I watched the special when it first aired in April of 1990, pretty much when the Smurfs were winding down as a Saturday morning phenomenon thanks to its "time-traveling" Season 9 episodes. It was a pretty bold idea at the time, to do a cartoon crossover special that was like Who Framed Roger Rabbit done with TV cartoon characters (well, mostly them...Looney Tunes were actually animated film feature characters). However, what they choose to team together to deal with is the controversial issue of drugs, since parents were concerned about their children picking up the drug habit from their own schoolmates and such. The Smurfs already had an episode dealing with a drug-like magical object that entranced its users called "Lure Of The Orb". But here, the producers of the special didn't want to use G-rated analogs to existing drugs, whether they be magical objects or what-not, to get their message across. Nope, they just cut to the chase and mentioned real-life drugs like marijuana right out in the open, with Simon from Alvin and the Chipmunks being the first to say it without any sense of irony.
The story starts with the Smurfs being the first to notice something wrong: that Corey's piggy-bank is stolen. They in turn help wake up other cartoon characters to the situation at hand, which is where they discover that not only has Corey's brother Michael had stolen the piggy-bank, he's also a drug addict who's keeping a secret stash under his bed. As the story progresses, the cartoon characters team up to help Michael see the wrongness in doing drugs through various scare tactics, such as showing what would happen to Michael if he kept doing drugs. However, Michael is also being tempted by the character called Smoke, who acts like his best buddy, although whenever Michael gets into trouble, Smoke tends to think only about himself and leaves Michael to fend for himself. Meanwhile, Corey wonders whether she should tell her parents about Michael and then discovers the same secret stash when she goes into Michael's room. Michael, who then sees the light and realizes what kind of danger he's putting himself and his family into, rescues Corey by knocking the stash out of her hand, then tosses Smoke out the window and into a garbage truck, then makes up with his sister while the cartoon characters gather together inside a poster.
While the antics that go on inside the special are funny, there's an overall air of preachiness that is spouted by the cartoon characters that "drugs are bad" that makes the special feel like the audience is being talked down to rather than just being talked straight to. Also, being that this is a cartoon crossover, the Smurfs themselves don't have much of a big role in the story, as they appear mostly in the beginning and in the song, "Wonderful Ways To Say No" (which is the cheesiest song I have ever heard in a special, even coming from a talented composer like Alan Menken). And speaking of the Smurfs, why wasn't Smurfette included in the special, even though she appears in the promotional poster? The animation is pretty much serviceable, given that the animators only had six weeks to get this project pulled together, although there are some goofs that appear here and there due to the rush job it was given.
Would a cartoon crossover idea like this fly in today's animated features landscape? Perhaps, if they have a subject that's worth dealing with, but seeing a repeat of what went on in this special is NOT something I want to look forward to in a possible sequel-of-sorts. It's not much of a wonder that this special has turned into an unintentional comedy for stoners -- after all, who wouldn't want their favorite cartoon characters come to life if they smoked enough weed?
On a scale from 1 to 5, this special ranks a 3.