DVD Review: The Smurfs True Blue Friends
Warner Home Video Releases Hanna-Barbera, Peyo Cartoon
Mar 18, 2009
Peyo's The Smurfs were a massive hit in the early 1980's when cartoon kingpins Hanna-Barbera brought them to North America. The original series lasted from 1981 to 1990, spawning 256 stories about the tiny blue creatures, "about 3 apples high," who battled the "evil wizard Gargamel who was bad" and his cat Azrael.
Now Warner Home Video is hoping to introduce The Smurfs to an entirely new generation, and bring back some old fans, by releasing all those episodes onto DVD. Have the last 19 years been kind to The Smurfs, or is this a show that should've stayed in the vaults?
The Smurfs: True Blue Friends Has 5 Episodes from 2nd Season
This DVD features the following 5 episodes that originally aired during the fall of 1982.
- "S-Shivering S-Smurfs": It's autumn and Tracker Smurf thinks an early blizzard is coming. However, the other smurfs don't believe him, since it's so hot outside. When the snowstorm hits, will Tracker be able to save the day?
- "Turncoat Smurf": When Papa Smurf goes into a 3-day trance, the other smurfs decide to relax and do nothing. But Brainy Smurf starts keeping tabs on the others, which lead them to suspect that he's up to something. Has Brainy Smurf decided to sell out to Gargamel?
- "The Smurf Who Couldn't Say No": Pushover Smurf can't say no to the other smurfs' requests, even when they're more than he can handle. However, a plea for help from Scaredy Smurf lands him, and the whole village, in trouble.
- "The Haunted Castle": Papa, Brainy and Smurfette, along with their pals Johan and Peewit, take refuge in a cursed castle haunted by a lonely ghost. Can Papa and Johan break the curse, and find the castle's true heir?
- "The Black Hellebore": Evil potion maker Cloderick uses the Black Hellebore, a plant with mysterious powers, to hypnotize everyone and take control of the kingdom. Can Johan, Peewit and the smurfs save the kingdom from the villainous plot?
The cel animation was decent enough for the early 1980's (certainly better than He-Man and the Masters of the Universe), but the characters rarely had shadows, and the occasional use of stock footage detracts from some scenes (for instance, an inserted scene in daylight disrupts a sequence that's supposed to be taking place at night). There are also some glaring continuity errors; a bunch of sacks mysteriously disappear halfway through one scene, despite the fact that Papa Smurf refers to them right at the beginning.
Children may go "awwww" at the cute lil' smurfs, but adults will likely roll their eyes at the weak stories, the unfunny comedy, and the constant deus ex machina moments.
Squire Johan and his servant Peewit also show up as friends of the smurfs; Johan is tolerable, if a little too one-dimensional, but Peewit swiftly joins Star Wars: The Clone Wars' Jar-Jar Binks and Ahsoka Tano in the ranks of comic sidekicks who must be eliminated with extreme prejudice.
DVD Extras
There's not a huge amount of bonus features on this disc. The "Enter a Smurf Village Chock Full of Character Profiles" means the viewer gets 3 profiles of Papa, Grouchy and Tracker Smurf, using footage from the 5 episodes included in the disc. There's also a storyboard plus voice acting for another episode featuring Greedy Smurf.
The Final Analysis
One's tolerance for The Smurfs really depends on how rosy your memories of the 1980s' Hanna-Barbera cartoon really are. Many adult fans will find the cartoons really haven't aged well, and will notice issues that may not have been a problem when they first saw these episodes back in the day.
While a new generation of kids may be enchanted by The Smurfs, adults may want to smurf this DVD into the smurf can as fast as smurfingly possible. 3/10.
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