"The Patchwork Bear" is a Season 4 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.
Characters[]
- Patchwork
- Papa Smurf
- Brainy Smurf
- Clumsy Smurf
- Smurfette
- Tailor Smurf
- Handy Smurf
- Crackle
- Iron Pyrites
- Unnamed Smurfs
Synopsis[]
The Smurfs travel to the source of their river to find out why is it drained.
Plot Summary[]
Brainy and Clumsy head to the River Smurf wearing their swim trunks, seeing that the day is a good day for a swim. They climb up to the highest rock near the river, and at the top Brainy has Clumsy hold onto his glasses while he makes the first dive. Clumsy sees something has happened to the river and tries to warn Brainy about it, but he is too busy preparing for his dive to listen... and soon Brainy lands not in water, but in a dried-up river bed with his head stuck in mud.
They both go to Papa Smurf to inform him about the dried-up river, and so he goes to investigate. He isn't sure what has caused the River Smurf to dry up, so he takes a group of Smurfs with him to travel up to the source of the river to discover its cause. They see a cave at the top of a hill and guess that is where the river gets its water. Upon entering the cave, they see that everything in it is made of ice, and it's so freezing that Tailor wishes he could be wearing his longjohns right now.
Suddenly, they hear a moaning, as if somebody in this frozen world is crying. They see that it's coming from a patched-up toy bear that's crying his eyes out. Smurfette feels her heart going out to the bear, and Papa Smurf approaches the bear to comfort him. The bear calls himself Patchwork, the guardian of the Emerald Empress in the crystal kingdom and says that an evil being named Crackle had imprisoned the empress and had frozen the entire kingdom with a magic crystal, and the only thing he could do was run away like a coward. Smurfette tries to soothe the crying bear by saying he was only trying to get help and he has found it. Papa Smurf offers to give the help and tells the other Smurfs that they will need to set up camp. As they go off with the bear, Brainy has a few words with Clumsy, saying that the bear will give them nothing but an ounce of trouble.
Soon, Patchwork is giving the Smurfs a ride across the ice as they hang onto each other in a chain and Papa Smurf holds onto the bear's tail while he runs. Brainy tells Clumsy to hold on tight, but as Patchwork makes a turn, Clumsy loses his grip and goes sliding off into another direction. Then Patchwork stops running, bringing the remaining Smurfs to a stop, and shudders in fear as he sees what he called Iron Pyrites. Papa Smurf tries to calm Patchwork down by saying he agreed that he would face his fears rather than run away from them, and Brainy tries to assure Patchwork that the pirate ship couldn't possibly do them any harm... until it launches a snowball that lands right on Brainy!
The Iron Pyrites come out of their ship with their swords drawn, ready to face the group of Smurfs. Papa Smurf tries to make peace with the pirates, but the pirates aren't interested in making friends, so he tells the Iron Pyrites that if they try to stop the Smurfs, they will regret it. The leader of the Iron Pyrites think that the Smurfs have a secret weapon, and Brainy claims that they do... only that their "secret weapon" is revealed to be Clumsy sliding out of control and barreling right into the pirates, knocking them over.
The Iron Pyrites surrender onto the Smurfs, who then are given help to build a sailing sled that would sail across the ice. The leader of the pirates knew that it was Crackle who was behind the freezing everything in the cave, including their ship, and says that if the Smurfs succeed in reaching the crystal palace to melt the ice, they would be free to roam the crystal seas again. The Iron Pyrites wave goodbye and give a warning to the Smurfs after the sailing sled is complete and are now on their way toward the palace. After a while, the sailing gets a bit too fast for everyone's liking, and Smurfette points out that there's going to crash against the rocks. Fortunately, the ship crashes some distance below the crystal palace, which means that they have some climbing to do in order to get inside.
Inside the palace, Crackle taunts the empress as she looks helplessly from her frozen cage at the bodies of all her subjects now frozen in ice. The Emerald Empress couldn't understand how anyone like him could be so cruel. Crackle likes to think of himself as "cold-hearted", and says that unless she's willing to marry him, all her people will remain frozen forever. The empress refuses to even consider marrying him, saying she doesn't even like him, and that all he really wants is to rule her kingdom. Crackle tells her that he doesn't need to marry her as long as he has his freezing crystal to rule over her kingdom.
As the Smurfs ascend the staircase leading to the palace, Patchwork tells them about Crackle, an evil being that the Emerald Emperor had banished from the kingdom years ago, but sometime after the emperor had gone to the big crystal palace in the sky, his daughter became the empress and his enemy had returned with his magic crystal. Papa Smurf wants to know where this magic crystal is, and Patchwork says that it's in the throne room. However, Patchwork is too fearful to lead the Smurfs into the throne room to destroy the crystal, so Papa Smurf decides he and the Smurfs will go there themselves, instructing Patchwork to stay put outside.
Soon, they are at the giant doors of the palace's throne room, but try as they might, both Handy and Tailor couldn't get the doors to open. Brainy tries to assure them that the simple solution is to press the button near the door. Papa Smurf suspects it's a trap and warns Brainy not to press the button, but he presses it, and suddenly the Smurfs find themselves trapped in a cage and brought inside the throne room where they see the magic crystal and also the empress herself in another cage. She is so worried about Patchwork that she asks the Smurfs if he's frozen like the others, and Papa Smurf assures her that he's safe.
But then, Crackle reappears in the room to offer the Smurfs a closer look at the magic crystal that they noticed was behind the freezing. Patchwork watches from a door as Crackle brings the cage full of Smurfs closer to the crystal so that he could freeze them along with the rest of the empress' subjects. He rushes into the room and tells Crackle to leave his friends alone, but he ends up slipping and swinging across the room with the magic crystal until they both hit a wall and the crystal shatters. At that instant, the ice begins to melt, and soon everything in the crystal kingdom is restored to normal as all the people are thawed out and the water flows through the kingdom once again. Crackle sees that his plan has failed, and so with the Emerald Empress banishing him to the mountain top again, he flees even though he claims that he will be back.
With the River Smurf now restored with water flowing from the crystal kingdom, the Emerald Empress awards Patchwork with a medal of bravery and commends the Smurfs, their friends from the outside world, for their help in restoring the kingdom. Patchwork is happy to be given such an honor as the subjects all crown him with cheers.
Trivia[]
- In the syndicated (and iTunes) version of the episode, part of the scene where the Smurfs meet the Emerald Empress is cut: Smurfette and the Empress compliment each other on their beauty back and forth, causing a very distressed Brainy to yell out “What are you two doing?! We’re about to die, and you two are worried about who’s more beautiful?!“.
- When Patchwork tells the story of how the kingdom became frozen, he says the former Emerald Emperor went to "the big crystal palace in the sky". This means that the Emerald Emperor passed away.