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"Smurf On The Wild Side" is a two-part Season 7 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show. It is considered that season's premiere episode.

Charcters[]

Synopsis[]

The Smurfs meet Wild Smurf, who was lost a long time before and lives with squirrels and try to find his place in their village, but he can't stay with them due to his wild nature.

Plot Summary[]

Act 1[]

It is nighttime, and Gargamel and Azrael are patiently waiting behind a bush waiting for a Smurf to fall into one of the evil wizard's traps. He is using a hose to communicate with his apprentice, Scruple, who is busy sleeping until his master awakens him, saying that he's supposed to be on the lookout for Smurfs. Scruple just simply "hangs up" on Gargamel and tries to go back to sleep when he sees and hears various things in the forest: a hooting owl, some passing lizards, a wolf howl, and soon the cry and silhouette of a tiny blue figure swinging on a vine. He soon looks for this figure and sees a pair of eyes looking back at him from behind the brush. Scruple fearfully calls back to Gargamel, trying to tell his master what he saw, when that "something" ends up swinging right out toward him, causing him to run off and leaving Gargamel with nobody to speak to on the other end. Soon, though, Gargamel hears the cry of this "something" that knocks him over a log, making the evil wizard curse his apprentice and promising to make him collect ring wart for a week, two weeks, and even a month.

Wild Smurf Origin 1
Papa Smurf watches the night sky in expectation.
Wild Smurf Origin 2
A stork brings a baby Smurf on a blue moon night.
Wild Smurf Origin 3
However, the baby Smurf never arrives.
Wild Smurf Origin 4
Papa Smurf goes out to look for the lost baby Smurf.
Wild Smurf Origin 5
But the baby Smurf is never found... until years later.

The following day, some Smurfs are out in the forest collecting acorns, with Brainy complaining about why they need to collect them, and Smurfette telling him yet again that Greedy needs them for his smurfberry acorn surprise. Soon Nat sees something looking at him from inside a bush, and curiosity gets the better of him as he goes to take a closer look. The "something" makes the bush shake rather threateningly until it is revealed to be a harmless squirrel. As Brainy relaxes and tries to reassure the little Smurflings, the squirrel passes along an acorn to a pair of blue hands behind another bush.

Then Smurfette finds an acorn that she has difficulty trying to pull from the crook of a tree. Brainy and the Smurflings join her in helping the pull the acorn out, but as they do, it sets off a trap that they find themselves captured in. The trap also awakens and alerts Gargamel, who has been sleeping in the forest, and soon he approaches his captives in wicked glee over his first catch of the day. Sassette tells "Pappy Gargamel" that he can't treat the Smurfs like they were his breakfast, but right after he says, "And who is to stop me?", we hear the cry of the mysterious roamer of the forest, who emerges to swing into action.

Gargamel is caught by surprise by the "mysterious roamer" being a Smurf who, wearing nothing but a leaf-woven Smurf hat and a loincloth, hits the wizard right in the nose and then lands on Azrael's head, causing the net of Smurfs to be dropped. The group of Smurfs are just as curious when they see Azrael get scared by this "wild Smurf's" fearsome animal noises before sending a cart of acorns in the direction of the terrible twosome to send them falling off a cliff with a load of rocks dumped on them. The squirrel nibbles through the net and lets the captured Smurfs out to safety, but soon he and the "wild Smurf" depart back into the forest, leaving the curious Smurfs with the need to tell Papa Smurf about him. Meanwhile, Gargamel furiously says that the Smurfs have now gone too far!

Act 2 (Early airings)[]

Back in the village, the rest of the adult Smurf population responds in utter disbelief to what Brainy, Nat, Sassette, and Smurfette have told them about this "wild Smurf" they saw. They all say that it's not possible that there should be a Smurf like that. Papa Smurf himself seems to agree with that -- unless that Smurf happens to be "the lost Smurfling" which, many years ago on the night of a blue moon, he tells his little Smurfs, was a baby Smurf that Papa Smurf expected to receive on a rainy stormy night. However, when the stork finally reached the village, all that was left was a carrying sack with a rip and no baby Smurf inside it. Papa Smurf spent the night and several days looking through the forest for this lost baby Smurf, but came home with nothing but tears, so he had to assume the worst had happened. The other Smurfs wonder if that "wild Smurf" was "the lost Smurfling" from many years ago, and all Papa Smurf can say is that they can only hope.

At Gargamel's castle, Scruple is busy washing his master's dishes when he walks in the front door, seriously injured and disgusted enough to toss all his laboratory equipment into the stove, apparently giving up on ever chasing and catching Smurfs. The one thing that's now on his mind, as Scruple can see, is destroying the Smurfs. Meanwhile, out in the forest, Nat and Smurfette lead Papa Smurf and Handy out in the spot where they have last seen the "wild Smurf". Handy still thinks the two Smurfs who saw him were dreaming, but as they watch quietly from behind a bush, they first see the squirrel appear before the pile of acorns, and then see the "wild Smurf" jump out behind him. Handy is now amazed, as is also Papa Smurf, who now recognizes him as "the lost Smurf".

Papa Smurf jumps out from behind the bush to greet him, but that scares the "wild Smurf" and sends him scurrying away with the squirrel until they end up in one of Gargamel's traps. Unable to break him out, and with him still acting more like an animal than a Smurf, Papa Smurf suggests that the best course of action is to simply take the "wild Smurf" back to the village just as he is. It is there that Papa Smurf safely releases him after extending him a hand full of smurfberries that he eats without harming Papa Smurf. The "wild Smurf" leaps up to Papa Smurf and licks his face, which disgusts some of the Smurfs watching this. Realizing how much like an animal he is in his behaviors; Papa Smurf decides that the best name to call him is Wild Smurf. As for his squirrel companion, the only name they could hear Wild say amongst his squirrel talk is "Chitter".

Act 3 (Early airings)[]

As Papa Smurf now reminds his little Smurfs that Wild was the "little lost Smurf" that he told them about, Smurfette asks how Wild managed to survive out in the forest all those years. Papa Smurf answers that Wild must have been raised by a family of squirrels, the mother squirrel being an ancestress of Chitter. But Papa Smurf says that Wild doesn't have to live in the forest anymore, and as the adult Smurfs decide to help Wild become welcome at home in the Smurf Village, Papa Smurf has the Smurflings take Chitter to Farmer's fields. As both Smurf and squirrel part ways from each other, Wild looks longingly at his squirrel companion and friend.

In Gargamel's castle, Gargamel was mapping out locations in the Smurf Forest where he frequently ran into Smurfs and made a circle on the area where the village is most likely to be. Scruple sarcastically says that it's basically half the forest, but Gargamel doesn't care if it's half the world, and soon pounds both his map and the map table into pieces to prove that point.

Back in the village, the adult Smurfs are having a challenging time trying to get Wild to be more like them: first by trying to give him a bath, next by trying to make Smurf clothes for him, then by trying to teach him how to talk. Meanwhile, the Smurflings want to play with him, yet none of the adult Smurfs want him to do that. Instead, they have Wild attend a party held on his behalf, where they see him dig in face-first into Greedy's smurfberry acorn surprise before Grandpa Smurf offers him a spoon, which he tries to eat. When Jokey does a salute to the new "Smurf of honor" by letting off twenty-one of his "surprises" to go off like fireworks, the other Smurfs are impressed, but Wild ends up hiding behind a chimney, scared of the noise. Brainy thinks at that point that the party is over.

Soon, Papa Smurf and Smurfette have Wild set up in his own Smurf house, where he can spend his first night in the village sleeping in a warm bed. After they leave, though, Wild ends up sleeping on the floor until he sees a light shining through his window. The light is coming from the Smurflings' house, who are busy talking about what Wild could teach them if any Smurf would let him have the chance. Soon, they hear Wild outside their house, howling like a dog... as so do other Smurfs, who wonder when he's going to get used to Smurf life in the village. Papa Smurf only hopes that it's soon.

Out in the forest at this time, Gargamel finds an anthill that he tries out two glowing formulas on just to see what it will do. As Azrael watches, the anthill grows and grows until it finally erupts into a volcano. Gargamel chortles with glee as he sees that his glowing formulas work with just a drop, waiting to see what the whole vials will do once he uses them.

Morning comes, and Wild is the first one awake. He goes around the village, crowing like a rooster, which irritates the other Smurfs as they awaken to the sound. Soon Wild sees one of Handy's inventions and plays around with the controls until it finally starts with him chasing after it. It wrecks a village well, Painter's painting of the well, a few Smurf houses, and Smurfette's flower garden along its path. Finally, it scoops up Wild before it stops dead near another Smurf's house, with Handy releasing Wild from the scoop.

The other Smurfs gather around Wild, pronouncing him as too uncivilized to live in the village with them, when Wild sees his squirrel companion and ends up running off with him. This pleases Brainy, but it makes Nat so upset that he decides to run off into the forest to live with Wild. He tells the other Smurflings about his desire and has them come along with him, promising them that they could live free without having any adult Smurfs to tell them what to do, particularly Brainy.

Act 4 (Early airings) / Act 2[]

Papa Smurf decides that he is going to go out into the forest to find Wild, since he has lost him once before and he will not lose him again. Smurfette presents Papa Smurf a note from the Smurflings, saying that they were now going to live with Wild. This adds greater urgency for Papa Smurf to go out and find them at once. Meanwhile, out in the forest, the Smurflings encounter Wild and tell him that they have left the village so that they could come to live with him. Although a bit hesitant at first, Wild decides that he will let the Smurflings join him.

Scruple follows behind Gargamel bringing a cart of wood with him to a ravine where he smells hot tar. Gargamel then says to his apprentice that he intends to seal the entire village with a volcano of tar. However, in order for Gargamel's volcano-making formulas to work, they must pour them into the center of the tar pit. When Scruple then asks how they will be able to do that, Gargamel directs the young boy to unloading the cart.

The Smurflings discover that living with Wild in the forest is rather difficult compared to the way of life they were used to, as three of the Smurflings had to lie face down in front of the brook to lap up water from it. Snappy finds his nose pinched by a crab that just latched onto him while he was drinking. When Wild offers to find them food to eat, the Smurflings were more than a little surprised to see Wild eating wild grass. Following him to the tree house where he has been living, the Smurflings find nothing in it that can amuse them, so they ask Wild what he does for fun. He takes out onto the branches where he uses one of them as a trampoline to bounce around on. However, Wild knocks the Smurflings down from the tree into a bush that breaks their fall but ends up being poison ivy. Three of the Smurflings decide they had enough of living in the wild like Wild and head back toward the village, leaving Nat with Wild.

As Papa Smurf calls out to Wild and the Smurflings, he sees Snappy, Slouchy, and Sassette approaching and offers them an ointment for healing their poison ivy. Papa Smurf asks why Nat isn't with them, and they tell him that Nat has chosen to stay with Wild. Papa Smurf tells them that they can't go back to the village without finding both Wild and Nat. Meanwhile, as Nat follows Wild out in the forest, with Nat feeling somewhat grateful for the poison ivy remedy Wild had given him despite it now attracting flies, they find themselves chased by a ferocious wildcat.

At the tar pit, Scruple is now suspended over its center with the wood turned into a giant fishing pole. Scruple warns his master to be careful, and Gargamel responds that he knows what he is doing. As the wizard turns the crank, he ends up causing the reel of rope to unspool very rapidly, causing Scruple to plummet toward the tar. Gargamel barely saves his pupil in time as he pulls on the lever to stop the reel, then tells Scruple to pour in the formulas just as he directed. After Scruple pours in the formulas, an eruption begins to form within the tar pit. Gargamel is unable to turn the crank to get Scruple out of the tar pit, forcing the boy to climb up the rope himself and outrun the forming eruption with his master, threatening to get even with him for abandoning him.

Wild and Nat have climbed up a tree where the wildcat had chased them. Wild directs Nat to grabbing onto a vine he can use to swing to safety to escape the wildcat, which he bravely does, following Wild who has swung over to the over tree. Their attention is then turned to a volcano that is forming from the tar pit, preparing to erupt. Wild and Nat overhear Gargamel telling Scruple that soon the tar will flow and cover over the entire Smurf Village. Nat tells Wild that they need to tell the Smurf Village that it is in danger.

The tar is already raining over the Smurfs in the village as they panic. Brainy tries to calm the other Smurfs down through a megaphone, telling them not to panic, but he gets hit by the raining tar. Smurfette tries to shield Baby Smurf with a mushroom umbrella as she fearfully watches the erupting volcano. Out in the forest, Papa Smurf and the other three Smurflings try to outrun a rushing wave of tar but find themselves trapped on top of a rock with no way out. It is then that they see Wild and Nat swooping down on vines to snatch them from the rising tar and to land safely on a ledge.

Papa Smurf sees that they need to stop the tar flow before it reaches the village. They see a pile of large rocks on a ledge above the one they're standing on, with Papa Smurf saying that if somebody could reach it, they could start a rockslide that would divert the path of the tar flow away from the village. Wild volunteers to climb up to the ledge, and there he uses a branch to wedge it between the rocks and jump fiercely on the branch to dislodge the rocks, causing them to roll down into the gully below. The rocks block the flow and redirect it in a direction that Nat finds particularly funny -- toward Gargamel's castle.

Speaking of which, Gargamel is sitting back on an easy chair, gloating that the Smurfs should become "Smurf tartar" by now, when Scruple sees that the tar flow is now headed in their direction. Gargamel, Azrael, and Scruple barely make it up to the roof through the chimney to escape the tar flow as it floods through the entire castle. Gargamel again gets angry that another plan to destroy the Smurfs has failed and vents all his frustrations out toward the Smurfs.

Back in the village, Papa Smurf decorates Wild with a medal of honor for his bravery, which Wild tries to eat, but Smurfette shows him that it is to wear. Papa Smurf then offers Wild a place to stay in the village, but Wild refuses, saying in his own language that the forest is his real home. Nat realizes that the village is his real home, but he promises Wild that they can visit each other. The Smurfs wave goodbye as they see Wild disappear back into the forest.

Trivia[]

  • A Wild Smurf origin story called "The Wild Smurf" was eventually created and published as a Smurf comic book in Europe in 1998. The Wild Smurf character in that story would vary from his cartoon show counterpart in that he would be able to fully talk in Smurf language instead of squirrel talk. Also, the adult Smurfs in Papa Smurf's flashback story about "the lost baby Smurf" in that version of the origin story were still adult Smurfs in that flashback, rather than baby Smurfs that grew up to be adult Smurfs. However, an alternate interpretation of that flashback story is that those adult Smurfs were Papa Smurf's peers at the time that Wild Smurf was lost in the woods as a baby.
  • This is notably the only major character introduction episode not to be the first in production order.
  • The title is supposedly a play on that of Lou Reed's song "Walk On The Wild Side".
  • This is the only 2-part special to have the second act as 13 minutes.
  • In the scene where Wild Smurf and Chitter gather acorns left by the Smurfs, you can hear Wild say 'Papa Smurf' in squirrel-talk.
  • Some early airings present the episode in 4 parts instead of 2. The Tubi release presents the story as such, but as one episode. Even stranger, despite having aired during Season 7, this edition uses the Season 3 intro sequence and credits at the beginning and end of each part.

Goofs[]

  • When Wild and Chitter are holding acorns, Chitter's tail is missing.
  • While the Smurflings are watching Wild jump up and down on a tree branch, Snappy's pants are missing.

Videos[]

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