A village in the heart of a forest surrounded by a lost valley and surrounded by rocks from everywhere, there lives a tribe of amazing little creatures in shape and color, but the forest provides them with everything they need in this happy valley.
It’s been 60 years since the Smurfs were born, but what’s the real story behind these little cartoon characters who have become world-famous icons? Everyone knows them, but what are they really? Why do they consist of 99 males and one female? Why are they blue? What is the secret of their success?
In this documentary film – broadcast by Al Jazeera Documentary – we approach this forest to reveal the secret of these wondrous creatures, so we contemplate them closely and read the details of their story from the beginning.
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Who among us did not like Smurfs in his childhood? These blue dwarf creatures, three apples tall, four-toed and 100 years old, wear a hoodie and have a big nose and big feet.
Despite all this strangeness, they are kind and live in the lost forest the life of a utopia, and the element of evil in the story is the naive evil Gargamel who loses every time.
The story came as a simulation of medieval European myths, and the names of these creatures were numerous in the languages of the world, for example, they were known in Britain as “Smarves”, and in Korea “Sumobo”, while in France their name was “Stromf”, and thus differ in every country and culture.
The beginning was the cartoon drawings on the pages of private magazines, and many loved them, as in the case of the cartoon artist “Philip Gillock” who once spent his savings to buy Smurfs, which cost twenty Belgian francs at the time.
And some of them considered the Smurfs album as a precious treasure, and this is exactly what happened with the cartoon artist “Kosse”, who managed to own an album for her on Christmas Eve.
As for Fabian Felman, the screenwriter, he was suffering from a disease in his childhood that required him to take a monthly injection, and to forget his pain he was rewarded with an album of Smurfs until tomorrow he has 130 albums in the end.
The smurf industry started about 60 years ago, and annually from six to eight models of smurfs are produced, that is, there are about 600 models for them, and between 20,000 to 40,000 smurfs are produced that are sold around the world.
Some people view smurfs as just toys, while some consider them to be amulets or characters, and others see them as links to other people, and although some see them as offensive, many find fun when watching them.
In 1958, the two friends were having a meal, and Beau said to Andre, “Give me the smurf,” meaning salt, from which the term was born.
“Pass the Smurf to me” .. The funny coincidence of the creation of the Smurfs
As for the creator of the Smurfs character, he is “Pierre Culliford” or abbreviated as they called him (Pieo), and behind this innovation is a funny story, while “Pieu”, the Belgian author and painter, was dining with his friend “Andre Francan” on a trip on the Belgian coast, “Pieu” said. : He passed me the smurf and he meant salt. Andre replied, “Okay, I’ll give you the Smurfette, and when you’re done sanding, bring it back to me.” They both burst out laughing and continued to speak in those terms.
His daughter, Veronique Culliford, who is a manager at IMPC, says her father wrote the name down on a piece of paper.
A year later, “Bio” created a new character for the adventures of “Johan and Beop”, and said to himself, “I remembered a name that Andrei and I laughed a lot about.” .
Pop culture specialist Sebastian Minestro believes that what Pew has achieved was a genius, a kind of intellectual attachment to literature, folklore and folk tales through his imitation of medieval legends whose source is unknown, as if they were a renewal of Danish stories, but this is not the case at all.
Ivan Deplort, the editor of the Sibero newspaper, took advantage of the new character and was creative and creative, and decided to send attachments and brochures on occasions and holidays for readers to fill in themselves. He suggested this to the Depuy brothers, and the sales were amazing.
Smurfs products fill European markets after the success of the Smurfs program
Smurfs design..simplicity and colors that dissolve ethnic differences
The most important characteristic of the Smurfs character is the richness and simplicity at the same time and diversity, so they created the village that includes all spectrums of society.
In terms of shape, says “Patrick Met”, character designer at Sony: Smurf is oval in shape, the hat extends back, while the nose protrudes and the eyebrows come above the hat from the bottom, and the ears are lower than usual, and the simpler the character, the easier it is to transform it into another character
As for the writer and historian, “Gill Dahl Vere,” comments: In their small hats, tight pants, and mushroom houses… all these elements with circular curves without corners suggest that he is a peaceful creature that does not harm.
Many people dreamed of living in the houses of smurfs made of mushrooms, and I loved getting to know them because they represented likable qualities in addition to their comfortable and beautiful blue color at the same time. It does not suit the nature of the forest, and the red is a bit aggressive, so his wife chose the blue color to this degree so that it is prominent and identical at the same time with nature.
Kelly Asbury, director of Smurfs and the Lost Village, believes that the color blue dissolves ethnicities, and in terms of humanity makes people relate to them, so there is no difference between them.
Their drawing was very clear without complications, and “Cosé” considered that this was technically successful, as many of the complex and beautiful drawings cannot be reached and understood, but the purpose of the smurfs is clear and the details of the drawing are sufficient, and the writer “Zedro” was presenting the smurfs to his students Spaniards as examples for clarity.
The Smurf King is a metaphor for tyranny in its various forms, and perhaps Hitler was one of those meant by it
The character of King Smurf.. The embodiment of the personality of the Nazi leader Hitler
Language depends on relative understanding and changes with the change of context, and that varies according to the section in which the smurf lives, and this stems from the Belgian conflict based on questions such as whether we speak Dutch, French or German.
The language was real in the Smurfs, not a dialect, and Pew was able to invent a unique, self-contained world, and the dialogues were rich and clear, simple for children and deep for adults.
Writer Fabian Felman considers that the Smurfs were a good way to communicate with children, in addition to addressing topics that were not as simple as they seemed.
The idea of the smurfs carried antonyms, as it is simple and complex, not ridiculous or reckless stories, and it poses problems and obstacles for people who cannot adapt to the group.
The specialist “Matt Murray” believes that the character of King Smurf is an embodiment of the Nazi leader “Hitler”, and says that the work expressed the Nazi occupation of Belgium in this amazing way, and this is one of the wonders of the Smurfs series and its most surprising elements, as it contains these deep themes.
What Pew created is as close as possible to chemical equations, and it is the wonderful combination of appearance, design, language and story that infiltrated the collective consciousness of the viewer, and this is the secret behind the people’s love for these characters.
French author Pierre Dubuis says: Peoples renew their greatest legends, Arthur’s legend has turned into Star Wars, and Pew has done it intuitively also through dwarves, and he fought the world of imagination to establish a kingdom.
Gargamel, the evil character in the Smurfs series, wants to eliminate the Smurfs, even if that was the last work in his life.
Gargamel is an example of evil.. Smurfs’ mockery of Israel
The Smurfs is a comic melodrama in which there are the components of the story between the character of good and evil, and reminds of the characters of the real society, and the reader may find himself in one of those characters, known through their personalities or professions. Tam, and the Smurfs are a totalitarian political organization full of happiness and joy.
Every story needs a witch or a villain, as is the case in the story of Snow White, because merging similar elements will not give an exciting result, so Gargamel was the evil and adult character as well, and his goal in the story was to achieve his goal, and he was ready to destroy young people and everything beautiful, and he is an example of a harmful character Who does not have what she wants, it causes her misery and makes her worse.
François Waltery, co-author of Pew, sees Gargamel as a deceitful and corrupt character, but he is not smart enough to be evil. He is the epitome of a naïve villain, and although his intentions are very bad, he fails in the end and repeatedly.
Smurf producer Jordan Curler considers Gargamel to be one of his favorite villains, because he doesn’t frighten kids like Ursula in “The Mermaid”, or the Queen in “Snow White”, he’s another kind of comic developed villain.
The writer, “Gill Dahl” says that many have put different interpretations of Gargamel, some of them saw him as the embodiment of the Israelis in repeated analyzes, Gargamel on the weight of Israel, while “Sebastian Ministro” sees him as the embodiment of capitalism, where the individual finds himself more important than others.
Other explanations go to the fact that Gargamel wanted to end socialism by turning the smurfs into gold, and he is like any capitalist like Adam Smith in his natural state who wants to acquire money.