening.

"The Smurfs and the Magic Flute" is an uninteresting but innocuous animated feature film bringing the popular hit of books, tv and merchandising, the Smurfs (or "Schtroumpfs" as they were originally known in parts of Europe) to the big screen. Its success in U. S. distribution just before the last Christmas season is more a testament to effective marketing and a vacuum of new, G-rated product than to the virtues of the film itself.

Weak, episodic storyline, set in the Middle Ages, has a bandit named Oilycreep stealing the magic flute (which has the power to cause people to dance uncontrollably when it is played) from Pee Wee at the king's castle. Pee Wee, whose dubbed voice vaguely resembles that of comic Pee Wee Herman, sets out on a dull trek with his pal Johan to retrieve the magical instrument.

Hypnotized by a friendly wizard, the twosome are transported to the land of the Smurfs, tiny blue creatures who all look alike and wear white hats and pants, except for their 542-year-old leader Papa Smurf, whose hat and pants are red. The Smurfs fabricate a second magic flute for Pee Wee, who ultimately bests Oilycreep in a final reel musical battle. Film has no relationship to Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute".

Despite their billing and title come-on, the Smurfs do not appear (save for a tiny blue hand entering the frame at one point) until the second half of the film. A defensive song designed to demonstrate hw individual Smurfs act like their names only proves that the character animation here lacks the differentiation of say, Disney's Seven Dwarfs.

The film utilizes rather limited animation techniques, with pretty but strictly static backgrounds against which the characters move. Absence of much fantasy material is disappointing and the labored gags aren't funny. The Smurfs themselves have irritating resonant voices and the premise of substituting the word "Smurf" for nouns and verbs in their language is run into the ground. Michel Legrand's soundtrack score (to which additional music has been added for the U. S. release version) is subpar.

The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1975) is the second movie in the Smurfs franchise and it was very average.

Positives for The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1975): The animation in this movie looks pretty good and is a nice update from the 1960's movie. The Smurfs are still fun characters to watch on screen. The human characters were a nice addition and their interactions with the Smurfs were fun. And finally, I watched this movie for free on YouTube.

Negatives for The Smurfs and the Magic Flute,(1975): The Smurfs are barely in the movie and this movie has them as the title characters. The movie spends too much time on the human characters and they aren't even the reason to watch this movie. The magic flute doesn't really play a major part in the story and is just a random item for the humans to play with. And finally, this movie feels like it was supposed to be something different, only for the Smurfs to be added in at the last minute.

Overall, The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1975) is a fine animated movie from the 1970's, but it barely qualifies as a Smurfs movie.