"Handy's Sweetheart" is a Season 3 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.
Characters[]
- Handy Smurf
- Marina
- Papa Smurf
- Ajax
- Hercules
- King Aquarius
- Brainy Smurf
- Clumsy Smurf
- Smurfette
- Dreamy Smurf
- Lazy Smurf
- Hefty Smurf
- Grouchy Smurf
- Mean Custodian
- Smurf-Eating Clam
- Harmony Smurf (Does not speak)
- Greedy Smurf (Does not speak)
- Unnamed Smurfs
Synopsis[]
Handy falls in love with a mermaid named Marina while saving her father.
Plot Summary[]
At the bridge of the River Smurf, Handy is showing Papa Smurf the blueprint to his new deep-sea diving suit when something bumps the blueprint off its easel and into the water. Papa Smurf thinks it's a big fish that's causing it, while Handy says that Brainy thinks it's a boulder. Then they see that the "boulder" just ate Handy's blueprint, which makes Handy say that maybe it's a rock fish.
Meanwhile, out under the ocean in a place called Atlantica, a young mermaid calls out to Ajax and Hercules, a couple of seahorses, telling them that her father has found another treasure chest. As they swim to join her father, King Aquarius tries to lift up the chest when he suddenly clutches his own chest, feeling pain. The young mermaid hears her father calling out her name, Marina, and comes to his aid. He tells his daughter that it's indigestion, that it's probably the green kelp he ate for lunch. Marina tells her father that she will go get the lilyroot while Ajax and Hercules bring him home. King Aquarius warns her not to go, telling her that the lilyroot is at the Pool of Avalon which is up the River Smurf, being guarded by a mean custodian. But Marina is insistent on getting the lilyroot and departs for the River Smurf immediately.
Back at the bridge, Papa Smurf tells Brainy and Clumsy, who will operate the pump that supplies oxygen to Handy's diving suit, that his life is in their hands. Brainy tells Clumsy how to operate the pump, but he starts pumping a bit too soon, filling up Handy's suit with air until he disconnects the hose and deflates himself. After Smurfette sees that Handy is all right, Papa Smurf says that they're ready for a practice dive. At that same moment, Marina is dealing with a couple of fishes that swim out of their cave to attack her. She barely escapes them and tries to jump up the waterfall to swim upstream to reach the Pool of Avalon, but she fails and ends up drifting downstream, totally unconscious. Handy, who has started his test dive with Papa Smurf and Smurfette monitoring him and Brainy and Clumsy supplying the oxygen, grabs Marina as he sees her drifting downstream with two big fishes coming straight for him. He pulls on the line to signal Papa Smurf that he needs to come up, but Brainy and Clumsy take it to mean he needs more air and so they rapidly pump up the diving suit, causing Handy to rise with the mermaid he had found as his suit inflates.
In Papa Smurf's house, Marina is put into a tub with an oxygen pump attached to it while Papa Smurf attempts to revive her by using smelling salts. She mutters something about lilyroot and Avalon, which makes Papa Smurf remember something about the Pool of Avalon. Handy comes in to check on Papa Smurf's patient when he finds himself attracted to Marina's beauty. Papa Smurf tells Smurfette about mermaids, that they can't live for very long out of water, then comes across a page in one of his books about the Pool of Avalon, a source of magical healing herbs that's guarded by a very mean custodian. Then Marina awakens and finds herself in a strange place. The Smurfs try to calm her down by saying that she's among friends who pulled her out of the river. Marina realizes that she must go back to the river and jumps out of the tub of water, but she faints before she can even attempt to crawl her way back to it.
Upon her second awakening, Marina calmly introduces herself to the Smurfs and says that she comes from the undersea region of Atlantica. Handy finds himself falling in love with Marina as he tells her about the smurferator that's supplying oxygen to her in the tub she's in. Marina tells Smurfette that she needs to get lilyroot from the Pool of Avalon or else her father could die. Realizing the urgency of Marina's plight, Papa Smurf calls together the rest of the Smurfs, having one group go with Smurfette to the Pool of Avalon to get some lilyroot while another group goes with Dreamy and Handy on board the S.S. Smurf II to retrieve Marina's father. Papa Smurf warns Smurfette's group to keep their eyes open when it comes to dealing with the pool's custodian, which makes Smurfette elbow Lazy to wake him up. However, Handy is so distracted with looking into Marina's eyes that Papa Smurf has to remind him that he will miss the boat, but Marina doesn't mind as she finds herself attracted to Handy.
Out on the open sea, Brainy directs Hefty and another Smurf with operating the crank while a few other Smurfs supply the oxygen to Handy's diving suit. Down below, Handy has King Aquarius laid out on a stretcher and then pulls the line, signaling that it's time to pull them up. However, as the other Smurfs pull up the line, it gets stuck under a rock, which slowly pulls the S.S. Smurf II down into the water. Clumsy tells Brainy that they'd better stop with the cranking, but Brainy is too eager to finish the job and doesn't see the danger that he's putting the crew in until the ship goes underwater -- which makes the rest of the crew boot him back to the shore. Fortunately, the ship was able to rise again, and Handy has King Aquarius put into another tub with a smurferator supplying oxygen into it, telling the king that his daughter is safe and sound in the Smurf Village. The king tells them to beware of the mean custodian at the Pool of Avalon, a thought which makes Brainy think he'd better off dealing with him than with a lovesick diver.
Meanwhile, Smurfette's team has reached the Pool of Avalon where the lilyroot is located, with Smurfette telling Lazy and Grouchy to wade in. No sooner do they grab it from the pool, though, that they confront the pool's custodian, who causes the pool to turn into a thick mire that traps them where they stand. Smurfette asks the custodian what he wants, and he says that it's either their gold or their lives, and to show that he means business, he turns the water into quicksand which slowly pulls the Smurfs under.
Back in the village, the rest of the Smurfs cheer as Marina is reunited with her father. Hefty sees Handy looking at Marina with eyes of love and pushes him toward her tub where she kisses him. Papa Smurf greets King Aquarius, who tells the village leader that he is eternally in his debt, and then has the king brought to his house where he could rest. Papa Smurf pulls Handy aside to tell him that Smurfette's team has been gone too long in getting the lilyroot, so Handy secretly goes off with a few other Smurfs to go find Smurfette and her team.
At the Pool of Avalon, Smurfette, Lazy, and Grouchy are buried up to their necks in quicksand, the prisoners of the pool's custodian who tells them that the lilyroot has the power to save lives if they are bought or to take lives if they are stolen. Handy and his team of Smurfs notice the custodian's boots must be the source of his magic power and so come up with a plan. Soon the custodian is led into a trap set up by the other Smurfs who capture him and remove his boots so that Handy could wear them and rescue the other three Smurfs from the quicksand, which they are now covered in up to their eyes. With the custodian now tied to a tree, Smurfette scolds him for his selfishness by saying there are more important things in life than gold: health, happiness, and love. Hefty adds, "and Greedy's cookies", as he pulls out a bag of smurfberry cookies and starts eating them. The custodian is hungry for the cookies and wants to get his hands on them, but Smurfette won't hand them over to him unless he is willing to give her the lilyroot and to stop acting selfish. The custodian agrees to Smurfette's terms and is let loose to enjoy the cookies.
That night in the village, Papa Smurf calls for a celebration to honor the safe return of the Smurf teams, the restoration of King Aquarius' health, and the bravery of Handy Smurf whose ingenuity made it all possible. King Aquarius sees that Handy and Marina have fallen in love with each other. After the celebration, Handy and Marina spend some time alone by the village well, talking to each other, when Marina removes the flower from her hair and drops it into the well, saying that it is a sign that she will return. Handy realizes from this that Marina must go back to her undersea world, and Marina wishes there is some way that he could join her. Papa Smurf, Smurfette, and King Aquarius watch from a distance, knowing that those two had one shining moment together, but Smurfette sees that it just isn't fair.
The next day, Handy shows Marina his diving suit, which he now has modified to include a pump that he could control himself to supply oxygen. He follows her downstream to the world of Atlantica, frantically trying to keep up with the mermaid as she swims ahead of him, when he finds his leg caught in the shell of a Smurf-eating clam. Marina tries to force the clam open, but its grip on Handy's leg is too strong. She swims back upstream to get help from the other Smurfs, with Brainy offering to do so at first before he realizes he can't swim, and then Hefty comes to use his strength to pry Handy's leg loose from the clam.
Back in the village, Papa Smurf scolds Handy for his foolishness as he recovers from almost drowning in the ocean, while King Aquarius gives his daughter a heartfelt talk that a Smurf and a mermaid cannot live in each other's world for very long. Marina realizes that it's time for her to say goodbye, and so on top of a hill she and Handy have one last moment together looking at each other, a moment that turns perilous as her tub goes rolling down the hill, crashing through a Smurf house before she is thrown violently out of the tub. Papa Smurf and Smurfette rush to see if Marina is all right, only to find Handy by the riverside mournfully saying goodbye to Marina. Smurfette thinks that Marina has died, but Handy tells her that she is swimming back to Atlantica. Papa Smurf tells Handy that it's better to have "smurfed and lost than never to have smurfed at all".
The following day, Handy sends a flower on a toy boat down the river and into the ocean, where it sinks and finds itself in the hands of Marina, who sees the flower and knows that Handy is thinking of her. Handy hears Marina's voice, "I will always be with you", and goes back to the village happy.
Trivia[]
- First of three appearances of Marina.
- At one point, Brainy says "East is east, west is west, and never the twain shall smurf". The phrase "Never the twain shall meet" was used by Rudyard Kipling in his 1892 "Barrack-room ballads", meaning two things which are so different as to have no opportunity to unit.
- Elements of the episode are based on the story of "The Little Mermaid".
- This episode was available on the VHS tape of Pappy's Puppy.