I've had this life long obsession with the episode The Purple Smurfs. It terrified me as a kid, but I loved it. That nasty growling little bugger there was the source of many a butt check when I was 5! XD I hate how the episode never gets replayed on Teletoon, nor was it included in the season one DVD sets. And I always love is when you find out facts about stuff that fascinated you as a child decades later. It's sad how things can get lost in the sands of time. So I just had to do a SMURF POST. Sue me....
I learned a couple things in the last few days. I was looking up the Comic the Purple Smurfs cause it had very recently been translated to English. While doing some research I learned a few interesting facts. Number one, I learned the fate of patient zero. The first Smurf to ever be bit was not lazy as in the cartoon, nope, it was just a normal average Smurf. He was that is, until after he was cured. He couldn't shake all the effects of the bite and retained his angry demeanor. You guessed it, he became Grouchy Smurf! Now, it always boggles my mind at the stupid choices TV writers make when translating comics into cartoons, but a cool origin story like that seems just too interesting to change, but then again this is HB productions we're talking about. Sigh....
Grouchy Smurfs first appearance where they explain the effects of the bite:
I really think they should have left this in the American cartoon. It would have made Grouchy a little bit more of an endearing character to sympathize over.
Second off, I learned the Purple Smurfs actually predates any Zombie movie where they infect you by biting by over half a decade. So, there was one site saying all you zombie fans owe a bit of debt to the blue ones! LOL! I doubt that zombie film makers knew of the story. Vampire and werewolf tales predate both either way and they work pretty much the same. I always felt the Purple Smurfs was more original then that, being an actual disease, like rabies that makes you aggressive and that changes ones species. They don't lose all their intelligence. Instead they turn out to be very crafty.
Now the other big thing, the reason I had to do this blog. Sometime in the 1970s there was a Purple Smurfs Board game released. Since it was produced in France the Smurfs remain Black as in the original comic. Yes that's right it's a Smurfs Resident Evil combination dream come true!!!! I have NO idea how you play this thing. There were no instructions listed in either French, or English. Still, such a cool item has me longing to pick it up!
Sadly the one I found was missing a lot of pieces.
Here is the board, with the 'healing herbs' on one side, the fly on the opposite and Papa ready to heal in the bottom middle. One has to wonder how you played this game, but I bet it was a lot of horrific fun for kids!
If you have never seen the original cartoon, you can view it here:
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