"A Maze Of Mirrors" is a Season 8 episode from the 1980s Smurfs cartoon show.
Characters[]
- Vanity Smurf
- Vanity Clones
- Papa Smurf
- Smurfette
- Brainy Smurf
- Reporter Smurf
- Clumsy Smurf
- Tailor Smurf
- Painter Smurf
- Homnibus (Mentioned only)
Synopsis[]
A numerous number of Vanity's clones appear after he takes a trip to the Mansion Of Mirrors.
Plot Summary[]
Vanity here, Vanity there, and Vanity everywhere!
Papa Smurf leads a group of Smurfs on a walk back home to the Smurf Village through the forest, with Clumsy saying that it was fun to visit Homnibus but walking through the forest at night is scary. Vanity only hopes that they would get home soon, because it is getting so dark that he can hardly see himself in his mirror. Papa Smurf assures his little Smurfs that they will be home soon, which makes Reporter so glad that he will be able to make the morning edition with all the news he's gathered. Smurfette tells Brainy that this is the last time the Smurfs will ever take any of his shortcuts. Brainy tries to assure Smurfette that he knows the forest inside out, but as he trips on a rock and ends up dangling from a tree branch, Smurfette jokingly comments that Brainy also knows the forest upside down.
Then Clumsy sees a house through the brush of leaves, which Papa Smurf says is the Mansion Of Mirrors. Reporter says it sounds like a story, while Vanity says it sounds like paradise, but Papa Smurf tells his little Smurfs that they should stay away from such a place. As Vanity follows his fellow Smurfs home, his mind is still on the Mansion Of Mirrors, saying that it sounds like a dream house. Back in his own house, Vanity gets the idea of visiting the house for a bit so he can see what it's like to see his reflection in so many mirrors at the same time, and so at night he sneaks out of the village and enters the house where inside he sees rooms and hallways all lined with mirrors. Vanity leaves his own mirror outside the house and spends the whole night gazing at himself through so many mirrors that by morning he feels regret that the Smurfs can only see of him. But after Vanity leaves the house, the many reflections of Vanity come out of the mirrors and decide that they should head to the village where the Smurfs can see Vanitys by the dozen.
Back in the village, Papa Smurf finds himself dealing with the Smurfs not being able to find Vanity, with Tailor ready to make him his new suit, Painter ready to make him a new portrait, and Brainy ready to give him a copy of his latest edition of Quotations, to which Smurfette says that it's no wonder Vanity left early. Papa Smurf decides to take a group of Smurfs out into the forest to look for Vanity, but no sooner after that group leaves does the group of Vanitys enter the village and find no other Smurf around. They decide to look for the other Smurfs, saying that there's enough of him and his beauty to go around.
The multiple Vanitys soon cause confusion among the other Smurfs, as one of them encounters Brainy and Tailor and looks at Tailor's new clothing designs with disgust before the original Vanity appears and gets the cold shoulder treatment from Tailor about clothing designs. Then Painter deals with having to paint so many portraits of Vanity that when the original Vanity appears to ask for a portrait, Painter decides to literally frame him in one of his completed works. Then Smurfette comes across a beautiful flower along with one of the Vanity, being so glad to find them both, and tells that Vanity to stay put while she goes to get Reporter. However, that Vanity decides to take the flower with him and goes behind a bush, of whom the original Vanity catches a brief glimpse of, making him wonder if he's seeing double before he realizes that it must be his mirror. Smurfette returns with Reporter and sees that her beautiful flower is gone, blaming Vanity for taking the flower, which he claims he hasn't done.
Tailor, Brainy, Painter, Smurfette, and Reporter bring this matter up before Papa Smurf, who asks Vanity if he has anything to say for himself about his behavior, to which Vanity says that his good looks speak for themselves, that it must be some other Smurf. Then Clumsy shows up with one of the Vanitys he has found, and then a third Vanity shows up, confusing the Smurfs even more. As more Vanitys make their presence known, Papa Smurf tells Vanity that he has warned every Smurf about entering the enchanted Mansion Of Mirrors, and that unless he finds the counter-spell soon, the original Vanity will become a mirror reflection and then fade away. The original Vanity fears the idea of vanishing into nothing, but one of the Vanity clones assures him that they will still be around. As for how the Smurfs will tell which Vanity is the original apart from all the copies, Painter has the original Vanity painted with a yellow X on his back as well as some yellow spots on his face, which makes Vanity say that this is one time that he doesn't want to look in his mirror.
Soon, after Reporter sells out the latest edition of the village newspaper with news of the multiple Vanitys overrunning the village (all of which were snapped up by the multiple Vanitys), Papa Smurf tells his little Smurfs that they will have to return to the Mansion Of Mirrors with Vanity and all his reflections to make the multiple Vanitys vanish. Then Tailor notices that Vanity is starting to fade away, which to Papa Smurf means that Vanity doesn't have any time left before he vanishes completely. To lure the multiple Vanitys back to the Mansion Of Mirrors, Tailor has a few Smurfs carry a big mirror to attract the attention of the Vanitys so that they will follow Papa Smurf to the mansion. At the front steps of the mansion, Papa Smurf hands Vanity a tuning fork coated with a magic potion, telling Vanity to strike the tuning fork which will make all the mirrors in the mansion shatter. Vanity tells Papa Smurf that if he breaks a mirror it will mean seven years of bad luck, but Papa Smurf tells Vanity he will have even worse luck if he doesn't break the mirrors.
After Vanity and his reflections enter the mansion with the reflections going back into the mirrors, Vanity is ready to strike the tuning fork to shatter the mirrors, but one of his reflections tries to reason with Vanity, saying that if he shatters the mirrors, he won't be able to look at himself. Then the original Vanity sees that he is growing visibly fainter and realizes that if he doesn't shatter the mirrors, he won't be able to look at himself at all, and so with the striking of the tuning fork, its vibration shatters all the mirrors in the mansion, removing all the reflections from sight and making the original Vanity fully visible again.
Returning to the outside of the mansion, Vanity is glad to be back to having only one of him around, given that his "hopes were fading fast". Papa Smurf says that with the breaking of the haunted (magic) mirrors, the spell has been reversed, and hopes that it will teach his little Smurfs a lesson about visiting strange places. Brainy is then willing to offer reading the rest of his latest copy of Quotations to Vanity, to which Smurfette says only if he's willing to see the rest of the other Smurfs vanish. Vanity then looks at himself in the big mirror and says there having more than one him around is too much of a good thing.
Trivia[]
- This is one of the few episodes in which none of the new main characters that were introduced from Season 5 to this season (i.e., the Smurflings, Grandpa, Wild, Puppy, and Scruple) appear in, as well as the only Season 8 episode to accomplish this.
- This episode was eventually adapted into a Smurfs comic book story called "The Mansion Of A Thousand Mirrors", which appeared in the Schtroumpf comic book magazine.
- Vanity previously dealt with a mirror version of himself in "The Hundredth Smurf".
- This episode does not feature any background Smurfs.
- Glen Kennedy worked as an animator on this episode.
Videos[]
