"The Smurfbox Derby" is a Season 4 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.
Characters
- Handy Smurf
- Papa Smurf
- Dreamy Smurf
- Vanity Smurf
- Smurfette
- Hefty Smurf
- Clumsy Smurf
- Greedy Smurf
- Brainy Smurf
- Jokey Smurf
- Tuffy Smurf
- Lazy Smurf
- Farmer Smurf
- Grouchy Smurf
- Painter Smurf
- Harmony Smurf
- Gargamel
- Azrael
- Bigmouth
- Unnamed Smurfs
Synopsis
Everyone receives a special smurfmobile from Handy, but they argue which one is better, leading them into starting a race.
Plot Summary
The episode begins showing various Smurfs pushing heavy wagons. Handy remarks, "Smurfing wagons sure is hard work!". Dreamy laments, "maybe someday wagons will smurf all by themselves". This gives Handy the idea to create the smurfless wagon, or smurfmobile.
Each Smurf is given their own unique smurfmobile (although Clumsy's smurfmobile has no engine as well as no wheels, requiring Clumsy to carry his own). Papa Smurf and Hefty decline getting their own smurfmobiles. Eventually, traffic jams occur and Brainy sets up basic driving regulations. Despite the new driving rules, another traffic jam occurs, and the Smurfs bicker as to who's smurfmobile is the fastest. Brainy decides that to end the argument as to which car is fastest, the smurfmobiles should all be standardized - each Smurf should get the same model vehicle. Brainy proposes a race from Mount Smurf to the Smurf Village to determine which unique smurfmobile will become the new standard.
Gargamel, meanwhile, has created a Smurf Masher vehicle, which resembles a modern-day steamroller. Bigmouth provides the engine in the form of a treadmill which he rides, while trying in vain to get the rock stew Gargamel has suspended in front of him as incentive.
The Smurfs race begins, and Gargamel is soon on their tail! Gargamel crushes the Smurfs' cars, but Tuffy provides a distraction while the Smurfs turn the Smurf Masher against its maker. Gargamel ends up getting chased by his own creation!
With their cars destroyed, Handy says, "I guess we're just not ready for smurfless power, Papa Smurf.", and the Smurfs return to their old ways of hand-pushing wagons. The episode ends with Brainy as the ultimate used-car salesman, trying to sell the damaged and ruined cars back to the Smurfs, claiming a little paint will make the vehicles "smurfy as new". Hefty gives Brainy a "sales pitch" by tossing him on his head into the forest.
Trivia
- The smurfmobile concept was reused in the Playstation videogame Smurf Racer by Infogrames, where the various Smurf characters that the player can select to race with have their own unique racing vehicles, such as Papa Smurf with his "spell book" racer.
- The smurfomobile was one of the inventions Dreamy had seen in a dream in "Gargamel's Miss-Fortune".
- A children's book adaption of this episode was produced, titled "The Smurfmobile Race". It is one of few Smurfs Classic books that have not yet been physically released in the US.
- In the Smurfs' Village app game, various smurfmobiles from this episode are available to be collected via mini games after Racer Smurf's hut is purchased. When the collection is completed, the player unlocks the hot rod smurfmobile that Hefty declined.