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"Smurf On Wood" is a Season 4 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.

Characters[]

Synopsis[]

The Smurfs think that Papa has been turned into a toad due to Clumsy's wishing tree.

Plot Summary[]

SmurfOnWood

Oh dear! What will the Smurfs do to turn Papa back to his normal smurfy self?

Farmer is walking through the Smurf Village whistling the Smurf song when he sees Handy working on a building a new chimney, which he says will keep his house "warm and smurfy" this winter. Then Clumsy comes along carrying a stone, and Handy warns him to be careful when Clumsy stumbles with it, bumping the ladder and almost causing Handy to fall off before Farmer grabs it and prevents that from happening. Handy tells Clumsy that he should never walk under a ladder because it's bad luck. Farmer dismisses it as just silly superstition and tries to prove it by walking under a ladder, but after doing so, a bucket of Handy's cement falls upon Farmer's head.

Meanwhile, an explosion takes place in Papa Smurf's laboratory, with the village leader scolding Brainy that he told him to use ten teaspoons of pimpernel pollen. Brainy said that he only put in an extra teaspoon for good luck, but all Papa Smurf can see is that his experiment is now ruined, and Brainy also sees that Papa Smurf's hat is also ruined. He offers to help Papa Smurf fix his hat, but Papa Smurf refuses Brainy's offer, saying that he would rather have Brainy help him by cleaning up his house. Brainy just watches Papa Smurf walk off, saying that Papa Smurf must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed.

In Tailor's house, the village clothes maker takes a look at Papa Smurf's hat and says that it has seen better days. He offers to make Papa Smurf a better hat and tells his customer to have a seat, but as Papa Smurf does, he feels a sharp prick in his behind. Tailor realizes that the stool Papa Smurf was going to sit on has his pin cushion and tells Papa Smurf that he must be lucky, saying "see a pin and pick it up, and all day long you'll have good luck". Papa Smurf admits that he doesn't feel lucky and begins to wonder where all these silly superstitions got started.

In Gargamel's castle, the evil wizard is busy hanging a horseshoe over the arch of his front door, saying that for him it will bring him good luck, but for the Smurfs it will be bad luck. Then Gargamel accidentally strikes his thumb with the hammer, making him fall off the stool to suck his thumb and to curse and rant at the Smurfs he despises so much. He then looks through his spell book to see what he can do to make the Smurfs stop laughing, and then comes across a formula for giving his victims chicken pox. But as he starts to mix up the formula, he sees that he is out of bat's hair before he realizes that he has used it all up in making his mother's birthday cake.

Realizing that he has to go get some more bat's hair, Gargamel takes his cat Azrael out into the forest. While walking along the forest road, the evil wizard spots a four-leaf clover and picks it up, saying that it must be his lucky day. But then a horse and carriage knock Gargamel over until he falls into the mud, leaving him to curse the driver. The carriage's passenger has the vehicle stop so he could ask Gargamel if he is all right and to give him a gold sovereign for his troubles before the carriage rides off again. Gargamel looks at the coin in his hand and says that this must be his lucky day after all. But as the evil wizard rejoices at the good fortune that he has been blessed with, a gypsy woman overhears from a nearby location and is thinking about how she can get her hands on that gold coin when she sees a toad sitting on a log and suddenly grabs it.

In the marketplace, Gargamel is looking at all the things he could possibly buy with the gold coin. He contemplates on the idea of getting himself a wizard's robe like his godfather Balthazar or even a wizard's hat when the clothing salesman swats the evil wizard's hand. Azrael is licking his chops while looking at the fresh fish that he wants to sink his teeth into when Gargamel decides he will flip the coin to see what item he wants to buy with it. But suddenly he trips and falls onto the fish, causing the coin to slip and roll out of his hands. Gargamel chases after the coin, hoping to get it back before somebody else gets it, when upon grabbing the coin, he stumbles into the gypsy woman seen earlier, whom he recognizes as Esmeralda Fortune. She has come to offer the evil wizard something that she claims will give him good luck in exchange for the gold coin: a good luck toad. The gypsy claims that if a person strokes the toad's back three times while making a wish, then whatever the person wishes will come true. Gargamel isn't sure that he could trust Esmeralda Fortune's claim of the "good luck toad", but after a bit of cajoling, the gypsy takes Gargamel's gold coin and leaves him with the toad.

Meanwhile, near the Smurf Village, Clumsy goes out into the forest to get a stone for Handy so he can complete his chimney. On his way back with the stone, he sees Smurfette having a picnic with Baby Smurf, to whom she gives a kiss. Clumsy says that he wishes to get a kiss from Smurfette when he stumbles over a root which makes him stagger with his load before he backs into a tree and dumps the rock inside its hole. Smurfette looks at Clumsy with concern, asking him if he's all right, and Clumsy says that he is before a broken branch hits him on the head. Smurfette rushes toward Clumsy to check on him and kisses him to make him feel better. Clumsy sees that his wish came true and starts to believe that the tree he bumped into may be responsible for making it happen. He decides to test out his theory by picking up another rock and making a wish that he could have fresh smurfberries while carrying the rock toward the root that makes him stagger and fall backwards towards the tree. No sooner does Clumsy dump the rock inside the tree that Brainy and Farmer pass by carrying baskets of fresh smurfberries with them, with Farmer offering some to Clumsy.

This makes Clumsy believe that the tree really is a magic wishing tree, and despite Brainy and Farmer writing it off as just some superstition, he offers to prove that the tree does have the power to grant wishes by letting his fellow Smurfs make a wish. Farmer wishes that his crops could have more rain, and after Clumsy goes through the motions of carrying the rock, tripping over the root, and staggering before falling backwards toward the tree while making the wish, a small cloud of rain appears over Farmer's head. Brainy seems convinced that Clumsy's claim of a magic wishing tree is true and so he wishes to have a laboratory like Papa Smurf. He carries the rock, stumbles over the root, and then falls backwards toward the tree with the rock, and afterward Papa Smurf appears to tell Brainy that he is going to visit Homnibus, so he needs him to look after the laboratory while he's gone. After Papa Smurf leaves, Brainy is so eager to tell his fellow Smurfs about the wishing tree he "discovered" that he rushes off and leaves Clumsy saying that he thought he was the one who discovered it.

Meanwhile, in Gargamel's castle, the evil wizard is so excited over the prospect of having a "lucky toad" that he can use for catching Smurfs that he finds himself looking all over his house for one of his Smurf-preparing recipes. Azrael, however, is more interested in chasing after the toad, and so causes the toad to leap about, making Gargamel so upset that he chases after the toad when it flees into the forest, saying that if he doesn't get it back, then it will be bad luck for Azrael.

Out in the forest near the Smurf Village, a group of Smurfs have gathered around the fabled "wishing tree" to see about having their wishes granted. Vanity makes a wish to be more handsome, and so he goes through the motions of carrying a rock, stumbling over the root, and then falling backwards toward the tree to dump the rock, then he takes a look at himself in the mirror and says that it worked. Smurfette wishes to meet a new friend, and so she goes through the same motions, but we see that nothing happens immediately afterward. Greedy wonders what to wish for, and Devil Smurf appears to tell him he should wish for a triple-layered smurfberry fudge tart, with Angel Smurf appearing soon after to tell Greedy that he already has one in his house. Greedy decides that he will go home and eat his smurfberry fudge tart before he comes back to wish for another.

Smurfette sits by the riverside, looking at her reflection and wondering who her new friend she will meet will be, when she sees Gargamel's face appearing in the reflection right above hers. She turns around and sees the evil wizard ready to swoop the net over her when she dodges and runs for her life away from him. She manages to escape only when Gargamel trips over a small log and falls on top of Azrael, saying that she wanted to meet a friend, not a fiend. Gargamel tells Azrael to never mind the Smurf, for they have a "lucky toad" to catch.

In Homnibus' hovel, Papa Smurf and his elderly human friend see that Mt. Polyanthous is about to erupt soon and that they will need to bring some equipment to get a closer look. But as Papa Smurf returns to the Smurf Village to get his equipment so he can meet Homnibus at the mountain, he sees that the village is empty. Then Hefty appears and tells Papa Smurf that every Smurf is at the "wishing tree", which makes Papa Smurf curious to find out what it's all about.

After Lazy makes a wish that he could take a nice long nap and finds out that his wish has been "fulfilled", Papa Smurf appears at the "wishing tree" to ask his little Smurfs what's going on. They tell them that by throwing rocks into the "wishing tree" that it will make wishes come true. Papa Smurf thinks that those "wish fulfillments" are most likely coincidences and tells his little Smurfs to return to the village, but they refuse to do so, saying that they have yet to make their wishes. Papa Smurf decides to prove that the tree isn't a "wishing tree" by making a wish that he was a toad, which makes his little Smurfs gasp. He goes through the same ritual of carrying the rock, stumbling over the root, and falling backwards toward the tree while dumping the rock inside the hole. But as his little Smurfs could see, nothing has happened to Papa Smurf, which to him only proves that the tree is just an ordinary tree. He dusts himself off and tells his little Smurfs to get back to their chores despite their fearful protests.

As Papa Smurf leaves the village with his equipment for studying the volcano, Tailor puts Papa Smurf's new hat out on the clothesline to dry so that he will give it to him later. Meanwhile, Gargamel is still out in the forest looking for his "lucky toad", which at this point has hopped its way into the village chasing after a fly, knocking Papa Smurf's hat off the clothesline while trying to tongue the fly. Brainy, Clumsy, and Smurfette enter the village talking about Papa Smurf's wish not coming true when they see the toad wearing Papa Smurf's hat and start believing that his wish did come true after all.

Brainy decides to take the toad that they believe is Papa Smurf into his laboratory to see if there's a way that they can turn the toad back into Papa Smurf's true form. While the other Smurfs gather around the laboratory, Brainy tries out a magic formula that he sprays on the toad, only to see that the spray turns the toad into a mouse. Then he tries a different magic formula spray, and it turns the mouse into a chicken. Then as the chicken hops onto Clumsy and pecks at him, Brainy sprays it with a third formula and it turns back into a toad. Brainy thinks that he should mix the formulas to see what result it would have when the toad hops out of the laboratory and toward the forest. Hefty tries to grab the toad to keep it from escaping, but after a wild ride he gets dumped into a rain barrel while the toad continues to hop its way to freedom with the Smurfs chasing after it.

Out in the forest, Gargamel takes a rest on a log, saying that he will find that "lucky toad" before he knocks on the log for luck, only to have a splinter from the log get caught on his finger. Then the toad reappears, hopping its way from the two Smurfs that were chasing after it until it hops into the net sitting next to Gargamel. The evil wizard sees that he has caught his "lucky toad" and brings the creature home with him so that it will not get away. Handy and Farmer see that Gargamel has the toad, believing that it is Papa Smurf, and realize that they have to rescue him. They return to the village to tell the others, and Hefty decides to lead a group of Smurfs toward Gargamel's castle so that they can rescue Papa Smurf.

Glad to have his "lucky toad" back in his possession, Gargamel starts to make his first wish of having lots of Smurfs to fill his cooking pot for months while stroking the toad's back three times. He sees his wish "fulfilled" when the Smurfs appear outside his door, telling him to let go of the toad. Gargamel instead drops a cage on top of the Smurfs to capture them, saying that he now has a lifetime supply of Smurfs, with Azrael baring his claws toward the captives.

As Papa Smurf and Homnibus are studying the eruption of Mt. Polyanthous that is about to take place at any moment, Gargamel decides to prepare an appetizer for himself and his cat with two Smurfs that puts in his cooking pot before getting onto the business of making gold with the other Smurfs. During his preparation of his appetizer, Gargamel spills some salt on the table and then decides to toss some salt over his shoulder for good. Immediately after, though, Gargamel feels and hears a rumbling that makes him wonder what's going on. Papa Smurf and Homnibus see that Mt. Polyanthous is erupting, with Homnibus worried that Gargamel's castle is in the path of the volcano and Papa Smurf saying that his little Smurfs are safe, unaware of the predicament they're currently in. The rumbling and flaming fireballs become so violent that the Smurfs use that as a distraction to escape from Gargamel's castle while the evil wizard hides in fear for his safety, saying that spilling salt really is bad luck.

After Hefty breaks the toad out of the cage, he joins the other Smurfs far from Gargamel's castle only to find that the toad that they think is Papa Smurf is gone. This makes the Smurfs so sad that they believe Papa Smurf is gone forever, and Brainy is quick to point the finger at Clumsy and blame him for discovering the "wishing tree". This gets him thrown into the village, which Brainy sees as a first time for him.

Papa Smurf returns to the village from his studying the volcano with Homnibus, feeling happy with himself for having witnessed the event, when he sees his little Smurfs crying and ask what's going on. They see that Papa Smurf is no longer a toad, which now makes them feel so happy and yet so confused until Papa Smurf reveals to them that he has been with Homnibus all afternoon, so he really hasn't been a toad. He says that he hopes this will teach his little Smurfs a lesson about being afraid of superstitions, which they all say they can agree to.

In the burned-out ruins of Gargamel's castle, the evil wizard scoffs at the "good luck toad" and wonders how he could believe in such a thing. But he sees the horseshoe still hanging over his door and says that at least he still has that, so it's guaranteed to bring good luck. Then the horseshoe falls off and hits Gargamel on the head, making Azrael look at his master in disbelief.

Trivia[]

  • The entire soundtrack was in 2x higher than usual in pitch octave in the syndicated version.

Videos[]

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