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"Beauty Is Only Smurf Deep" is a Season 3 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.

Characters[]

Synopsis[]

Periwinkle, the perfection-minded pixie, finds a kindred spirit in Vanity and tries to kill him.

Plot Summary[]

In the Smurf Village, Painter is busy at work painting Vanity standing on a seashell with Brainy and Clumsy kneeling next to him trying to hold their poses as long as possible. Brainy is wondering when Painter would be finished, as he feels that his arms are getting tired, and Painter tells Brainy that an artist's masteurpiesa cannot be rushed. Vanity, however, tells Painter to take as much time as he wants. Soon the work is finished, and Vanity goes to see the result and likes what he sees, until he notices that Painter has made Vanity look much too fat. Painter defends his work, saying that the brush does not lie. Brainy offers a bit of criticism in defense of Vanity's commentary, but Painter tells Brainy to keep himself out of the matter. In his anger, though, Painter accidentally gives Vanity's nose a bit of color with the paintbrush, which makes Vanity so upset that he goes to wash his face, with Painter shouting at him to go lose some weight. Clumsy couldn't understand why Vanity would get so upset over a little paint, and Brainy just says that's how Vanity is, that he must be the vainest creature in the whole world.

Meanwhile, in a royal castle, a pixie king is having a talk with his daughter Periwinkle about something that concerns him. Periwinkle wonders if it's the way she looks, but her father can give her nothing but high praises on her beauty. What really concerns the king, though, is that his daughter does nothing, and asks her why she can't be like the other pixies who butter-up buttercups or spread morning dew. Periwinkle answers that it would simply ruin her dress if she did that, which makes her father realize how helpless he is in trying to do anything useful with her. As she flies off for her beauty rest, the pixie king says that Periwinkle must be the vainest creature in the whole world.

In her bedroom, Periwinkle sits looking at herself in the mirror, feeling that it's a burden to be beautiful and perfect in a world full of imperfection. She calls forth her attendant to bring her hairbrush, and when she does, Periwinkle proceeds to ask her magic mirror who the fairest in the world is. The mirror answers by showing her an image of Vanity, belonging to a race which Periwinkle's attendant recognizes. Periwinkle doesn't like that the mirror is showing her someone else who is the fairest, particularly someone who is blue, and so decides that she is going to find this Smurf and use all her pixie magic to destroy him.

Back in the Smurf Village, Vanity gathers the entire Village Smurphony Orchestra together to play music for his exercise routine. Everyone in the orchestra isn't happy to find out they're being used just so Vanity could exercise. Soon Vanity appears and gets the orchestra playing while he goes through his routine, with Baby Smurf happily banging along on a pot. Then Vanity tells the orchestra to pick up the pace, and soon even the orchestra gets a workout as they play so fast that their instruments break and they end up collapsing when the routine is finished. Nevertheless, Vanity is pleased and thanks his fellow Smurfs, saying that he is now off for his morning jog, leaving Brainy to mutter that he would like to give Vanity a "jog".

Out in the forest, Periwinkle and her attendant lie in wait behind a bush for her prey, with her attendant suggesting that they should go home and have a nice cup of tea. Soon Vanity shows up, looking at himself while he's doing his jog. Periwinkle goes into action, throwing her powder puff into the air and using her magic to make it so big that it will fall on Vanity and crush him. However, Vanity turns just before the powder puff lands, covering a bit of the area around it with powder, making Vanity think that it's gotten so foggy. The attendant sees that Vanity is getting away, but Periwinkle then uses her power to open up a fissure in the ground for Vanity to fall into. Vanity runs toward the fissure, still looking at himself in the mirror, but then turns away and runs in a different direction.

Periwinkle decides that it's time to use the direct approach, and so she hides behind a bush until Vanity comes close before she and her attendant grab him and tie him up. Vanity asks his captor who she is, what she intends to do with him, and where she got that "smurfy outfit". Periwinkle is briefly distracted by Vanity's admiration of her taste in clothes before addressing herself and dealing with the mirror that he had dropped, saying he won't need it after what she's going to do with him.

In the village, Smurfette is getting concerned for Vanity not returning from his morning jog and looks around the village for him. She goes to Papa Smurf to tell him that Vanity was supposed to help her clean his kitchen, but that nobody has seen him since he went running that morning. Papa Smurf decides that it's time to send out a search party, and soon Brainy and Hefty are out in the forest calling out for Vanity to see where he is.

Papa Smurf is also out in the forest with Smurfette looking for Vanity but hasn't seen any trace of them. Then Hefty finds Vanity's mirror and calls for Papa Smurf, who then sees in the same location a bit of pixie dust, which makes them realize that Vanity has been taken by pixies. Smurfette wonders why pixies would want anything to do with Vanity, and Papa Smurf says that they should go see his good friend King Goldenrod to find out. As they head off for the king's castle, Hefty hands Brainy Vanity's mirror to hold onto, and Brainy wonders what Vanity finds so fascinating about his mirror until he sees his own reflection in it.

As Periwinkle and her attendant are taking Vanity to the mud factory, where he thinks he's getting a facial, but her response suggests something more sinister, Papa Smurf asks King Goldenrod about Vanity, to which he answers that he knows nothing about his disappearance. He decides to visit his daughter Periwinkle to find out, but as he enters her bedroom, he finds that she isn't there. He uses the magic mirror to locate Periwinkle, and the mirror shows an image of her at the mud factory, a place that Goldenrod tells Brainy that's where the pixies make mud. Then the mirror shows Vanity being held by rope above a boiling pot of mud, which means that Periwinkle is intending to drop Vanity into it. The Smurfs and the king see that Vanity is in trouble and so immediately head for the mud factory to save him.

Meanwhile, Vanity is futilely crying for help as Periwinkle makes the final preparations for her competitor's doom by placing a candle near the peg that the rope is tied up and having it slowly burn its way through the rope. As Periwinkle's attendant looks at the young lady filing her nails not caring about what's happening, Vanity wonders what he has done to deserve such a horrible fate before he realizes he became too good-looking. Then a bit of mud gets on Periwinkle's dress, and she ends up complaining to Vanity that her best dress is now ruined, suggesting that he couldn't possibly sympathize with her situation. To her surprise, Vanity shows that he does care about having one's best outfit being ruined by mud, which strikes her with such sensitivity that the two of them start talking with each other, not noticing that the candle is still burning through the rope.

But then, the Smurfs and King Goldenrod show up at the mud factory, with Goldenrod demanding to know what her daughter was doing, and the Smurfs asking how Vanity was faring. Vanity was telling them he and Periwinkle were having the nicest chat when the rope suddenly breaks and Vanity falls. Hefty catches his friend just before he had a lethal mud bath, which makes them both glad. Goldenrod and the attendant both scold Periwinkle for her selfish and unladylike behavior, which gets her to admit that she was jealous of Vanity as she asks him for his forgiveness, which he readily gives along with a hug. Brainy at this point tries to offer a bit of his own wisdom about personal beauty but is quickly given his own kind of "facial treatment".

Later on, King Goldenrod and the Smurfs are glad to see that Periwinkle and Vanity are now friends and are doing exercises together. Goldenrod believes that Periwinkle having a friend that understands her would make her a better pixie. Smurfette wonders if this friendship would blossom into a romance, but Brainy tells Smurfette that they're both involved with someone else, as they see that they are both looking into their own reflections and kissing them.

Trivia[]

  • Periwinkle asks her magic mirror who's the fairest in the world, similar to various media like Snow White and Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs.

Goofs[]

  • When Vanity overworks the Smurphony Orchestra with his exercise routine, one shot shows Handy playing the violin. However, another shot, with Brainy grumbling "I'd like to give him [Vanity] a jog", shows him wearing Handy's overalls and violin instead.
  • In the beginning when Painter is crafting Vanity in the beginning, his pants are blue while his legs are still white.
  • Smurfette can be heard before Vanity begins crafting the orchestra but is nowhere to be seen, although this may be her saying it in a different location.

Videos[]

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