DVD Review: The Smurfs: Season One, Volume Two

TV Show Info:
Writers: Peyo & Various
Directors: Various
Cast: Don Messick, Paul Winchell, Lucille Bliss, Barry Gordon, Danny Goldman, Frank Welker, William Callaway, Alan Young, Hamilton Camp, Michael Bell, June Foray, Alan Oppenheimer
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Turner Home Entertainment

Release Info:
Original Air Dates: September 21, 1981-December 2, 1989
Season Air Dates: October 10, 1981-December 5, 1981
DVD Box Set Release Date: October 7, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $19.99
Episodes:

I learned something by doing this review of The Smurfs. I might be one of the few not to know this, but did you know that The Smurfs was based on a comic strip created by the Belgian comic artist Peyo? I had no idea that The Smurfs was originally a comic strip, but it was. We have Peyo to thank for the amusing blue forest creatures so many of us who grew up in the 80s know and love.

The Smurfs appeared in their first comic (a guest appearance in the comic “Johan and Peewit”) in 1958. The actual “Smurfs” comic strip was overseen, but not drawn by Peyo. He created the strip in 1960 and it ran with the help of artists at his art studio. I never knew the Smurfs had been around so long! As you might have guessed, the comic strip was quite a success, since it eventually led to the television series we now know and love.

Sadly, the success of his Smurfs was something that led to declining health for Peyo. The success was too much and he died of a heart attack in 1992 at the age of 64. The cartoons continue to roll on today, with Peyo’s name attached. In fact, the Hanna-Barbera cartoon even lists Peyo as the show’s creator and one of its writers. It’s sad that the success wasn’t something Peyo could handle, but I wish he could have known how much the Smurfs truly mean to those of us, like me, who grew up watching this sensational television show.

That brings me to the cartoon. The first season of The Smurfs was just the beginning of a nearly ten year run on NBC. The show was one of the station’s most successful cartoons throughout the 1980s and it was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. It even won the Emmy for Outstanding Children Series in 1982 and 1983, which were its sophomore and junior seasons. I believe The Smurfs were so successful because of their universal likability. Girls liked them, boys liked them and even parents liked them. It’s hard to argue with a show the entire family can enjoy together.

The Smurfs: Season One, Volume Two Plot
Just for reference, Ashtyn wrote an excellent review of The Smurfs: Season One, Volume One.

The Smurfs: Season One, Volume Two comes in a standard plastic DVD case with an outer cardboard case. There isn’t anything overly special about the packaging and it isn’t too flimsy or too strong. You could bend and tear the cardboard, but not from general handling. You’d have to want to harm the case and set out to do so. The Smurfs: Season One, Volume Two contains a variety of episodes from the second half of the first season of The Smurfs television show. These episodes all ran in 1981.

Here is a list of the episodes included on this disc and a brief description of each:

DISC ONE

“The Magic Egg” – Papa Smurf has the Smurfs go find eggs to use when baking a cake for an upcoming celebration. Gargamel has made a special, golden egg that will grant him anything he wishes, including Smurfs. Before he can use it, Bigmouth (a giant) storms Gargamel’s castle and steals all his food, including the egg, which he thinks is edible. When one of the Smurfs finds the egg, they take it back to use it for their cake, but when its real power is discovered, it makes all of the Smurfs greedy!

“Smurfette’s Dancing Shoes” – Papa Smurf’s birthday is coming up and none of the Smurfs can agree on how to celebrate, so they decide to put on a talent show. They can display all of their various talents for Papa. When the Smurfs want to rehearse, Smurfette thinks its stupid. When she realizes her dancing makes her fall on her face, she goes off to practice on her own. While she’s alone, a troll puts shoes on her that make her dance beautifully, she is grateful, but she doesn’t realize he can control her with the shoes. He decides he is going to force her to marry him so he can win a treasure (he either has to find three rare items or marry a pure maiden), but the Smurfs have other plans!

“Supersmurf” / “The Baby Smurf” – When Bigmouth steals the Smurfs’ food supply nobody can do anything. With winter coming, the Smurfs are going to starve. Wanting to be the hero, Brainy takes a potion he created from one of Papa Smurfs’ magic books that makes him super strong. While Brainy is able to take on Bigmouth, he doesn’t realize that the potion only lasts for a short time! – Gargamel turns himself into a baby so he can sneak into the Smurf village. Smurfette finds the baby and brings him back to the village to live with the rest of the Smurfs. Papa Smurf thinks there is something very familiar about the baby, but can’t put his finger on what it is. When Gargamel makes many of the Smurfs petrified (turning them to stone), the Smurfs need to find out its Gargamel before its too late!

“The Fake Smurf” / “Paradise Smurfed” – Hogatha turns herself into a Smurf, and infiltrates the Smurf village. When she starts acting strange, Papa Smurf notices that something is amiss. Once he realizes that there is a fake Smurf amongst them, they must look for the impostor by checking for the Smurf with the fake tail. – It’s the harvest and Lazy isn’t helping with the work. Papa sends Lazy, Greedy and Brainy out to get firewood, but Lazy and Greedy don’t want to do work. When Lazy falls asleep on the job, he dreams about a Paradise with no work. Unfortunately, this paradise isn’t all its cracked up to be.

“Sir Hefty” – A large dragon is terrorizing the forest and all of the animals are running scared. The Smurfs are sitting around a campfire in another part of the forest, telling stories about Knights. When they notice the fires that have lit up the forest, they get to work putting the fire out. When the dragon threatens the Smurf village by setting it on fire, as well, Hefty is the brave “Knight” who tries to slay the dragon. Of course, this is easier said than done!

“The Purple Smurfs” / “Haunted Smurf” – The Smurfs have to do a lot of work constructing a bridge. Lazy Smurf tries to sneak off, but Papa Smurf stops him. He is annoyed because Baker Smurf’s shovel is sticky, Smurfette paints the bridge an ugly pink color, and Brainy destroys the bridge because he’s so busy being a brown noser he doesn’t watch what he’s doing. A very mad Papa sends a sleeping Lazy out into the forest to cut more logs for a new bridge. When a purple fly bites Lazy on the tail while he’s cutting down logs, he turns purple and suddenly all of the other Smurfs are getting bit as well, with a purple biting epidemic spreading around the village. – The Smurfs are preparing for the long winter by storing food in their storage building.  They will have plenty of food for the winter. The Smurfs are excited to see the first snow, but when they’re having fun in the snow, their food supply is set on fire. With their water frozen there is no way to put the fire out, so they are forced to leave the village in search of food. During their trip, they come across a haunted castle that is very scary, but they need to find food, so they have no choice but to explore the castle.

“Sideshow Smurfs” – When Clumsy is out collecting fireworod and Smurfette is smelling flowers, he knocks her down a hole and then falls down after her. The two yell and scream for help, but no one comes. Thinking that his dog has found a rabbit down the hole, a showmaster takes the two to a human village where he puts them in his show. He’ll be training them for a new act that people will pay a lot of money to see. Once the Smurfs find out the two are missing, they find a trail of flowers that Smurfette has left them, and they end up having to go to the village to save the two.

DISC TWO

“The Magnifying Mixture” / “Foul Weather Smurf” – Brainy unknowingly takes Papa Smurf’s spell to turn little clouds into big clouds and uses it to turn Hefty into a giant. Hefty doesn’t know his own strength and he destroys the village on his quest to go make sure Gargamel no longer bothers the Smurfs. Unfortunately, his plan is to take Gargamel back to the village, to keep him as a prisoner. This is right where Gargamel wants to be! – Handy makes a weather smurfing machine to try and help control the weather, since all of the other Smurfs complain about the changing weather. Everyone is impressed when it works, though Papa Smurf worries about the effect it has on Mother Nature. Unfortunately, his worries are well founded.

“Painter and Poet” – Poet and Painter Smurf feel unappreciated. All off the other Smurfs complain about their creative nature. They also feel that the Smurfs do not respect their creative skills or understand their inspirational moments. When Painter and Poet have an Art Fair, upon Papa Smurf’s urging, the other Smurfs are bored and rude. The two decide to leave for a place where they can feel understood and express their creative selves, so they set out on a journey, running away (by boat) to a deserted island, but when a storm strikes on their way to the island their lives are in danger.

“The Abominable Snowbeast” / “Gargamel, The Generous” – When Papa Smurf loses his Snow Flower pollen, due to Brainy’s selfishness, he sends Brainy off to the top of Ice Mountain to fetch more pollen. The flower only grows once a year, at the top of the mountain and the trip is dangerous. Along the way, Brainy and the other Smurfs run into a scary looking Abominable Snowbeast, which makes their trip much harder than they originally anticipated. – When Clumsy heads out to find rocks after he hurts (by clumsily hitting them) the other rock path laying Smurfs, he discovers a bunch of diamonds. When the Smurfs realize they cannot use these “rocks” Gargamel has already discovered that Clumsy has dropped some of the diamonds. He decides to be generous in order to get more diamonds from Clumsy.

“Now You Smurf ‘Em, Now You Don’t” / “The Fountain of Smurf” – When the Smurfs lose their Smurf ball during a game they are playing, some evil trolls that live underground and cannot face the sunlight swap it with a crystal ball. This is no ordinary crystal ball. It lets the Smurfs see their fondest wishes, but any one of the Smurfs who touches it is able to be kidnapped by the trolls, who plan to use them as their slaves. – The Smurfs are out picking berries when they’re attacked by Gargamel and Azrael. Luckily, they’ll able to get rid of them, but not without a cost. Papa Smurf decides to share Smurf berries with all of them from his private collection because the Smurfs lose all their berries while being chased by Gargamel. Wanting to do something nice to repay Papa for his kindness, the Smurfs want to get him something special. Brainy mentions a list that Papa Smurf wrote, so they decide to get him everything on his list. While they are searching for these items, they discover a pond that is a fountain of youth. Thrilled, the Smurfs decide to give Papa Smurf the gift of youth by having him drink the youthful water (which they exchange for Papa Smurf’s book). Unfortunately, they turn him into a smurfling and only Gargamel can help them get his book from the troll, which contains the spell to change him back.

“Spelunking Smurfs” / “A Clockwork Smurf” / “The Smurfs and the Money Tree” – The Smurfs are going to starve due to a drought. So, when Vanity and Clumsy are off looking for food, they gratefully accept an acorn from a friendly squirrel. When Clumsy drops the acorn into a cave, they discover the underground cave has a frozen food source. Thinking they’ve hit pay dirt, the two Smurfs don’t realize a frozen ogre is guarding it. In the meantime, Azrael and Gargamel are also starving, so they decide to capture Smurfs to make for dinner. – With all of the Smurfs busy, Handy Smurf decides to create a mechanical Smurf in order to allow the other Smurfs to get their work done faster. He calls it “A Clockwork Smurf”, but all the Smurfs fight over using him initially. When Brainy tries to open Clockwork Smurf up, all the bolts fall out, and it makes him go nuts. The Smurfs blame Handy when Clockwork destroys the village. When Clockwork realizes the Smurfs are mad at him, he runs away. On his trip, he ends up saving Prince Gerard from his evil Aunt. – Gargamel’s mother shows up and takes over his life. She also tries to take over his hunt to find the Smurfs. Realizing that one of the Smurfs has to be “greedy” she plants a golden tree that offers up goodies. As you can guess, Greedy’s the one to find it and he wants to keep all the gold for himself.

Storyline/Plot:
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:

Audio/Visual:
Though The Smurfs: Season One, Volume Two is presented in standard full frames at a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, the picture for The Smurfs episodes in this DVD looks great. Sure, there are some minor instances of grain and noise. This is to be expected for a show that is approaching 30 years old. Warner did a nice job of cleaning this show up though, and as a result, the colors are vibrant, the animation is solid and the visual quality is remarkably clear. You won’t notice the minor errors because you’ll be so impressed by how good this show looks!

The audio for The Smurfs: Season One, Volume Two is nearly as good as the video quality. The folks that put this DVD together made sure to present a clear as a bell, easy to hear audio track. The English Dolby Digital mono track is pretty standard for older cartoons and television shows. This track was no big surprise. Volume toggling wasn’t necessary and while not especially dynamic, the sound is easy to hear. For those with hearing impairments, closed captioning is available in English.

Visual:
Audio:

Bonus Features:
There is only one bonus feature included in The Smurfs: Season One, Volume Two DVD set. This is a featurette that is called “I Smurf the Smurfs”. This featurette is pretty interesting as it offers up memories of the Smurfs and the iconic show it became during the era in which the show ran. This featurette talks about Peyo, how he came up with the name and idea for the Smurfs and how Hanna-Barbera ended up creating the television show.

Actors like Catherine Hicks, Candace Cameron Bure, JoMarie Payton, and Debbie Allen, (many from the 80s and 90s) discuss their love for the Smurfs and how much the Smurfs meant to them and/or their children. They also answer funny questions like, “are the Smurfs bald under their hat or do they have hair?” or “Why are they only wearing just pants, minus Smurfette?”

The voice of Smurfette is interviewed for this feature and she speaks in her Smurfette voice, which is really awesome. How Smurfette was made is discussed. The Smurf village, Gargamel’s evil plans and other aspects of the show are also mentioned. This also includes the “am I friend or foe” nature of Azrael, who often sided with Gargamel, even though you knew deep down he liked the Smurfs. The only annoyance of this featurette is Candace Cameron Bure, who is way too happy to be discussing Smurfs.

This bonus section also includes a series of trailers for other Warner Home Video releases. There are trailers for Peanuts Holiday Collection, Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King, Classic Christmas Favorites, The Wiggles, and Scooby-Doo Funland of Freaky Frights.

While there isn’t much here, what is here is actually quite fun! With so many kids cartoons not having bonuses it’s nice this featurette was included.

Bonus Features:

Bottom Line:
I am a true child of the 80s. I love The Smurfs today as much as I did when I was a child. These lovable little blue creatures always know how to bring a smile to my face. How can I possibly not recommend The Smurfs in this Season One, Volume Two set to you? If you have children now, they’ll love The Smurfs. You should love them already, especially if you grew up around the time I did. Just in case you think your child won’t like The Smurfs, you can check out reruns on Boomerang. Otherwise, buy this DVD right away!

Overall Rating:

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Written by Dominick Evans - Visit Website
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Dominick is in his late 20s. He lives in Michigan with his life partner, Ashtyn, their 14 year old son Robert, and their Shih-Tzu, Oliver. Dominick is a writer and the head editor for both LI Kids and Literary Illusions. He enjoys composing music and is an aspiring director/screenwriter. In his free time he enjoys spending time with his family, playing and watching sports, playing video games, watching movies, and singing.

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