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"Grouchy Makes A Splash" is a Season 6 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.

Characters[]

Synopsis[]

The Smurfs try to teach Grouchy how to swim.

Plot Summary[]

Grouchy The Sinker

Grouchy would rather sink than swim.

Grouchy and the Smurflings are hanging out by the riverside with the youngsters just lying on their backs and enjoying the hot summer day until Gargamel and Azrael show up, ready to eat Smurfs on a hot summer day. The five Smurfs run until they find themselves trapped on a precipice overlooking the river. The Smurflings jump for their lives into the river to escape Gargamel, but Grouchy catches onto a branch and looks down fearfully at the water below, uncertain about whether to hold on or to let go. The Smurflings make pretend like there's nothing wrong in order to get Gargamel not to notice that one of the Smurfs is missing, but soon he sees Grouchy hanging onto a branch and tries reaching out for him. However, his efforts to reach for the Smurf end up causing the ground he's standing on to give out from under him and he plunges into the river, while Grouchy climbs back onto the precipice and heads for the village.

Back in the Smurf Village, the Smurfs are waiting for Grouchy to return when he shows up, looking rather exhausted. Snappy asks why he didn't jump down into the water and swim away, and Grouchy says that he hates swimming... because he doesn't know how. The other Smurfs are astounded by this knowledge, including Clumsy, who thought that all Smurfs knew how to swim. Papa Smurf says that it's up to them to teach Grouchy how to swim, and Hefty is more than willing to give Grouchy swimming lessons.

With Hefty, Grouchy, Greedy, Poet, and Handy dressed in swim trunks, they go down to the river so that Grouchy can see for himself how easy swimming can be. After Poet recites a poem to help encourage Grouchy to overcome his fear of the water, Hefty performs an expert dive off the dock and makes a graceful swim across the surface. Hefty tells Grouchy to give it "the old smurf try", and so with his arms folded Grouchy jumps in, but doesn't surface as he stands underwater just scowling at the fish. Hefty goes under to pull his fellow Smurf back up, who simply says that he hates "giving it the old smurf try".

Hefty is beginning to wonder what went wrong, and Papa Smurf says to him that sometimes just being good at something doesn't mean that it can easily be taught to others. Smurfette thinks that what Grouchy needs is a new swimsuit. Greedy, however, has his own method for teaching someone how to swim -- a special helmet that has a smurfberry cupcake attached to it on a line so that someone (like Greedy) would be hungry enough to swim for it. Grouchy tries wearing another helmet with a smurfberry cupcake attached to it, and also jumps in -- but again doesn't surface, only saying that he hates soggy cupcakes.

Meanwhile, Gargamel launches into the water with a homemade submarine with special mechanical arms to grab his prey, which he hopes will be Smurfs. As he travels through the water, he sees the underside of a Smurf swimming in the water, which turns out to be Grouchy learning how to swim with the help of Handy's swim-o-matic machine. However, as Gargamel brings his submarine in to capture Grouchy, his craft springs a leak, and it ends up bouncing along the river heading downstream until it goes over the waterfalls. The other Smurfs on the shore wonder what kind of "fish" that was, with Snappy saying it must be a "catfish". Unfortunately, even with Handy's swim-o-matic helping Grouchy with the basics, Grouchy still jumps into the water and doesn't surface.

After a few more tries and methods, the Smurfs are ready to give up on trying to teach Grouchy how to swim, with Snappy saying that maybe Grouchy is just too afraid to go in the water, even as Clumsy inundates his fellow Smurfs with water by showing Grouchy how to swim "the Clumsy way". Papa Smurf tells his little Smurfs that maybe what Grouchy needs is something that will motivate him into wanting to swim. Soon, as Grouchy is watching over Baby Smurf while the others are enjoying a riverside swim, Baby Smurf is distracted by the sight of a giant duck approaching, not knowing it is Gargamel riding inside an inflatable duck craft hoping to catch a Smurf with the disguise. Grouchy spots Baby Smurf drifting on the waters toward the duck and sees that he needs to go after the infant, but he is too afraid of the water to chase after him. The other Smurfs see the duck approaching and realize that it must be Gargamel.

Suddenly, Grouchy swallows his fear and swims after Baby Smurf to rescue him from the duck craft. He manages to bring the log to a stop, but the duck craft is still getting closer, and Gargamel to ready to have both Smurfs for a snack. Taking a safety pin from Baby Smurf's diaper, Grouchy swims under the duck craft and punctures it with the pin, causing it to deflate and send Gargamel zooming across the water away from the Smurfs, out of control.

The Smurfs cheer as Grouchy brings Baby Smurf safely to shore, proud that their fellow Smurf has finally overcome his fears about swimming. Every Smurf is making their claim as to how Grouchy finally succeeded, but Papa Smurf simply says that when someone you love is in danger, you forget your own fears because love will enable you to do things that you've never done before. However, as they day draws to a close, the Smurfs are seeing how much Grouchy now loves to swim, with Hefty telling him it's time to come out of the water. But now, because he overcame his hydrophobia, Grouchy says that he hates coming out of the water, because he now knows how to swim.

Trivia[]

  • The entire soundtrack was in 2x higher than usual in pitch octave in the syndicated version.
  • It's revealed that Grouchy hated swimming before he learned how to.
  • This is one of the few episodes where Grouchy shows his caring side of him as he faced his fear to save Baby Smurf from Gargamel.

Goofs[]

  • When the Smurflings and Grouchy begin running from Gargamel and Azrael, Grouchy's eyes are in two different directions.
  • At one point, Azrael's eyes are white instead of yellow like his comic counterpart.

Videos[]

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