| The Smurfs | |
|---|---|
A Smurf. |
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| Format | Comic book series Animated television series |
| Created by | Pierre Culliford aka Peyo |
| Country of origin | Belgium |
| No. of episodes | 421 (total) 91 (30 minutes) 330 (15 minutes) 256 (total combined half-hour episodes) (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original run | September 12, 1981 – January 12th, 1990 |
The Smurfs (Les Schtroumpfs) are a fictional group of small sky blue creatures who live in Smurf Village somewhere in the woods. The Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced Smurfs to the world in a series of comic strips, making their first appearance in the Belgian comics magazine Le Journal de Spirou on October 23, 1958. The English-speaking world perhaps knows them best through the popular 1980s animated television series from Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Smurfs.[1]
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At the time, Peyo (original name Pierre Culliford) created a Franco-Belgian comics series in Le Journal de Spirou titled Johan et Pirlouit (translated to English as Johan and Peewit), set in Europe during the Middle Ages. Johan serves as a brave young page to the king, and Peewit (Pirlouit, pronounced Peer-loo-ee) functions as his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midget sidekick.
On October 23, 1958,[2] Peyo introduced a new set of characters to the Johan et Pirlouit story La flûte à six trous.[3] 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 met a tiny, blue-skinned humanoid creature in white clothing called a "Schtroumpf", followed by his numerous peers who looked just like him, with an elderly leader who wore red clothing and had a white beard. The characters proved to be a huge success, and the first independent Smurf stories appeared in Spirou in 1959, together with the first merchandising.
With the commercial success of "The Smurf empire" came the merchandising empire of Smurf miniatures, models, games, and toys. Entire collecting clubs have devoted themselves to collecting PVC Smurfs.
The storylines tend to be simple tales of bold adventure. The cast has a simple structure as well: almost all the characters look essentially alike — mostly male, very short (just "three apples tall"[4]), with blue skin, white trousers with a hole for their short tails, white hat in the style of a Phrygian cap, and sometimes some additional accessory that identifies a personality (For instance, Handy Smurf wears overalls instead of the standard trousers, a brimmed hat, and a pencil above his ear). Smurfs can walk and run, but often move by skipping on both feet. They love to eat Sarsaparilla (a species of smilax) leaves, whose berries the smurfs naturally call smurfberries (the smurfberries appear only in the cartoon; in the original comics, the Smurfs only eat the leaves from the smilax). The male Smurfs almost never appear without their hats, which leaves a mystery amongst the fans as to whether they have hair. The animated series canon state that they may be bald: one episode of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon has Greedy Smurf removing his chef's hat to give Papa Smurf a pie he had concealed under it, revealing a bald head. Another episode, St. Smurf and the Dragon, shows Hefty Smurf's hat rising up off his bald head briefly as he and others slide to a stop. Both Papa Smurf and Grandpa Smurf have full beards and hair visibly coming from under their hats above the earline. In The Smurfs and the Magic Flute, a Smurf took off his hat briefly for a polite gesture.
In the comics, the last page of the first album Les Schtroumpfs noirs (The Black Smurfs) shows Papa Smurf's hat blown off by an explosion, revealing his completely bald head (which may simply be due to old age). In Le Schtroumpfeur de Bijoux (The Jewel Smurfer), Jokey Smurf gets very angry and defensive when a human tells him he should take off his hat.
The Smurfs fulfill simple archetypes of everyday people: Lazy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, and so on. All smurfs with the exception of Papa, Baby, Nanny and Grandpa are said to be 100 years old. There were originally 99 smurfs, but this number increases as new Smurf characters appear, such as the smurflings and Nanny. Smurfette is not one of the original smurfs because she was created by Gargamel, the evil wizard.
The Smurfs' community generally takes the form of a cooperative, sharing and kind environment based on the principle that each Smurf has something he or she is good at, and thus contributes it to Smurf society as he or she can. In return, each Smurf appears to be given their necessities of life, from housing and clothes to food. Some have argued that the foundation of Smurf society resembles the basic principles of Communism, although Peyo's son, Thierry Culliford, has stated in an interview that his father "wasn't interested in politics at all".[5]
A characteristic of the smurf language is the frequent use of the word "smurf" and its derivatives in a variety of meanings. The smurfs replace enough nouns and verbs in everyday speech with smurf as to make their conversations barely understandable: "We're going smurfing on the River Smurf today." When used as a verb, the word "Smurf" typically means "to make," "to be," or "to do." The word appears to serve the same function as the Spanish verb "hacer" or the French verb "faire." It was implied a number of times that smurfs nonetheless all understood each other due to subtle variations in intonation; one human character attempting the language asking for a "glass of smurf", implicitly "water", is misunderstood by every smurf who each assumes another item.
So that the viewer of the animated series is able to understand the Smurfs, only some words (or a portion of the word) are replaced with the word "smurf". Context offers a reliable understanding of this speech pattern, but common vocabulary includes remarking that something is "just smurfy" or "smurftastic".
In Schtroumpf vert et vert Schtroumpf, published in Belgium in 1972, it was revealed that the village was divided between North and South, and that the Smurfs on either side had different ideas as to whether the term "smurf" should be used as a verb or as a noun: for instance, the Northern Smurfs call a certain object a "bottle smurfer", while the Southern Smurfs call it a "smurf opener". Papa Smurf himself kept out of the argument, having more important things on his mind. But when the conflict led to all-out war, he had to use desperate measures to restore the natural smurf order. This story is considered a parody on the still ongoing taalstrijd (language war) between French- and Dutch-speaking communities in Belgium.[6]
The Smurfs live in houses made from mushrooms or houses that just look like mushrooms (often built of stone), somewhere in the middle of a deep forest. Johan and Peewit would make visits, as well as a number of other forest natives but it is otherwise not possible for a human to find the smurf village except when led by a smurf.
Since the first appearance of the Smurfs in Johan and Peewit in 1958, 26 Smurf comics have been created, 16 of them by Peyo. Originally, the Smurf stories appeared in Spirou magazine with reprints in many different magazines, but after Peyo left the publisher Dupuis, many comics were first published in dedicated Smurf magazines, which existed in French, Dutch and German. A number of short stories and one page gags have been collected in comic books next to the regular series of 26.
In 1965, a black-and-white 87-minute animated film called Les Aventures des Schtroumpfs was released in theatres in Belgium. It consisted of five short cartoons made in the previous years for broadcasting on Walloon TV. German copies and copies with Dutch subtitles are known to exist. The stories were based on existing Smurf stories like The Black Smurfs and The Smurfs and the Egg, and were created by writer Maurice Rosy and artist Eddy Ryssack from the small Dupuis animation studios.[7] In total, ten animated shorts were created between 1961 and 1967, the first series in black and white and the later ones in colour.
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. The film would in 1983 be released in the United States (after the animated series became popular there) in an English language dubbed version, produced by Stuart R. Ross in association with First Performance Pictures Corp, and titled The Smurfs and the Magic Flute. The film was distributed theatrically in North America by Atlantic Releasing Corp., on VHS by Vestron and syndicated on television by Tribune Entertainment. A few more full-length smurf movies were made, most notably The Baby Smurf and Here are the Smurfs,[8] created from episodes of the Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon series.
Sony Pictures has announced plans to begin a trilogy of live-action/computer-generated Smurf films. The project had been in various stages of development since 2003.[9] In June 2008, it was announced that Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation have acquired film rights from Lafig Belgium. Current plans have Jordan Kerner producing with Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third screenwriters J. David Stem and David N. Weiss in negotiations to write.[10][11]
The Smurfs secured their place in North American pop culture in 1981, when the Saturday-morning cartoon The Smurfs, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with SEPP International S.A., aired on NBC from 1981 to 1990. The show became a major success for NBC, spawning spin-off television specials on an almost yearly basis. The Smurfs was nominated multiple times for Daytime Emmy awards, and won Outstanding Children's Entertainment Series in 1982–1983.[9] The Smurfs television show enjoyed continued success until 1990, when, after a decade of success, NBC cancelled it due to decreasing ratings and plans to extend their Today morning show franchise to create a Saturday edition.
Warner Bros. has announced its tentative plans to start releasing the complete Smurfs Cartoon series on DVD in the United States in season box sets in 2008. Season One, Volume One was released on February 26, 2008 and is available for sale. It includes the first nineteen episodes of the series. Season One, Volume Two was released on October 7, 2008.
From 1959 on until the end of the 1960s, Dupuis produced Smurf figurines. But the best known and most widely available Smurf figurines are those made by Schleich, a German toy company. Most of the Smurf figurines given away as promotional material (e.g. by British Petroleum in the 1970s and McDonald's in the 1990s) are made by Schleich as well. 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 currently produces 8 new figurines a year. Over 300 million of them have been sold so far.[9]
Over the decades, many singles and albums of Smurf music have been released in different countries and languages, sometimes very successfully, with millions of copies sold. The best known is the single The Smurf Song and its accompanying album, created by Dutch musician Pierre Kartner who sings under the alias Father Abraham, which reached the #1 position in 16 countries. Worldwide, more than 10 million CD's with Smurf music have been sold between 2005 and 2007 alone.[9]
For several years, the Smurfs were the children's act in the Ice Capades travelling ice show; for many years after they were retired from that function, the smurf suits from the show were issued to Ice Capades Chalets, the show's subsidiary chain of ice rinks, lasting until the show was sold to a group of investors led by Dorothy Hamill, and the Chalets were sold to Recreation World. The Smurfette suit in particular had a somewhat different hairstyle from what was portrayed in the Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
Around 1984, the Smurfs began appearing in North American theme parks owned by Kings Entertainment Corporation. Each park featured a Smurfy attraction and Smurf walk-around figures.
The Smurfs have appeared in video games made for most major game consoles (including Nintendo's NES, Super NES, and Game Boy systems; Atari, ColecoVision, Sega's Game Gear, Master System, Mega Drive and Mega CD systems; and the original Sony PlayStation) and for the PC.
In 2005, an advertisement featuring The Smurfs was aired in Belgium in which the Smurf village is annihilated by warplanes [2]. Designed as a UNICEF advertisement, and with the approval of the family of the Smurfs' late creator Peyo, the 25-second episode was shown on the national evening news after the 9pm timeslot to avoid children seeing it. It was the keystone in a fund-raising campaign by UNICEF's Belgian arm to raise money for the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo—both former Belgian colonies.
In honor of their 50th anniversary in 2008, the Smurfs began a year long tour in connection with UNICEF. The Smurfs have made appearances in various countries on the day of their 50th "Smurfday", in the form of publicly-distributed white figurines which recipients can decorate and submit to a competition. The results of this contest are to be auctioned off in order to raise funds for UNICEF. [12]
Sony Pictures has announced plans to begin a trilogy of live-action/computer-generated Smurf films. The first Smurf film will be released on December 17, 2010[3]. The project had been in various stages of development since 2003.[9] In June 2008, it was announced that Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation have acquired film rights from Lafig Belgium. Current plans have Jordan Kerner producing with Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third screenwriters J. David Stem and David N. Weiss in negotiations to write.[10][11]
On February 26, 2008 Warner Bros. released Season 1 Volume 1 on DVD. It contained the first 19 episodes. On October 7, 2008 Warner Bros. released Season 1 Volume 2 on DVD. It contained 20 episodes from season 1.
In Australia a 9 disk 50th Anniversary Collection was released. It contained a total of 52 episodes.
Because of their characteristic blue colour, "Smurf" has become a nickname for pretty much anything distinctly coloured blue. Examples include the police forces of Greece, Spain, Denmark and Finland, the United Nations Protection Force members in Bosnia (because of their light blue helmets), the sweat-suit uniforms (affectionately referred to as "Smurf Suits") issued to recruits at the United States Navy's Recruit Training Center at Naval Training Center Great Lakes, Illinois , and fans of the Blu-Ray video format (because of the colour of the laser involved). Members of the Finnish BDSM organisation SMFR are called "Smurfs" not because of the colour, but because of the similarity of the names. The Boise State University football stadium features an artificial grass surface whose blue tone has earned the nickname, "Smurf Turf". In Major League Baseball, Fans of the San Francisco Giants often refer to fans of the rival Los Angeles Dodgers, who wear blue attire, as "Smurfs". At the University of Texas at Austin, the Student Microcomputer Facility (SMF) is often nicknamed "The Smurf Lab" because of its initials.
Structuring, the act of hiding a financial transaction by making many small payments under mandatory reporting thresholds, is known as "smurfing".
In competitive online gaming, a "Smurf" is an experienced player who creates a new account (a "Smurf account") with fresh stats to make themselves look like a beginner, in order to bully genuine beginners who have far less experience.
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