Cash-Cow Franchise: While the franchise was already popular in Western Europe beginning in the mid 1960s and early 1970s. The success of the 1976 feature film (and multiple Smurf-relatedalbums by Vader Abraham) only increased their popularity to a much higher degree. But the franchise wouldn't became a huge moneymaker until Hanna-Barbera turned it into a Saturday Morning Cartoon series in 1981 that The Smurfs became globally popular outside of Europe (especially Belgium, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands).
Genius Bonus: Gargamel's name comes from the 16th-century novel Gargantua (where Gargantua's giant mother is named Gargamelle, and the size difference between the giants and humans is about the same as between a human and a Smurf) and Azrael is one name for the Angel of Death.
Magnum Opus Dissonance: Peyo's favorite work, and actually his original main one was Johan and Peewit (Johan and Pirlouit in its original French title)... But, one day, in one of this series' albums, appeared a certain band of little blue creatures. They were intended to be one-shot characters, but quickly became Ensemble Darkhorses... And from then, The Smurfs (Les Schtroumpfs) became the single most remembered work of Peyo.
What Could Have Been: There was a Smurfs educational game called Smurf Play & Learn advertised by Coleco that would have been released for the ColecoVision, as well as Smurfette's Birthday and Papa Smurf's Treasure Hunt, none of which were ever worked on.
Creator Backlash: Peyo was quite sorry that the Smurfs became so popular he couldn't concentrate as much on his other series.
Executive Meddling: When Papercutz translated 'The Black Smurfs' comic book into English, they changed the plague ridden Smurfs to purple based on the cartoon adaptation.
Even earlier in a Random House publication of Smurfery in "Romeo And Smurfette," where the black paint Jokey uses to disguise himself as a Black Smurf to play a prank on somebody was changed to green (and now purple in the Papercutz reprint).
And like the cartoon adaptation, Papercutz changed the Swoof's skin colors from orange to green of the original comic book story "The Astro Smurf," also for the same reasons.
Follow the Leader: The extreme popularity of the comics and the animated series led to many attempts at repeating this success. Examples include the Galaxians from The Scrameustache and The Snorks (part of a few attempts by HB studios itself!).
No Export for You: Papercutz has been starting to publish Smurfs comic books that haven't seen an English translation for years.
Outlived Its Creator: Peyo's son continues to write the stories, with other artists doing the cartoon work.
For the 1961 series:
Acting for Two: Nelly Beghin voices Brainy, Jokey, Azrael, and a few male Smurfs, while Jeannine Cherel voices Grouchy, Painter, Lazy, and Flying throughout the series.
Crossdressing Voices: In the original French/Walloon version, a majority of The Smurfs were voiced by female voice actresses. Notably Nelly Beghin who voices Brainy, Jokey, and the other male smurfs.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: The 1961-1965 animated shorts never gained an official release on DVD or VHS, and was only viewed at the "Belgian Comic Strip Center" in Brussels, Belgium at an exhibit highlighting the franchise's history for 15 years. The only thing related to the 1960s series that got released to the public was a 1965 vinyl record called V'la Les Schtroumpfs! which contains the series' theme song and background music. It wasn't until October 28, 2023 that episodes from the 1960s show would get uploaded to the official French Youtube channel on a weekly basis starting with "The Smurfnapper" until November 23, 2023 witha totalof 5 episodesfully remastered. However, "The Fake Smurf" and "The Flute Smurf" wasn't included and can only be viewed at the Belgian Comic Strip Center.
No Export for You: Unlike the "Magic Flute" movie in the 70s, the series never received an English dub in any of the English-speaking countries (Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand).
Gutsy's voice actor Alan Cumming playing a blue skinned character in the form of Nightcrawler. Plus he and John Kassir both appeared in a musical together.
Another Smurf example is Chef Smurf being voiced by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.
Greedy's voice actor Kenan Thompson had previously played a cartoon character made real, though in this case, it's more like live action based on cartoon which in turn is based on comic.
When Gargamel is first introduced, he's using a Papa Smurf and Smurfette marionette puppets, he provides different voices for each one. The guy who plays Gargamel is experienced voice actor Hank Azaria.
The fact Gargamel has puppets could allude to his '80s cartoon self being voiced by ventriloquist Paul Winchell.
One of the ads clearly seen in Times Square is Community. Vanity Smurf's voice actor John Oliver appeared as a recurring role of faculty member Dr. Ian Duncan.
The apartment Patrick and Grace live in is called McKinley, name of the high school in Glee, where both Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays appeared in, the former in a minor role and the latter is a major character.
One of the models advertising Patrick's product at the beginning of the movie is Madison McKinley, who began her career as a fashion model at age seventeen.
Victor Pagan played a bum, or homeless person as he's credited, in Malachance.
Joe Urban, the Riker's Island inmate lifting weights closest to Gargamel, played an inmate twice before in Michael & Michael Have Issues and Aurthur.
Casting Gag: American-Austrian celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck as Chef Smurf.
The Danza: Patrick is the middle name of Patrick Winslow's actor, Neil Harris.
Executive Meddling: This brought Gutsy Smurf into the film, apparently because Hefty Smurf wasn't sufficiently macho (or Scottish) to be The Big Guy.
Missing Trailer Scene: In the original trailer, Grouchy is heard saying "I think I just smurfed, in my mouth" while giving the audience an annoyed glance. This scene is never used in the actual movie.
Inverted with Jonathan Winters and Frank Welker, who both voiced Grandpa and Hefty/Poet/Wild/Clockwork (among others) in the animated series.
In the Italian dub, Clumsy, Brainy, Smurfette, and Gargamel have all the original voice actors of the animated series back in their respective roles.
In the European French dub, Gérard Hernandez reprised his role as Papa Smurf from the original cartoonnote although he didn't reprise his role as Grouchy Smurf either, being one of the few major voice actors who worked on that dub to be either still alive or not yet retired. However, Céline Monsarrat (the original French voice of Smurfette and the only other voice actor from that cartoon to still be active) didn't reprise the role, instead being replaced by famous Quebecer singer Béatrice Martin AKA Coeur de piratenote who would later be replaced by Marie-Eugénie Maréchal (another professional voice actress) for the sequel.
What Could Have Been: One of the original proposals to the plot of the 2011 movie was that the Smurfs were toys that came to life through the tears of a sad little girl.
Baker was supposedly going to be one of the main Smurfs.
Panicky Smurf was set to appear with Adam Wylie providing his voice and being sold in merchandise at McDonald's but instead is only mentioned.
albums by Vader Abraham
