Smurfs

Jokey Smurf - disneyclips.com
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I don’t know about you but I wasn’t officially allowed to watch the Smurfs because of the ‘witchcraft’ portrayed in the show and I’ve talked to a lot of 80s kids who say the same thing. Somehow that didn’t stop me from seeing most of the show when it first aired and certainly didn’t detain me from getting a ton of the little figurines from friends and aunties and uncles. Gotta love aunties and uncles. Anyhoo, after that digital disaster of a bigscreen portrayal of the little blue guys, I started looking up a little history of my favourite 3-apple-high guys and found some interesting stuff.

Fun Smurfs Trivia:

1. In 1983 the Smurfs became the 1st cartoon on American television to portray sign language. It was used by Laconia the mute wood elf.

2. The Smurfs were originally portrayed in comics by the Belgian artist Peyo and were called the Schtroumpfs. They didn’t ‘smurf’, they ‘schtroumpfed’.

3. In the original comics the Smurfs didn’t eat Smurfberries, they ate sassafras leaves. This was translated to Smurfberries when it crossed over to the U.S. because American audiences were familiar with the native sassafras plant and ergo it wasn’t foreign-sounding.

4. Gargamel was voiced by Paul Winchell, whom you will know as the original voice of Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and countless other Disney characters (narrator in Peter and the Wolf…I could go on…). Winchell also contributed to the design of the first artificial heart with Dr. Henry Heimlich and held dozens of his own patents.

Sources:
The World of Smurfs: a celebration of tiny blue proportions – Matthew Murray
Christy’s Blue Village