"Smurfette's Dancing Shoes" is a Season 1 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.
Characters
- Smurfette
- The Treasure Hunter Imp
- Papa Smurf
- Brainy Smurf
- Hefty Smurf
- Grouchy Smurf
- Greedy Smurf
- Handy Smurf
- Clumsy Smurf
- Vanity Smurf
- Lazy Smurf
- Jokey Smurf
- Dreamy Smurf
- Harmony Smurf
- The Treasure Hunter Imp's Gargoyles
- Unnamed Smurfs
Locations
- Smurf Village
- Smurf Forest
- Smurf Village Meeting House
- Treasure Hunter Imp's Castle
- Dreadful Hollow
Synopsis
An imp gives Smurfette dancing shoes and later forces her to marry him.
Plot Summary
Out in the Smurf Forest, an imp is carrying a dowsing rod that he calls his treasure detector as he is searching for the lost treasure of the ancient trolls. However, he is complaining that he has searched all his life for that treasure, and all he got for his troubles so far is bad feet and a worn-out treasure detector. He throws the treasure detector away when he notices it suddenly reacting. He grabs the detector, only for it to pull him along down into a cave toward the very thing it was detecting, and the very thing he was searching for: the lost treasure of the ancient trolls.
The imp is so happy to have found it that he rushes toward the treasure, but his way is soon blocked by a transparent visage that calls himself the Spirit Of The Ancient Trolls, who protects the treasure from trespassers. He tells the imp that no one can touch the treasure unless they have proven themselves worthy by braving the dangers of Dreadful Hollow and bringing back three things from that location: a feather from the giant vulture, fire from the volcano, and the fabled blue diamond from its cave. When the imp says that those trials are impossible, the Spirit offers an alternative challenge: finding a fair maiden with a pure heart who's willing to marry him. The imp says that's impossible as well, but the Spirit has spoken his demands and has closed the door to the treasure to get the point across.
In the Smurf Village, Clumsy Smurf sneaks off in the middle of the night to a Smurf house where the Smurfs are holding a secret meeting. Hefty, who is the main speaker of the meeting, tells the gathered Smurfs that Papa Smurf's birthday is coming up and they are looking for a way to celebrate it. Vanity suggests a beauty contest, Greedy suggests a pie-eating contest, Lazy suggests a slumber party, Harmony suggests a serenade, and so on and so on until Grouchy says, "I hate yelling". Smurfette then says they should put all their talents together into one big Smurf show, which all the Smurfs seem to agree upon. Hefty says they will start practice for the show the first thing in the morning, which makes Smurfette wonder why she would need to practice. Brainy reminds Smurfette that practice makes perfect, but all she can say to that is that practice makes boring.
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The imp gives Smurfette something to dance about | ||
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Boy, look at Smurfette go! |
By morning, the practice for the Smurf show starts. With Hefty directing the orchestra, he calls forth each of the acts to present themselves. The first act is Brainy and Clumsy dressed up as chickens and telling a joke. The second act is Greedy juggling a stack of pies, which gets cut short as Greedy got so hungry he ate the pies. The third act is two male Smurfs dancing with roses with their mouths when one of them, obviously Lazy, falls asleep in the middle of the dance. Then Smurfette shows up with her smurfberry picking basket, and Handy tells her that they need to practice. Smurfette feels so certain that she doesn't need to practice her routine that she has the orchestra play music while she attempts to show that she's a natural when it comes to dancing -- only to fall on her face with her fellow Smurfs laughing at her. She simply brushes it off as just warming up and has the music play again while again trying to prove her natural talent of dancing -- but she falls again and gets laughed at again.
Smurfette gets so upset that she goes off into the forest to sulk about her lack of talent, wishing there was some other way she could show her fellow Smurfs that she could dance without having to go through all that practice. The imp overhears Smurfette's predicament and sees that she is the fair maiden with a pure heart that he is looking for, so he decides to offer her help. After introducing himself to Smurfette, the imp gives her a pair of magical dancing shoes that appear on her feet. He tells Smurfette that with those shoes she will be the hottest performer in the village, and she won't ever need to practice. Smurfette tries out the dancing shoes and finds herself dancing around with such amazing grace as if she's done it for years. She is so happy with what the imp has given her she asks him how she can ever thank him, and the imp tells her that she will repay him someday before he disappears from sight.
Back in the village, Hefty is practicing his tightrope act when Smurfette calls out to him, causing him to fall off the rope. She tells her fellow Smurfs that she's ready to dance, but when Hefty tells her that practice time is over, Smurfette shows them that she doesn't need to practice by performing a dance so graceful that it leaves the other Smurfs stunned, wondering how she was able to pull off such a performance without any practice. Smurfette simply tells them that "when you've got it, you've got it" and walks away happy with herself.
Alone in her house, Smurfette is visited by the imp again, who then says that the time has come for her to repay his kindness by offering her hand in marriage. Smurfette realizes what that would mean and quickly runs away from him, seeking refuge with her fellow Smurfs as she fills them in on what she has done to make herself appear to be the greatest dancer. The imp shows up at the door, calling for Smurfette to come to him, but he is greeted by Hefty and Clumsy, who refuse to let the imp get his hands on her. The imp just simply snaps his fingers and Smurfette finds herself dancing uncontrollably into his arms before they both disappear, leaving the other Smurfs wondering where she and the imp went. After not seeing a trace of either of them anywhere, Hefty says that they should go see Papa Smurf.
Meanwhile, Papa Smurf is pacing around inside his house, wondering if his little Smurfs have remembered that his birthday is coming up, when he hears them coming to the door, calling his name. He opens it up to greet them, but they rush right into the house and trample him underneath, looking around wondering where he was until Papa Smurf makes his presence known. The Smurfs then tell Papa Smurf that an evil imp has taken Smurfette and has disappeared, which makes Papa Smurf take his little Smurfs out into the forest to follow the imp's tracks until they find him.
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Smurfette waits for her fellow Smurfs to rescue her |
Their course leads to a castle high upon a hill where the imp holds Smurfette hostage, pining over never seeing her friends again. The castle is being guarded by a gargoyle perched on the tower that Smurfette is held prisoner in. The Smurfs try to look for a way in without being detected when Papa Smurf sees a log and has some Smurfs help him push it into the moat so they could get in that way, but the log is quickly chomped by the serpent that guards the moat. Hefty sees another way they could get in: by throwing a line that wraps itself around the hook near Smurfette's window and having the Smurfs hold the line taut, Hefty tightropes his way to the window to carry Smurfette out. The Smurfs cheer when Hefty has her, but their cheering soon wakens the gargoyle and he quickly grabs the line, dragging the Smurfs still holding onto the line into the throne room of the imp who's being prepared for his wedding by other gargoyles.
Papa Smurf tells the imp to let Smurfette go because her fellow Smurfs love her, and he doesn't. The imp is willing to let Smurfette go if they are willing to go to Dreadful Hollow to get three things from there: a feather from the giant vulture, fire from the volcano, and the fabled blue diamond from the cave. However, the imp only gives them until sunrise to get the items or else Smurfette will be his forever. While he sends the gargoyles to carry the Smurfs to Dreadful Hollow, the imp tells Smurfette that it's time to celebrate because she's never going to see her fellow Smurfs alive again.
After being deposited in Dreadful Hollow, the Smurfs split off into three groups to get the three items. Hefty takes his group up the mountain to get the feather from the giant vulture, which Brainy thinks will be easy to do until they see the bird for themselves. Even worse is that, when they climb into the vulture's nest, they find out that she has hatchlings. Then their mother returns and takes Clumsy away in her talons until she drops him into a raging river heading towards a waterfall. Hefty and two other Smurfs push a log into the river for Clumsy to grab so he can safely reach shore, but the vulture now chases them into a cave where she pulls upon Jokey's pants. Jokey gives the vulture one of his "surprises", which explodes and causes the bird to fly away, dropping one of her feathers for the Smurfs to collect.
Meanwhile, Handy takes his group up the path of the volcano to get the fire from it. Along the way, Greedy gets pulled down into a pool of muck that his fellow Smurfs must pull him out of. Lazy sees that the volcano is about to erupt, which makes them hurry to the top of the volcano faster. Handy goes down into the simmering lava pool on a rope to light the torch with its fire, but soon the rope on his end catches fire, and the other Smurfs must pull him up quickly and then outrun the pouring lava when the volcano erupts.
Papa Smurf takes the third group into the cave with the blue diamond. Grouchy blindly walks into the cave ahead of the group and gets trapped by stalagmites that drop behind him after he enters, turning him white as a ghost. Papa Smurf tells Grouchy that next time he will lead the way, and so they enter the ice-lined cave filled with bats. They quickly reach the blue diamond, but as the other three Smurfs cheer for their discovery, the ice floor gives way underneath one of them and he is left trying to keep himself from falling into a deep abyss. As the other Smurfs try to rescue Dreamy, the cavern begins to shake as the volcano is erupting. Soon they save him and grab the blue diamond before the cave collapses.
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A wedding that deserves to be crashed |
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The well-deserved fate of the imp |
At sunrise, the imp is ready to marry his bride, seeing that the Smurfs have failed to get the three items from Dreadful Hollow before that time. But the Smurfs do show up with those items right on time, yet Papa Smurf isn't going to hand them over to the imp unless he frees Smurfette. The imp, however, has other ideas, sending his gargoyles to collect the items from the Smurfs. The Smurfs contend with the gargoyles while Papa Smurf tries to get the magical dancing shoes off Smurfette, but they can't come off, and soon the imp has the three items and Smurfette in his grasp so that the treasure of the trolls will be his.
As the imp makes a run for it with his prizes, Papa Smurf finds something in the imp's magic book about the dancing shoes and recites an incantation to make the shoes come off Smurfette's feet. Then with another incantation, Papa Smurf casts the magic shoes to appear on the imp's feet as well as those of his gargoyles, causing them to dance uncontrollably and causing the imp to lose the three items collected from Dreadful Hollow to the moat serpent.
As the Smurfs watch the imp and his gargoyles dance without stop into the forest, Hefty tells Papa Smurf that this wasn't what the Smurfs had in mind for his birthday, but he might as well enjoy the show. Smurfette now knows from this that if she wants to really be good at something, there's no substitute for practice -- and as Papa Smurf can see, the imp and his gargoyles are going to have plenty of time for practice!
Trivia
- The idea of Smurfette's dancing shoes is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fable The Red Shoes (and the 1948 film based on it) about a pair of ballet shoes that never let their wearer stop dancing.
- Hefty Smurf's strongman outfit looks very to have similar fabric as the outfit of fellow Hanna-Barbera character Fred Flintstone.
- Grouchy's yelling is the first instance in which he says "I hate..." louder. In this season and some of season 2, his voice is quieter.
- When Smurfette is dancing, her full hair can be seen as her hat is moving from her hair.
- Re-used animation from "The Magic Egg" is seen when the Smurfs are about to fight the gargoyles.
Goofs
- When we see Hefty on the tightrope for the first time, his trousers are blue.
- When the Smurfs are running to save Smurfette, if one looks closely, the same animation is being re-used twice (Clumsy, Hefty, and Handy appear running out of the door twice).
- When the Smurfs appear at the imp's castle to save Smurfette, Papa Smurf's trousers are white.
Transcript
- To see a transcript of the episode, click here.