This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the creation of the Smurfs. Should we celebrate or mourn? Start planning now, because the anniversary won't be until October. (Um, AP? Aren't you jumping the gun a bit?)

That series was always very weird. Smurfette, for instance, was the only girl. Right? But Smurfette was originally yet another boy. Magic changed her into a girl.

I always like Handy Smurf. He was the one who created all the gizmos that made their life better. Unlike Brainy Smurf, who was all talk, no action. All he was interested in was getting people to acknowledge how smart he was.

Sort of like the difference between engineering students and liberal arts students, donchathink? (Yikes!)

New ones kept popping up all the time. By this point the population of Smurfistan (or whatever it's called) is huge, full of specifically identified folks.

Hefty Jokey Grouchy Dreamy Clumsy Greedy Vanity Scaredy Tracker Sloppy Harmony... sounds like the 77 Dwarves, doesn't it?

What I was never clear on was just why Gargamel wanted to capture them. I vaguely remember he wanted to eat them -- but gad, can't he find anything better to chew on? Not much meat on a Smurf, after all.

Well, it's lucky for us that Japanese animation was influenced by Betty Boop and not by Smurfette.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at 07:37 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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