Smurfs Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Smurfs Wiki

Comics Icon

"The Smurfette" (French: "La Schtroumpfette") is the third album of the original French-language Smurfs comic series. The story has also been made into an episode of the Smurfs animated cartoon show, where the only known significant difference is that Smurfette stays in the village for the rest of the show's run. Apart from the titular story, it contains another one called La Faim des Schtroumpfs ("The Hunger Of The Smurfs", published as "The Hungry Smurfs" by Papercutz).

Characters

Plot

The Smurfette

Gargamel wants to take revenge against the Smurfs for his humiliating defeat at their hands. He decides that the most horrible plan to destroy them would be to send them a female Smurf, who shall seduce them and lead them to their doom. He thus fashions her out of clay and dips her in a potion, creating Smurfette. She is sent to the Smurf Village, and the others befriend her, despite that she later proves to be annoying albeit good meaning. She is very talkative, a bit bossy, overly friendly, and hysterical. At first, Smurfette looks like a male Smurf with scraggly black hair, a large nose, and rather surly eyes, with the only thing separating her from the rest being her white dress -- not exactly the attractive temptress that Gargamel tried to create.

Some of the Smurfs become sick of her, so they decide to play a trick: they make her think she has become overweight (by rigging a scale, setting in a misshaping mirror, making her listen to some nasty talk...). Becoming depressed, she realizes that she is not pretty and Papa Smurf decides to help her: he operates plastic smurfery on her for days and nights, and Smurfette comes out with blonde hair, more delicate features, longer eyelashes, walking, and acting much more gracefully.

The Smurfs all fall in love with her and the soon after, they all try to seduce her through different means. The competition and jealousy eventually bring chaos and violence among the Smurfs, who are ready for anything to please her, even painting the dam of the river pink.

The last straw is when Smurfette forces Poet Smurf to open the dam for her, just so she could see the water spurting. The dam gets stuck open and the village is flooded. Even after the dam is sealed back up, the village is in a disastrous state. When Papa Smurf discovers that Smurfette is indirectly responsible, he tells her that she has only brought trouble. Furious, Smurfette tells them all that she shall then go back to Gargamel. After hearing this, Papa Smurf orders her arrested and places her on trial.

The trial proves to be quite biased, with most of the Smurfs supporting Smurfette's innocence. Jokey Smurf (who is Smurfette's attorney) reminds them that she has been able to seduce the Smurfs because of Papa Smurf, who made her attractive. Smurfette is eventually declared not guilty.

Unfortunately, Smurfette can't stand the Smurfs fighting each other for her anymore, so she leaves the village indefinitely, leaving a message saying that she will be back one day (which she eventually does). Although they are saddened by the event, Papa Smurf cheers them up by saying that they should get revenge on Gargamel and give him a taste of his own medicine: they create a fat ugly human woman out of clay (as Gargamel did with Smurfette) and send her to his house, where she desperately asks him for shelter, speaking in Smurf talk. The story ends with Gargamel running away from her, grumbling that he shall take vengeance.

The Hunger of the Smurfs

Winter is near and the Smurfs are gathering food. But days after the winter comes, the food storage is destroyed in a fire. To survive, they are forced to leave the village and find a place where they can feed themselves. After long days journeying in the cold wilderness, they find a human castle where its lord is living alone after losing all his fortune. Trying to find remaining food, they stumble on a secret room of jewels. They share their discovery with the lord, who can then buy food for them. The Smurfs are then able to go back to the village.

In other media

  • This comic story saw two animated adaptions: the first one was a television special aired in Belgium in 1969, while the second one, also the most famous adaption, was aired in 1981. Very little is known about the 1969 TV Special and possibly aired once in Belgium.
  • In the second cartoon adaption, the plastic smurfery was replaced by the use of magic to transform Smurfette into a real Smurf after the incident with the dam and the trial. Sometime after Smurfette gets her new look, Gargamel contacts her and after noting that she's changed, he tells her that he can help her repay the Smurfs with a surprise party by the big oak tree. Of course, it turns out to be a trap. Fortunately, Smurfette arrives late and after discovering that she had been tricked, she disguises herself as a male Smurf, rescues the other Smurfs, and defeats Gargamel. The episode ends with Gargamel running away from the human woman the Smurfs created. It was later sequelised with the episode "Smurfette Unmade".
  • "The Hunger Of The Smurfs" is adapted into the episode "Haunted Smurfs", which adds, besides the addition of Smurfette to the story, a subplot about a ghost in the castle. The animated version gives the lord the name of Mr. Poppery.

Trivia

  • Brainy saying "Spare the Smurf and spoil the Smurf" in the part where Smurfette was put on trial is a Smurf-language version and reference to the shortened version of the Biblical proverb: "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently" (shortened to 'spare the rod spoil the child' or 'spare the rod and spoil the child').
  • "The Hunger Of The Smurfs" is one of the mainstream media Smurf stories that invoke the "Exposed To The Elements" trope mentioned on TV Tropes, as the Smurfs hardly wear anything heavier than a scarf to protect themselves from the wintry weather.
  • Both "The Smurfette" and "The Hunger Of The Smurfs" are published in The Smurfs Anthology Volume 2.

Gallery

Advertisement