"Journey To The Center Of The Smurf" is a Season 6 episode from the 1980s Smurfs cartoon show.
Characters[]
- Miner Smurf
- Papa Smurf
- Grandpa Smurf
- Handy Smurf
- Hefty Smurf
- Brainy Smurf
- Clumsy Smurf
- Smurfette
- Painter Smurf
- Lava Creatures
- Grouchy Smurf
- Greedy Smurf
- Lazy Smurf
- Nat Smurfling (Does not speak)
- Snappy Smurfling (Does not speak)
- Slouchy Smurfling (Does not speak)
- Unnamed Smurfs
Synopsis[]
Miner finds a source of heat for the freezing Smurfs by digging into the center of the Earth.
Plot Summary[]
It's a cold autumn day and Miner is working hard as always, but this time has the help of Clumsy who also gets a chance to collect some interesting rocks for his personal collection. Clumsy asks Miner if he never gets tired, and he answers that with a strong pickaxe on his hand and a lightning candle on his head his job is well done every time. Suddenly, one of Miner's hits made a fall of strange black rocks over both Smurfs. Clumsy states that he never saw black rocks before, and Miner declares that Papa Smurf must know about this.
Meanwhile at Papa's lab, the latter in company of Grandpa, Brainy, and Handy, is watching the stars alignment along with the weather and sees that winter is coming sooner than expected. Miner and Clumsy took some samples of the black rocks and tried to show it to Papa, but Brainy states that Papa has more important things that watching rocks (even Brainy secretes to Handy that Miner always has rocks in his head). As Papa declares the beginning of the anticipated pre-winter choirs, Miner is hesitant to give up the knowledge of the black rocks, so he heads back to the mine in order to find out the truth along with Clumsy.
As winter approaches, Smurfette with the help of Grandpa and the Smurflings is rallying to collect washed clothes enough to keep warm on winter, while Handy is repairing the roofs and Greedy prepares enough food supplies, although with extra tarts for himself as always. When Handy asks Hefty how he's doing chopping the lumber for firewood, Hefty complains that he asked Lazy's help for it, however instead of working, Lazy took his usual nap and dreamed that the lumber was chopped by itself.
Soon, winter arises and almost every Smurf is waiting at Papa's house in order to keep warm and hoping the snowfalls will stop. Smurfette states that winter is a picturesque time of the year while Grouchy complains that he hates waiting snowfalls will stop. The firewood is not enough to keep the Smurfs warm, and even when Grandpa states that they've got enough food to pass the winter, Greedy points that it got frozen and it's impossible to eat in that state.
Meanwhile at the mine, Miner complains that the more he digs, the blacker rocks he finds, and he couldn't figure the purpose of these. Soon, one of his digs opens a hole in a wall, and Miner discovers a tunnel full of heat. He heads back to the Smurf Village to tell the Smurfs about the discovery, but first he unfreezes Clumsy who got frozen outside the mine while collecting rocks.
The Smurfs finally ran out of firewood and with their beards frozen, Papa and Grandpa stated that the winter is going to be longer than expected. However, Miner arrives and shouts the discovery of the heat tunnel and the Smurfs rapidly rushed to the mine, passing over Miner in a cartoonish way. Hefty complains if they're going to spend the whole winter inside the mine, but Miner states that they're going to find the core of the heat and ask for a little to borrow. Making a bigger hole enough for a Smurf to pass, the Smurfs watch that they reached a bigger underground world inhabited by talking creatures made of warm lava that are pulling the mysterious black rocks into a big oven that is the size half of the Smurfs Village. Greedy jokingly states that the oven is probably made to bake bigger pies and cakes, but Miner declares that in reality is made to keep warm that underground. Two of the working Lava Creatures are complaining about the hard work of keeping warm their underground, when a counterpart that serves as a fast-food vendor passed selling Hamburrocks ("Hamburgers made with molten rocks sautéed with mineral salt"). Both workers skip the job for a while to take a snack, but suddenly the exploiting and tyrant Lava Prospector shouts to get them back to work while pressing a black rock and burning it. The workers complain again saying that someday they will finally finish their lunch.
Papa states that they reached the Center of the Earth, and the Black Rocks are in fact Mineral Coal to keep the high heat of the oven. Miner declares that they finally discover the solution to their warm problem and rallies to get some samples, however the Lava Prospector surprises them and captures the Smurfs mistaking them as thieves and putting them into slavery work in order to keep the oven functioning. After more than almost 24 hours pulling coal into the oven, the Smurfs are getting tired and their tools get broken, however when a pickaxe breaks, the Lava Prospector gives them a new one and dumps the broken ones into a battered shack. Their only moments for rest, are passed inside a cage in the custody of a green Lava Guard, and while some of the Smurfs are caged, the others are the reliefs in the slavery work. Miner feels sorry for putting his Smurf family in that predicament and declares that he's going to get them out of that. Brainy shouts that if it wasn't for Miner nothing of this never happened, but Papa in Miner's defense supports his idea for getting their freedom. Soon in a little amount of time when the Lava Guard got distracted to buy a Hamburrock and before the Lava Prospector would reprimand him, Miner and Handy dogged a getaway tunnel and passed over them before Clumsy accidentally blocked it after slipping while pulling a mining cart full of coal.
As Miner and Handy escaped in order to free the other Smurfs with a plan, they passed through the two complaining Lava Workers who stated that for the first time in 100 years, they can take a rest although they feel a little sorry for the Smurfs and stated that if it wasn't for them, the Earth would probably get hardly frozen by the effects of the long and anticipated winter. Miner states that deep inside the Lava Creatures are not really evil; they are just tired of working so hard and got complaining personalities as consequence of their slaving jobs. At the light of this, Miner has an idea to solve both problems for the Smurfs and the Lava Creatures as well and heads to the battered shack along with Handy. They found a lot of broken mining equipment that it could be reused if a Smurf Machine is made, and Miner tells Handy his idea. And so Handy put his hands on the job, stating that Miner will be on a side for this job, as he works harder than any other Smurf and now is his time to help solve the problem.
Before the Lava Prospector could made the workers get back to job, the battered shack explodes, and a Bigger Smurf Machine emerges. Mistaking it as a monster, the Lava Creatures ran in panic, but Smurfette and Papa soon pointed that Miner and Handy are onboard operating it. The Lava Creatures implored Handy and Miner not to hurt them with the monster they made, but Miner points that is not a monster, is a Smurf Digging Machine made to solve their problems in pulling coal into the oven. They took a bunch of coal with the scoop and pulled into the oven. The Lava Prospector got amused with the digger and congratulated Miner for building it along with Handy, and the hard-working Smurf pointed that along the digger made one more artifact for the job; a Rotating Belt Factory System that support bunches of coal and continually transports them inside the oven.
In gratitude for solving their mining trouble as they can finally pull coal without hurting their backs, the Lava Prospectors sets the Smurfs free and allows them to borrow the amounts of coal anytime they need every winter. Miner also gave them as a farewell gift, some tips and the blueprints "off-screen" to build a new Storage Shack to replace the battered one and store their newer Digging Machines and Rotating Belts for the future. Back at the Smurfs Village, the Smurfs finally enjoy the winter as the coal keeps them warmer for the long time the cold season endures and even Greedy is able to unfreeze their food supplies and roast marshmallows. Smurfette asks if somebody saw Miner and Greedy pointed that he traveled to the Lava Creatures place to take another amount of coal. Miner soon emerges from the underground with a big bag of coal and Smurfette says if it is no other way for Miner to travel to the Center of the Earth, to what Miner says while eating a marshmallow "Believe me. It's the only way to travel".
Trivia[]
- This episode is a spoof of Jules Verne's 1864 novel Journey to the Center of the Earth.
- This is the first and only appearance of the Lava Creatures from the Center of the Earth.
- Sassette is the only Smurfling not to appear in this episode.
- This is also the only episode besides "The Smurflings" in which Nat, Snappy, and Slouchy appear without Sassette.
- The Smurflings were not seen when the Lava Creatures put the adult Smurfs into slavery work. The writers probably decided to keep Baby Smurf and the Smurflings safe in the village, as they wanted to avoid showing the audience an allusion to Child Labor.
- In certain syndication prints of the episode, the scenes where the Smurfs prepare for the winter in the beginning is edited out. This is the only scene featuring Nat and Snappy.
Goofs[]
- While the Smurfs are at Papa's lab trying to stay warm, there appears to be Slouchy sitting behind Hefty but wearing normal Smurf pants and no shirt.
- When Brainy tells Handy he thinks Miner has "rocks in his head", Handy's overalls are missing.
- Later, as Brainy criticizes Miner and his plan, Miner's hat has Handy's visor attached to it.
- When one of the Lava Creatures asks if Miner and Handy built the Digger for them, Miner's gloves are missing.
- At the end of the episode, Greedy is animated saying Handy's line ("Did anysmurf see Miner around?") as he puts another marshmallow on his toasting stick.
Videos[]
