MY FAVOURITE CARTOON OF THE 80’s- THE SMURFS

Smurfs, the little blue scientific creatures are back to life suddenly.



The smurfs are back to life. It’s like I’m travelling back to my childhood. They were my favourite cartoon of the 80s and I’m still in love with those little blue creatures who made my days happy after a turf day at school.


THE SMURFS- A BRIEF STORY


The Smurfs (Les Schtroumpfs in French), come from the imagination of the Belgian cartoonist Peyo from his real name Pierre Culliford and live in the wood.”Culliford’s initial comic first appeared in the Belgian magazine Spirou, and several decades later was adapted into an English language children’s television series by Hanna-Barbera Productions, titled The Smurfs.” According to legend, it is said that while Peyo was having lunch with colleagues, he forgot the word salt and referred to it in french as Schtroumpf. “Pass me the Schtroumpf” he said instead of: “Pass me the salt”. Later the word was translated into English as Smurf.


THE SMURFS WORLD

 The Smurfs live in community in the village of the Cursed Land-”Le Pays Maudit” in French through dense forest and travel long distances. They dwell in mushroom-likes houses with slight difference in size and shapes; tailor made according to taste mostly located in desolate and rocky land with just a few trees. Some are located in the middle of a deep forest with grass, a river and vegetation. Humans such as Gargamel are shown to live nearby, though it is almost impossible for an outsider to find the smurf village except when led by a smurf. Even though there world is called the Cursed Land life as shown on the picture, looks very colourful and the inhabitants are happy doing their daily tasks.

THE ECONOMY

In Curse Land, money is not printed so there is no headache, no hassle, no stressno loan repayment, no competition instead they rely on their generosity and “Savoir Faire” based on what each and everyone is good at. Barter system and creativity are the main pillars of the economy. Each and everyone create something he/she is good at and exchange it for something he/she needs. [I think the little blue people could teach us humans specially politicians on that particular matter ].


THE SIX MAIN CHARACTERS



Meet Brainy Smurf. Brainy is the kind of guy who thinks he knows better than everyone in the village. He pretends to be the expect and very often lectures the others whom he thinks does not know much. He wears thick glasses as he is extremely short-sighted and is avid reader and keeps a lot of books in his house. He is also quite arrogant and uses big words he probably made up himself when he converses with others. The others dislike him and and when he enters into a long bout of lecturing, some frustrated smurf often angrily smashes him on the head with a big wooden mallet.

Papa Smurf- the oldest cheerful leader in the village- 542 years old. He is an old gentle good fella and love his people. He is easily distinguishable as he is the only one who wears red and grows bushy white beard. Papa Smurf is the voice of wisdom. All the other Smurfs turn to him when they need advice and he is always ready to help. He also has the responsiblity to make sure that harmony is kept among each and everyone. When real chaos rises among them, Papa Smurf takes very drastic measures, often using magic.

Handy Smurf - Really very handy little guy with a pencil in his ears. Creative and enegetic, Handy Smurf helps the community in fixing stuff around. He is also well known for known for his amazing technological creations, such as the telesmurf (telephone), Weather Smurfing Machine, and Smurfmobile.










Lazy Smurf-Sleeps anywhere, anytime. There is no place which is not suitable for a little nap. Under the building site, in the shade of mushroom, behind the bush, in fornt of the bush, under the wheelbarrow…anywhere is just comfortable. The first thing Lazy Smurf thinks of when he gets up is at what time he is going back to bed.

Clumsy Smurf-Clumsy is the one who is often tripped up by his two clumsy feet. He is easily identified as he has a western accent. He is very sensitive sometimes and cries when others refuse to let him play in a team. His name speaks for himself, he is very slow his movemnets and is prone to accident. Putting aside his clumsiness, he is a very happy and soft hearted guy.






Reporter Smurf-The journalist of the village. He walks around wearing a newsroom-style visor and carries a notepad. He always on the lookout for a big scoop to report back to the other in the village, and with Gargamel around there is always plenty of smurfy news on the horizon. He likes to impress by writing controversial news which eventually puts him in trouble.