| Title Translation of The Incredible Shrinking Wizard | |
| French | Le sorcier qui rétrécit |
| Spanish | El hechizo Increíble |
| German | Der unglaublich schrumpfende Hexenmeister |
| Italian | Un mago incredibilmente piccolo |
| Dutch | De Ongelofelijke Krimpende Tovenaar |
Meet Gargasmurf!
"The Incredible Shrinking Wizard" is a Season 4 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.
Plot Summary
As Papa Smurf, Smurfette, and Handy watch Baby Smurf play around with tiny Smurf figures in a toy village Handy had created for Baby, Nat alerts the village leader to an ecological danger: the Smurf river is polluted, causing strange mutations with the fish that live in the river. The Smurfs detect that the pollution is coming from a runoff on a hill, and so Papa Smurf and Smurfette follow the runoff to its origin -- Gargamel's muckpond. They watch in hiding as the evil wizard dumps all his failed potions into the muckpond, fussing and fuming at how they failed in helping him catch the Smurfs. Then suddenly Azrael finds himself distracted by the Smurfs he sees nearby and chases them all around Gargamel, causing him to fall into the muckpond. As the Smurfs escape, Gargamel spits out the icky water and curses Azrael for his action.
Back at the village, Papa Smurf works on a solution to clean up both the polluted river and the polluted muckpond that caused it. Brainy tries to offer Papa Smurf his assistance, but the only thing Papa Smurf wants Brainy to do is watch after Baby Smurf, which he grudgingly does with the help of his friend Clumsy.
At Gargamel's castle, the evil wizard takes a rest on his bed when he hears Azrael crying to be let inside. As he does, he vents out his ill temper at the seemingly ungrateful cat when he notices that he is starting to shrink. Soon he is Smurf-size, and now at the mercy of his pet, who chases him out into the forest. As Gargamel heads for what may be the direction to the Smurf Village, he continues to vent his rage, and as he does, he continues to shrink. Soon he finds himself in the hands of Baby Smurf, who is busy playing outside with Brainy and Clumsy watching over him. Seeing Gargamel in a condition that would make Brainy a hero, the bespectacled Smurf brings him home to the village and puts him inside Baby's toy village while he gets Papa Smurf.
After the village leader examines him, Gargamel asks if there is a way to restore himself to normal size. Papa Smurf suggests that they may try the same formula he used to clean up the polluted river, and soon they bring him out into the forest where they would safely dump a bucket of the formula upon the evil wizard. However, the bucket prematurely falls, dousing Gargamel and hiding him inside the bucket. As Papa Smurf sees that the formula hasn't worked, Gargamel curses the village leader for his failure, which causes him to shrink to bug-size.
Realizing that negative emotions were causing Gargamel to shrink, Papa Smurf suggests that the only way to restore the wizard to his normal size is if he performed good deeds. He tests this hypothesis out with having Gargamel rescue a butterfly stuck in a spider's web, which he does only to be briefly stuck before he grows somewhat to break through it. After another test which brings Gargamel up to Smurf-size, Papa Smurf decides to have the other Smurfs help the wizard become a part of the village for the time being so he could learn how to do good deeds that will bring him back to normal.
Soon Tailor stitches up for Gargamel a Smurf suit, which makes the other Smurfs call him "Gargasmurf", a name that he detests hearing. Then throughout the day, Gargamel goes through doing various tasks around the village, trying to do good deeds despite his own evil nature getting in the way. When Handy is stuck under one of his machines he was repairing, Gargamel tries to lift it up, and as he does, he grows and grows until he almost becomes his normal size. Taking advantage of this growth spurt, Gargamel flings Handy's machine toward the Smurfs as they flee for safety, but afterward he shrinks back to Smurf-size. Papa Smurf decides for the safety of the village that Gargamel must stay outside the village until he returns to normal size.
The day after, the Smurfs decide to have a beach party among the river. Gargamel watches woefully as he is no longer big enough to be a threat to the Smurfs, but is now being threatened by everything in the forest that's bigger than he is. Soon he sees Azrael sneaking his way onto the happy scene, scaring away most of the adult Smurfs while he is ready to pounce on Baby Smurf unaware. Gargamel bravely comes to the rescue of Baby Smurf and lures the cat away from the Smurfs, but as he does, he grows back to his normal size. The Smurfs watch from safety as Gargamel, now covering himself up with a bush, angrily chases after Azrael.
That night, as the Smurfs drift off to sleep, Gargamel vainly tries to find his way back to the village, but curses as he falls into a hole in the ground.
Background Information
- In the syndicated version of the episode, the entire soundtrack was in 2x higher than usual in pitch octave.
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