The Smurfs

While most Americans know the Smurfs as those loveable, over-happy, little blue people from the saturday morning cartoons, The Smurfs actually are a good deal older than that.

Pierre Culliford, a Belgian illustrator, began work at "Le Journal de Spirou", an illustrated periodical, fresh out of school.

(I'm having trouble translating, and really making out more detail on the topic of "Le Journal de Spirou". if someone could perhaps fill this in, that would be very usefull.) It appears to be something of a children's comic book from the sixties. Comic books of this age tend to be worth a great deal of money, thus very rare.

It is unclear when exactly, but early in his professional career, Pierre Culliford took on the name "Peyo", which his English cousin would call him because he couldn't pronounce "pierre" properly.

Peyo wrote and drew a number of characters and storylines, including "Poussy", "Pierrot", and "Benoit Brisefer" (translated to English as "Steven Strong"). But his favorite was "Johan & Pirlouit" (Translated to English as "Johan and Peewit").

Set in the middle ages in Europe, Johan was a brave young page to the king, and Peewit (pronounced Pee-Wee) was 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 was driven by duty to their king, and the courage to defend the underpowered.

On October 23, 1958, Peyo introduced a new set of characters to the "Johan & Pirlouit" story. This alone was nothing so exciting, as the brave duo were constantly running into strange new people and places. This time, they were charged with recovering a Magic Flute, which required some sorcery by the wizard Homnibus. And in this manner, they summoned a Schtroumpf!

'Schtroumpf' appears to be an invented word, and would later be translated to nearly 30 languages. One of those languages would be the English version, "Smurf". In any case, The tiny blue people were a sudden hit, commercially speaking. They quickly moved into their own series, which became a tremendous success.

(i will use the English versions of names from here on. Being my own language, and the language you are presumably reading in, it seems logical)

The storylines tended to be simple tales of bold adventure. The cast had a simple structure as well: all the characters look essentially alike: Male, very short (just "Three apples tall"), with Blue skin, white pants, white hat, and some additional accessory which identifies their personality. For instance, Handy Smurf wears overalls instead of the standard pants. The Smurfs fulfill simple archetypes of everyday people. Lazy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Poet Smurf, and so on. All smurfs are said to be 100 years old, and there were exactly 100 smurfs. Exceptions persist of course. Papa Smurf was 542 years old, has a bushy white beard, and red hat and pants. Papa Smurf was the oldest and therefore the wisest of all Smurfs, and tended to be the leader in times of crisis. There also existed Smurfette, the only female smurf. Baby Smurf joined the village later, bringing the number of smurfs up to 101 (Baby smurf is also male, make no mistake). And, at some point, the smurflings were introduced: 3 young boys, and a young girl.

The Smurfs lived secretive lives, in houses made of mushrooms, somewhere in the middle of a deep forest. Johan & Peewit would make visits, as well as a number of other forest natives. Their most nefarious enemy was Gargamel, and his cat Azrael. The bumbling duo's source of hatred for smurfs was never made especially clear. (Even less so when the story was adapted for television). Sometimes, Smurfs are said to be the secret ingredient to turn iron into gold. Sometimes, Smurfs are simply an excellent delicacy. Whatever the reason, it is very clear: Gargamel is the plague of everything Smurfy!

In 1965, a black & white 90 minute animated film was made of the smurfs, "Les Aventures des Schtroumpfs". It recieved little attention, and not much is known about it. However, in 1976, "La Flûte à six schtroumpfs" was released. The prolific Michel Legrand provided the musical score, and a distinguished cast provided lush voices.

The Smurfs' secured their place in pop culture immortality in 1981, when Hanna-Barbera began production for a new NBC televised saturday morning cartoon. The cast included some of the greatest voice actors ever:

• Don Messick -- Papa Smurf/Azrael/Dreamy Smurf/Sleepy Smurf
• Paul Winchell -- Gargamel/Baby Smurf/Nosey Smurf
• Lucille Bliss -- Smurfette
• Barry Gordon -- Brainy Smurf
• Frank Welker -- Clockwork Smurf/Hefty Smurf/Peewit/Poet Smurf/Puppy
• William Callaway -- Clumsy Smurf/Painter Smurf
• Alan Young -- Miner Smurf/Farmer Smurf/Scaredy Smurf
• Hamilton Camp -- Greedy Smurf/Harmony Smurf
• Michael Bell -- Grouchy Smurf/Handy Smurf/Lazy Smurf/Johan
• June Foray -- Jokey Smurf/Mother Nature

In 1983, an English version of "La Flûte à six schtroumpfs" was produced, and titled "The Smurfs and the Magic Flute".

The Smurfs television show enjoyed continued succes until 1990, when Hanna-Barbera simply was no longer able to compete with the changing role of American animation. The mythos of the saturday morning cartoon was falling apart, and more advanced animation techniques were in use. In short, The Smurfs' day had come and gone.

And the fate of the smurfs was effectively sealed when, in late December, 1992, Peyo died in his hometown of Brussels.

It is definitely worth noting, with commercial success of the Smurf empire came the merchandising empire of smurf miniatures, smurf models, smurf games, smurf toys ..... there are whole collecting clubs devoted to collected PVC toys.

The success of The Smurfs is probably owing largely to the fact that, unlike some material which passes as children's entertainment, The Smurfs arent outright banal. The are cheery and lovable, but not void of all thought. The smurfs have dreams of adventure and excitement. They have social and political ambitions. Some are lazy and some are annoying, but they all have a charm which is easy to identify with. It may not be for everyone of course. The stories are simple and sometimes insipid. But you could do a lot worse.