Smurfs Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Smurfs Wiki

Cartoon Icon

"All Creatures Great And Smurf" is a Season 3 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.

Characters

Synopsis

Nat's love of animals has gone too far this time - he brings an injured Azrael to the village!

Plot Summary

As the story begins with Azrael playing around near Gargamel's castle, trying to get at a nest of baby birds before being shooed away by their mother, the Smurfs are enjoying a picnic by the riverside in the forest, with most of them going for a swim. However, Natural is busy trying to fix a grasshopper's wing and refuses to take part in the festivities, which makes Brainy chide with his fellow Smurf about his activities. Soon Nat gets word from the mother bird that one of her baby birds has fallen from her nest near Gargamel's castle. Nat realizes that it's an emergency situation and tells his fellow Smurfs to tell Papa Smurf that he'll be late for lunch. As Nat heads off toward the nest, Brainy scolds him for his supposed recklessness, but Smurfette tells Brainy that Nat wouldn't live with himself if he ignored the needs of his fellow animals in the forest. Suddenly Brainy hears a growling in the forest that makes him rather fearful for his own life.

As Nat spends the rest of the day bringing a baby bird safely back home to his nest and then pulls out a fish bone that was causing grief in a bear's mouth, Azrael is awakened from his sleep around nightfall by the arrival of his master Gargamel bringing home a new pet -- a silver-fanged growler. Azrael quickly scurries up to the chandelier to hide himself from the fearsome creature which Gargamel has brought home to help catch Smurfs. Gargamel tells his cat that he might as well get used to the new pet because they will be working together. Also, around nightfall, as the Smurfs enjoy a time of feasting and dancing around the fire, Nat returns having missed both lunch and dinner, but feeling satisfied with what he has accomplished throughout the day with his animal friends as he picks up Baby Smurf in his arms.

The following day, as Gargamel trains his new pet on how to catch Smurfs, Nat is out in the forest with his animal friends trying to teach them a lesson in avoiding traps, especially those made of iron. Soon Gargamel takes his silver-fanged growler out into the forest to hunt for Smurfs, with Azrael trailing behind, not wanting to be in the path of the creature that his master is having a hard time trying to take control of. Gargamel scolds his cat for his supposed lack of enthusiasm, and so Azrael decides to go off on his own to hunt for Smurfs. He sees a path of Smurf tracks leading into a smurfberry bush and dives into the bush to investigate, remembering Gargamel's lesson to the silver-fanged growler that where there are smurfberry bushes, there are bound to be Smurfs.

While Gargamel finds himself being dragged by his new pet into a dragon's cave which both he and his growler quickly escape, Nat flies over the forest on Feathers and sees that an animal in the forest is in danger, having his leg caught in an iron trap. Nat descends and finds out that it's Azrael, but since he doesn't have the strength to get the cat's leg out of the trap, he goes to the village and gets help from a few of his fellow Smurfs carrying a wagon with them. Brainy and Hefty are in agreement that they should let Azrael stay in the condition he left himself in, while Smurfette only wishes that Papa Smurf were here to decide what to do. Nat pleads to his fellow Smurfs about how much they should care for an injured creature like Azrael, and eventually Smurfette and Hefty give in with Hefty trying to pry Azrael loose from the trap, and then the four of them bringing Azrael blindfolded into the village on the wagon. Brainy just keeps going on and on about how Papa Smurf is not going to like this, which ends up irritating Smurfette.

The other Smurfs in the village are equally incensed when they see Nat and the other three Smurfs bringing Azrael in the village, demanding for them to bring the cat back where he belongs. Papa Smurf at first sees that Nat had carried his love for animals too far when he notices that Azrael was caught in one of Gargamel's traps, and so he defends Nat by telling his little Smurfs that he has always taught them to love all animals great and small. They try to object to Papa Smurf's reasoning by saying that Azrael always chases after them, but soon they decide to work together to get Azrael's leg out of the trap. Brainy stands beside Papa Smurf watching the other Smurfs working together, with Papa Smurf telling Brainy that a leopard cannot change his spots.

While Gargamel continues to have trouble trying to tame his silver-fanged growler in his pursuit of Smurfs, they are busy helping Azrael recover from his injury with Vanity doing some grooming to make the cat look his best. Smurfette offers Azrael a bowl of milk, and Greedy offers him a batch of smurfberry muffins, but the cat doesn't seem interested in either as he just yawns and goes back to sleep on the bed the Smurfs made for him. Nat tells Papa Smurf that soon Azrael will be back to his old self, which is something that Papa Smurf is worried about.

Gargamel comes across wagon tracks out in the forest, which means that there is something to follow that will help him find Smurfs. Suddenly he hears a cat cry and realizes that it's Azrael. He calls out to the cat, and Azrael hears his master's voice, which awakens him from his sleep. At that moment, Azrael becomes his nasty old self again and starts clawing at the Smurfs near him. Nat rushes to stop Azrael from acting in a way that would put his fellow Smurfs in danger, hoping the cat would recognize the goodness he has offered him. Instead, Azrael pins Nat to the ground with his paw, ready to strike at him when he hears Gargamel getting closer to the village with his silver-fanged growler. Fearful for his life, Azrael makes a run for it as Gargamel passes through the village, unable to control his new pet as he chases after the cat.

With Gargamel and his cat safely out of the village, Papa Smurf goes to see if Nat is all right. Nat says that he's fine, and Papa Smurf says that Azrael could have killed him, which Nat says that he supposes that Azrael could have done, but he didn't. All Papa Smurf could say to that is "Amazing" as he winks to the viewer.

Trivia

  • This is the first episode that introduces the adult version of Natural, who in Season 5 becomes one of the Smurflings.
    • This is also his only appearance in Season 3.
  • Papa Smurf's comment that "a leopard cannot change its spots" is a common phrase that comes from Jeremiah 13:23, which reads "Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil."
  • The story itself is a variation of one of Aesop's Fables, The Farmer And The Viper, where a farmer who nurses a viper back to health becomes the victim of the viper's unchangeable nature, repaying evil for good. The fable also inspired the 1960's Al Wilson song, "The Snake". Adult Nat mistakes this situation for what TV Tropes calls an Androcles' Lion, in which an endangered animal that a person rescued returns the favor by rescuing its rescuer from danger.

Videos

Advertisement