The Smurfs

• 1. Introduction

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  The Smurfs, a colony of small blue creatures from Belgian comics, owe their name to a lapse of memory. The cartoonist Peyo, whose real name was Pierre Culliford, was eating a meal on the Belgian coast with his friend and fellow cartoonist André Franquin. Peyo could not think of the word for salt. So he asked Franquin, in French, to pass the schtroumpf.

  Franquin played along. He joked that Peyo should hand the schtroumpf back once he was done schtroumpfing it. The two men then spent the rest of that weekend talking in their new schtroumpf language.

  That invented word soon became the name of an entire people. Who are these creatures, and where do they live? Why does their speech defeat every human who tries to copy it? And how did a joke at a dinner table end up in cartoons, toy shops, music charts and theme parks around the world?

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• 2. A Flute and a Blue Stranger

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  By 1958, Peyo was already the creator, artist and writer of Johan et Pirlouit, a comic set in medieval Europe with a streak of sword-and-sorcery. Its hero Johan was a brave young page to the king. His sidekick Pirlouit, called Peewit in English, was a small man who boasted constantly and cheated when it suited him.

  That year, Spirou magazine began running a new adventure for the pair, titled La Flûte à six trous, or The Flute with Six Holes. The plot sent the heroes after a magic flute, with some sorcery from the wizard Homnibus. Along the way they met a tiny blue-skinned figure in white clothes, who was called a Schtroumpf. Then came many more, all identical to him, led by an elderly figure in red with a white beard.

  Their first full appearance was published in Spirou on the 23rd of October 1958. The characters proved a huge success. In 1959 the first stories about the Smurfs alone appeared in the magazine, together with the first merchandise. They kept sharing adventures with Johan and Pirlouit, and they also earned a series of their own. Every later edition of the original flute story was retitled La Flûte à six Schtroumpfs, which is also the name of its film version.

  More than 40 Smurf comic volumes have appeared since then, and Peyo made 16 of them. His studio produced the rest. The stories first ran in Spirou, with reprints in other magazines. After Peyo left the publisher Dupuis, many new stories debuted in dedicated Smurf magazines in French, Dutch, German and Turkish.

  Peyo drew in the manner of the Marcinelle school, a group of fellow cartoonists. The style stresses movement, uses Indian ink, and keeps comic touches appearing throughout. His successors stayed close to it, though differences remain.

  English-language readers met the Smurfs in a Marvel Comics miniseries in the mid-1980s, and later through collected volumes from the graphic novel publisher Papercutz.

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• 3. Life in the Village

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  More than 100 Smurf characters exist, yet nearly all of them look alike. They have blue skin, white trousers with a hole for a short tail, and a white hat in the style of a Phrygian cap, which came to stand for freedom in modern times. They are "three apples high", and they often travel by skipping on both feet.

  Most Smurfs are male, and their names work like labels. Jokey Smurf likes practical jokes. Lazy, Grouchy and Brainy sit alongside trades such as Poet, Actor, Farmer, Painter, Tailor, Miner, Architect, Reporter, Barber and Doctor. A small accessory can mark a personality. Handy Smurf wears overalls, a brimmed hat and a pencil above his ear. The source compares the arrangement to Disney's Seven Dwarfs, and the community's leader is Papa Smurf.

  Smurfette, the first female Smurf, began as a trap. The wizard Gargamel created her to lure the other Smurfs, and Papa Smurf then changed her into the character known today. Sassette was created by the Smurflings, and Nanny Smurf joined the cast too. There were originally 99 Smurfs, all male. Apart from Papa, Baby, Smurfette, Nanny and Grandpa, every Smurf is said to be 100 years old.

  In 1958 the Smurfs lived in Le Pays Maudit, French for the Cursed Land. Reaching it required magic or a trek through dense forests, deep marshes, a scorching desert and a high mountain range. The Smurfs themselves ride storks to cross long distances, whether to visit Johan and Pirlouit's kingdom or to catch up on news from outside.

  The mushroom-shaped houses changed with the medium. In the Johan et Pirlouit stories they stand in a desolate, rocky land with few trees. In the Smurf series itself the houses look more alike and sit in a clearing in a deep forest, beside a river. Gargamel lives nearby, yet no outsider can find the village unless a Smurf leads the way.

  The Smurfs eat sarsaparilla leaves. Their berries, which the Smurfs naturally call smurfberries, appear only in the cartoon. The comics have the Smurfs eating just the leaves. Gargamel is joined by his orange tabby cat Azrael, by the ugly witch Hogatha, and by his godfather Balthazar. Outsiders who tried to imitate Smurf speech, humans included, found it harder than it sounded.

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• 4. Speaking Smurf

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  "We're going smurfing on the River Smurf today" is the kind of sentence the Smurf language produces. One undefinable word stands in for nouns and verbs alike. As a verb, to smurf can mean to make, to be, to like or to do.

  Humans who try to join in discover that random substitution is not enough. In one adventure, Peewit tells other humans that a certain smurf-filled sentence means he is going to the wood. A Smurf corrects him on the proper form. What Peewit actually said, the Smurf points out, meant that he was warbling to the dawn.

  The animated series loosened the rules. Only some words, or parts of words, are swapped for smurf, and context carries the meaning. Viewers heard that something was "just smurfy" or, in some cases, "smurftastic".

  A 1972 story published in Belgium, Schtroumpf vert et vert Schtroumpf, known as Smurf Versus Smurf, turned the language into a joke about division. It revealed that the village was split between North and South. Each side used the word differently. The Northern Smurfs called one object a "bottle smurfer", while the Southern Smurfs called it a "smurf opener".

  The story is considered a parody of the taalstrijd, the language war that was still going on between French-speaking and Dutch-speaking communities in Belgium. Translators in other countries had to decide what to do with the word itself, and they chose very differently.

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• 5. Names Across Borders

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  In 1973, a book called Dilly Duckling and the Goblins gave English readers the Smurfs under a different name. They were briefly goblins before the name Smurfs took over. That name is a variation of the Dutch translation "smurf", which is the most common form worldwide. Other languages instead picked names that hint at gnome-like looks.

  Spain's Pitufos have a traceable origin. Miguel Agustí, head of the Spanish magazine Strong, which first published the cartoon in Spanish, was walking around Barcelona looking for a name. He passed a sculpture of the Ox of Patufet and thought of the Catalan word Patufet. From that he derived the non-existent word Pitufo, which spread to most Spanish-language versions. Catalans use Barrufet, an old word for goblin or gnome, so that nobody confuses the Smurfs with their own Patufet.

  In Hebrew, the chosen name was Dardasim. It was originally an old-fashioned word for a slipper. Because the series did so well in Israel, the word has now completely stopped being used in that original sense.

  Worldwide, there are about 55 translations of Schtroumpf. The original French word is pronounced like a German word meaning sock. German readers know the creatures as Die Schlümpfe, Czech readers as Šmoulové, Italians as Puffi and Turks as Şirinler. In Hungary they are Hupikék törpikék. In Finland the current name is Smurffit, after earlier translations that included Muffet and Strumffit.

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• 6. Screens Big and Small

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  An 87-minute black-and-white film, Les Aventures des Schtroumpfs, reached Belgian theatres in 1965. It gathered five short cartoons made in earlier years for Walloon television. Writer Maurice Rosy and artist Eddy Ryssack made them at the small Dupuis animation studios, adapting stories such as The Black Smurfs and The Smurfs and the Egg. In all, ten shorts were created between 1961 and 1967, the first in black and white and the later ones in colour.

  La Flûte à six schtroumpfs, a film of the original Johan and Peewit tale, carried a score by Michel Legrand. American audiences saw it in 1983, after the animated series had made the Smurfs popular there, in an English dub titled The Smurfs and the Magic Flute.

  On the 12th of September 1981, NBC began airing The Smurfs, a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions with SEPP International. It ran on NBC until the 2nd of December 1989, with reruns until the 25th of August 1990. The network got a major success and spin-off television specials almost every year. The series earned several Daytime Emmy nominations and won Outstanding Children's Entertainment Series for 1982-83.

  The episodes borrowed heavily from classical music, including Franz Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt and Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

  NBC cancelled the show in 1990, citing decreasing ratings and plans to extend its Today morning franchise into a Saturday edition, which did not arrive until 1992. The ratings had fallen after a format change. The final season featured regular time travel and only a few Smurfs. Reruns continued on the USA network until 1993 and on Cartoon Network until 2003, and the Boomerang channel still airs the show in the United States. IGN named it the 97th best animated series, and it has been called "kiddie cocaine" by people who grew up in the 1980s.

  In June 2008, Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation acquired film rights from Lafig Belgium, after the project had been in various stages of development since 2003. The first live-action and animated film opened on the 29th of July 2011. Jonathan Winters voiced Papa Smurf, Katy Perry voiced Smurfette and Hank Azaria played Gargamel. Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays played Patrick and Grace Winslow, a New York couple who help the Smurfs get home. Quentin Tarantino was suggested as Brainy Smurf, but that "didn't work out", so Fred Armisen voiced the part.

  A mini-film, The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol, came out on DVD and Blu-ray on the 2nd of December 2011. The Smurfs 2 followed in 2013. The fully animated reboot Smurfs: The Lost Village arrived on the 7th of April 2017, with Demi Lovato as Smurfette.

  At CinemaCon on the 25th of August 2021, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon announced a new musical Smurfs movie for the 20th of December 2024. The date moved to the 14th of February 2025 when Sonic the Hedgehog 3 took its slot. In October 2024 it slipped again, to the 18th of July 2025.

  On the 31st of August 2017, IMPS and Dupuis Audiovisuel announced a new CGI series with all-new stories rather than adaptations. It was planned for 2020 and postponed to 2021. Its co-producers were Ketnet in Flanders, TF1 in France, KiKa in Germany, OUFTIVI in Wallonia, Peyo Productions and Dupuis Audiovisuel. Nickelodeon picked it up for a 2021 release in the United States.

  Papa Smurf, Hefty Smurf and Brainy Smurf also appeared in the crossover Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, beside Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Garfield and the Muppet Babies. Smurfette was on its promotional poster but never appeared in the film.

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• 7. Beyond the Page

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  By 2008, the Smurfs had generated $4 billion in revenue. Much of it came from small objects. Schleich, a German toy company, has sold over 300 million Smurf figurines. It currently makes 8 to 12 new figures a year, and since 1969 only 1991 and 1998 have passed without a new Smurf on the market. Dupuis itself produced figurines from 1959 until the end of the 1960s. Entire collecting clubs devote themselves to PVC Smurfs.

  Most promotional figurines were also made by Schleich. National Garages gave them away in the 1970s and McDonald's in the 1990s. Kinder Surprise used them worldwide, and Albert Heijn in the Netherlands and Delhaize in Belgium used them nationally. Special Smurf comics for advertising began in the 1960s, for Kwatta and Kellogg's, and later for companies such as BP. The Dutch chocolate drink Benco paired its comics with a TV ad.

  In the 1980s, Post Cereals sold Smurf-Berry Crunch and Smurfs Magic Berries, promoted by animated commercials on Saturday mornings. Chef Boyardee and DelVerde made Smurf pastas, and Libby's and Heinz canned Smurf-A-Getti for American and Canadian shoppers. The Mexican snack cake Marinela Submarinos advertised with a rare version of Smurfette called Pitufina, in a red dress with pigtails. A half-float, half-balloon Smurf, jokingly called a falloon, still appears in holiday parades such as Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

  The Smurf Song, by the Dutch musician Pierre Kartner, who sang as Father Abraham, reached number one in 16 countries along with its album. More than 10 million CDs of Smurf music were sold between 2005 and 2007 alone. In 1989 came Smurfin': Tenth Anniversary Commemorative Album, whose covers included "Surfin' U.S.A.", "Kokomo", "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "I Think We're Alone Now", plus two original songs.

  For several years the Smurfs were the children's act in the Ice Capades travelling ice show. Their suits later went to Ice Capades Chalets, the show's subsidiary chain of ice rinks. The chain lasted until the show was sold to a group of investors led by Dorothy Hamill.

  In 1984, theme parks owned by Kings Entertainment Corporation added Smurf attractions. Canada's Wonderland had a walk-through Smurf village that ended at Gargamel's Castle. Kings Island offered "The Smurfs' Enchanted Voyage" and Kings Dominion had "Smurf Mountain". California's Great America installed a pint-sized steel coaster called "The Blue Streak". Carowinds built Smurf Island, with toadstool houses visitors could enter.

  In 1989, the Sorépark group opened a Smurf park in the French region of Lorraine, called Big Bang Schtroumpf. The Belgian Walibi Group bought it in 1991 and renamed it Walibi Schtroumpf. After Six Flags acquired the Walibi Group, the park became Walibi Lorraine, and every Smurf reference was removed in 2003.

  Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle appeared in 1982. Later games spread across the NES, Super NES, Game Boy, Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Sega consoles and the original PlayStation. Smurfette's Birthday was developed for Atari 2600 and Intellivision but never released. In 2010, the game Smurf Village brought the Smurfs to Android phones and Apple devices.

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• 8. Causes and Controversies

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  In 2005, a 25-second advertisement in Belgium showed the Smurf village destroyed by warplanes. It was made for the Belgian arm of UNICEF, with the approval of the family of the late Peyo. Broadcasters showed it after 9 p.m. so children would not have to see it. It anchored a fund-raising campaign for the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, both former Belgian colonies.

  For the 50th anniversary in 2008, the Smurfs began a year-long "Happy Smurfday Euro Tour" in partnership with UNICEF. On their 50th "Smurfday" they visited fifteen European countries as white figurines handed out to the public. Recipients decorated the figures and entered them in a competition. The results were auctioned and raised a total of 124,700 euros for UNICEF.

  In 1998, the writer Marc Schmidt published a parody article citing the Smurfs as an example of the impact of socialism on continental European culture. In 2011, Kate Krake answered with a response essay. She examined cultural theory built on textual observation and warned against inventing false allegories out of texts like The Smurfs.

  Also in 2011, the French sociologist Antoine Buéno described Smurf society in a book as a totalitarian and racist utopia with antisemitic tones. Thierry Culliford, the son of Peyo and head of Studio Peyo, dismissed the accusations as "grotesque and frivolous".

  Meanwhile, Belgium marked the 50th anniversary of the Smurfs and the 80th anniversary of Peyo's birth with a high-value collectors' coin. The 5 euro commemorative coin was minted in 2008.

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