The Smurfs

The Smurfs (Les Schtroumpfs in French) are a fictional race 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.

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"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. Johan rides off to defend the meek on his trusty horse, while Peewit gallops sporadically behind on his goat, named Biquette. The pair feel driven by their duty to their king, and by the courage to defend the powerless.

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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 summoned a Schtroumpf.

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"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 salt). The word sounds like the German word "Strumpf" ("sock"), but this might be a coincidence. It would later be translated into nearly 30 languages. In some of those languages, Schtroumpf became the word "Smurf", see The Smurfs in other languages. The word 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. They quickly moved into their own comic series, which became a tremendous success.

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Animated Smurfs

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.

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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.

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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.

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The Smurfs secured their place in North American pop culture in 1980, when the Saturday-morning cartoon, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, finally debuted on NBC. The show became a major success for NBC, winning numerous Emmy awards, and spawning spin-off television specials on an almost yearly basis.

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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.

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Smurf Figurines

Dupuis, editor of the Smurf comics, first produced Smurf figurines from 1959 on. The first one was a lifesize (i.e. 15 cm tall) normal Smurf, later followed by a few other lifesize Smurfs and a series of five small PVC figurines (papa, normal, golden, prisoner and angry). Those were only for sale in French and Dutch speaking countries. Truly mass produced Smurf collectible figurines, made of PVC, first appeared in 1965, made by the Schleich company. Introduced in Germany, the first three Smurf figurines were 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 seventies, Smurfs were also produced by rival German company Bully.

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

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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.

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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 colours according to the different countries they were produced in.

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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 new 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.

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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 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 exploding in the megalomaniacal dictator Smurf's face, getting thrown in jail with the Sing-Sing type striped dress. 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.

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Later Years

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

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The death of Peyo in his hometown of Brussels in late December 1992 effectively sealed the fate of the Smurfs. This did not stop the Smurfs comics, though, as Lombard Productions hired specialist cartoonists to imitate Peyo's style and draw more of the adventures.

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

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Paramount Pictures has announced it plans to begin a trilogy of 3-D 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.

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In 2005 the first adult-only episode of the Smurfs was aired in Belgium, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters' village is annihilated by warplanes http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/08/wsmurf08.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/10/08/ixhome.html. Designed as a UNICEF advertisement, and with the approval of family of the Smurfs' late creator "Peyo", the 25-second episode was shown on the national evening news after the 9pm timeslot. The scene starts with happy peaceful smurfs and butterflies, who are then bombed by warplanes, ending with a lone baby smurf surrounded by bloody and prone parents. The final frame bears the message: "Don't let war affect the lives of children." It is 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.

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French: French can refer to more than one article:...

Blue: :For other uses, see Blue (disambiguation)...

Forest: :This article is about forests as communities of trees. For other uses of the word, see Forest (disambiguation)....

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