Dreamy's Pen Pals

Title Translation ofDreamy's Pen Pals
French	Les Amis du Schtroumpf rêveur
German	Traumis Brieffreunde
Italian	L'amico di penna di sognatore
Dutch	Droomsmurf droomt zich af

"Dreamy's Pen Pals" was an episode that appeared in Season 5 of the Smurfs cartoon show.

Summary

Brainy and Clumsy watch as Dreamy runs through the village with a letter in hand. Brainy asks what the rush is for, and Dreamy answers that he is sending a letter to the Swoofs because he misses them. Clumsy says that he misses them too, until Brainy reminds him that the Swoofs don't really exist, that they were a creation of Papa Smurf's magic potion when he and his little Smurfs made Dreamy believe that he traveled to the stars to fulfill his birthday wish. Dreamy returns to overhear Brainy talking to Clumsy about the Swoofs, and Brainy hides the discussion by saying he wondered how Dreamy manages to send letters to the Swoofs. Dreamy answers that the smurfberry bird delivers them to the Swoofs, and he also delivers their replies back to Dreamy. Brainy and Clumsy decide to follow the smurfberry bird to find out where Dreamy's letters were actually going, while a good distance away in Gargamel's castle, Gargamel is busy looking in his closet for the perfect device that will help him find and destroy the Smurfs.

Soon, after an exhausting run through the forest, Brainy and Clumsy do find out where Dreamy's letters to the Swoofs were going -- to Papa Smurf's house. The village leader reveals to Brainy and Clumsy that he was the one responsible for answering Dreamy's letters because he didn't have the heart to tell him that the Swoofs don't really exist. Brainy says that it was exhausting to go through carting Dreamy and his spaceship to that extinct volcano where the Smurfs posed as Swoofs and then to bring them both back to the village, and that he is glad that they won't have to go through that again. But much to his dismay, as well as Papa Smurf's and Clumsy's, Dreamy enters into Papa Smurf's house to announce that he was going to visit the Swoofs again.

While Hefty takes Dreamy through the forest for some grueling "pre-flight training" exercises, Papa Smurf gets busy with Brainy and Clumsy in his laboratory preparing to create the formula for turning the Smurfs into Swoofs. During the gathering of the ingredients, Papa Smurf tells Brainy that there are "dozens and dozens" of ingredients that go into the making of the formula. Handy shows the other Smurfs gathered around Dreamy's rebuilt spaceship the cover props that he made to make the Smurf Village look like the Swoof Village, as well as other features such as Painter's scrolling sky canvas outside the cockpit windows and the mechanical ship shaker to better simulate the effects of the ship flying.

Soon Handy informs Papa Smurf that Dreamy has returned to the village, so Papa Smurf leaves Brainy in charge of completing the formula. Looking at the instructions for completing the formula, Brainy realizes that it would take him forever to do so, so he decides to take some short cuts and skip right to the end. The other Smurfs are all gathered outside Dreamy's spaceship as he again dons his Astro Smurf outfit and climbs up into the cockpit to take off. Brainy shows up to bring Papa Smurf the "completed" formula, which he hides behind his back as Dreamy emerges from the cockpit to ask if any Smurf would want to go along with him. Clumsy eagerly races toward the spaceship, saying that he would want to go, when he trips over a chest and pushes Brainy forward. Dreamy selects Brainy to go along with him, and also has him bring along the chest which he said was full of gifts he wanted to give the Swoofs.

As Brainy, Dreamy, and the chest enter the cockpit, the other Smurfs say their goodbyes and then bring in the props and the cloud machine while also starting up the ship shaker. As the ship shakes, the chest opens up and reveals that Clumsy has stowed away on board because he wanted to come along. Soon the "pre-flight training" exercises cause Dreamy to fall asleep, and the ship's propellers stop turning. Brainy informs Papa Smurf that Dreamy fell asleep, and so Papa Smurf uses his formula to turn himself and his little Smurfs into Swoofs.

Sometime later, Dreamy, Brainy, and Clumsy emerge from the ship to see that they were now on the planet of the Swoofs, and that Grandpa Swoof has come to greet Dreamy, who sees that things are now different on the planet than they were the last time he visited them. Grandpa Swoof decides to give Dreamy a tour to help "refresh his memory", though Brainy thinks what Dreamy needs is a dose of reality. Meanwhile, as Gargamel is out in the forest with his magical Smurf tracking device (part of which resembles a rather primitive metal detector) searching for Smurfs, Grandpa Swoof is busy trying to keep his little Swoofs from revealing that they were actually Smurfs in disguise, such as having Vanity hide his mirror and getting Greedy to stop his cooking.

Soon reality tries to crash into Dreamy's fantasy as Gargamel's Smurf tracker leads him straight into the village, where he finds that instead of being led toward Smurfs, he was led toward creatures that he assumed would taste like dirt. Grandpa Swoof hides Dreamy in his hut for his own safety (and to keep him from finding out Gargamel was on the scene) and waits until Gargamel and Azrael had safely left the village, frustrated that his Smurf tracker didn't work. Dreamy emerges from the hut after the danger has passed, deciding that he would be better off going back home, which pleases the Swoofs as they see him off.

As Dreamy re-enters the spaceship with Brainy and Clumsy to launch, however, the formula for turning the Smurfs into Swoofs wears off a bit too soon -- an error made noticeable when Painter, who attempts to fix his "masteurpiesa", ends up hanging outside one of the cockpit's windows when the cloud machine starts rolling again. Dreamy leaves the spaceship and sees that all the other Smurfs were standing around outside with the cover props still covering the village. Papa Smurf finally admits to Dreamy that they were only pretending to be Swoofs, and that it would be better for him to face the truth -- not just for himself, but also for the other Smurfs.

Though saddened at first by the revelation, Dreamy learns to accept that the Swoofs really didn't exist. And then comes a rock-like saucer ship that lands in the Smurf Village, and from it a Swoof-like alien with orange skin and spiky hair emerges, asking for Dreamy Smurf. He identifies himself as a Sweef and reveals that he has received one of Dreamy's letters, though Dreamy has spelled his name wrong. While the other Smurfs faint at the news, Dreamy is excited that he finally got a response.

Background Information

• This story is a sequel to Season 1's "The Astro Smurf" episode.
• Though some of the Smurflings do appear in this episode, it is unclear whether they were also turned into Swoofs, nor do we know if that was the case with Baby Smurf.
• Many foreign DVD releases carry the syndicated Smurfs Adventures repackaging of this episode, as opposed to the rest of the episodes, which were uncut, although this episode has also use the modified intro and credits for foreign markets.
• In the syndicated version of the episode, the entire soundtrack was in 2x higher than usual in pitch octave.