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"Smurfs At Sea" is a Season 2 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.

Characters[]

Synopsis[]

Papa Smurf tells a story about Dreamy's first sailing adventure.

Plot Summary[]

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It is nighttime in the Smurf Village, and after all the Smurfs go to sleep, Smurfette leaves her house and starts decorating the entire village to make it the happiest place in the whole world. By morning, she awakens the entire village to see that it has been decorated with lots of big bows and pretty flowers. The Smurfs are all amazed at the sight of how Smurfette's beautification project had turned out, until they start seeing bees swarming around the village. Every Smurf runs for safety into Papa Smurf's house, with Smurfette feeling sad that not only is her project ruined by bees, but that in turn it has also ruined every Smurf's day, as they have things that need taking care of. She says that she will never try anything new again, and Brainy seems eager to encourage Smurfette to stick with the tried-and-true, but Papa Smurf admonishes Brainy, saying that just because Smurfette's project didn't turn out like she planned doesn't mean she was wrong in trying to do it.

It was then Papa Smurf comforted his little Smurfs by telling them a story about an adventure Dreamy had set out on years ago before Smurfette came into the village. His story starts on a day when the Smurfs were all lying on their back on a hill and looking up at the clouds, seeing things in them. Hefty was seeing the Great Oak Tree, Greedy was seeing a big slice of pie, Vanity was seeing his own face, and Dreamy was seeing a sailing ship, imagining himself and his fellow Smurfs on a journey to strange new lands. This inspires him to tell his fellow Smurfs that they should build a ship of their own, and as his fellow Smurfs ask why they would go through all that trouble just to build a ship, Dreamy tells Vanity that the salt water could put color in his cheeks, that Greedy could discover some new exotic foods, and that the waves would rock Lazy to sleep every night.

This makes the other Smurfs so fired up with enthusiasm that they join Dreamy in building the ship, and soon they are hard at work cutting down lumber, building the frame of the ship, shaping the steering wheel, forging the anchor, sewing up the sails. Their hard work eventually pays off, as Papa Smurf stands at the dock to see Dreamy's sailing ship off on its maiden voyage with its crew ready to explore the seas. Dreamy hands Papa Smurf a bottle of sarsaparilla to christen the ship with (though its contents have been emptied by Greedy), and the village leader breaks the bottle of the ship's hull, christening her the Sea Smurf. The Smurfs say goodbye as they watch the Sea Smurf sail from its dock into the open sea, with Brainy saying he only wished he could join them but has other things that need to be taken care of. However, as the ship leaves the dock, Brainy gets caught on the rope and pulled on board, with Dreamy pleased to see Brainy have a change of mind.

Dreamy's crew starts off happy and singing, but after a while only Dreamy is still happy to be out sailing on the wild blue ocean, while Lazy is complaining about not being able to sleep, Greedy hasn't had anything to eat (while tossing a slice of cake overboard), and Vanity seeing green being the only color on his face. Soon, Dreamy sees land up ahead, and the Smurfs cheer as the Sea Smurf sets anchor and Dreamy leaps onto the very small island to plant the Smurf flag upon. However, the "island" turns out to be the shell of a giant turtle that was floating in the water. They immediately return to the ship with the others quick to blame Dreamy for his attempt at leadership. At this point, the other Smurfs want to turn around and go home, resulting in a tug-of-war between Hefty and Dreamy over the steering wheel until it breaks off. Brainy then scolds Dreamy for the damage of the steering wheel and thinks they're all doomed. The Smurfs soon find themselves steering out of control through a thunderstorm that causes a leak in their ship. As Dreamy bails the water out of the ship, saying that at least things can't get any worse, a lightning bolt rips the sail and knocks it down, making things much worse.

Painter then sees what appears to be land up ahead, and the Smurfs row toward the "land mass" that turns out to be a whale that swallows the ship inside its gullet, making Vanity say that now they have smurfed where no Smurf has ever smurfed before. The crew watches as the whale opens its mouth, taking it as the opportunity to row the Sea Smurf back out into the ocean, but all too soon the whale's mouth closes, and they are trapped inside the gullet again. Painter wonders how they could get the whale to keep its mouth open longer, and Handy comes up with an idea but tells Dreamy that they will have to take apart the ship. Dreamy doesn't like the idea of taking apart the Sea Smurf, but realizing that their lives are at stake, he gives his crewmates a hand.

Soon, the Smurfs have assembled a lift with which they can use to pry the whale's mouth open. They crank up the lift to open the whale's mouth long enough so they can row the raft they made from what was left of the Sea Smurf back out into open sea. They barely make it out of the whale before its mouth closes, but after a while of rowing the Smurfs collapse, exhausted. Dreamy says that it won't be long now before they find new land, but most of the crew is interested in getting back home. However, a fog soon obscures their way as the raft now bumps into a cork floating in the water, with Dreamy thinking that they have discovered land again. He plants the flag right on the cork, but then they get pulled along with the cork into a fishing boat, which a human is using to catch fish with a dragnet cast into the sea.

The fisherman is pleased with his catch and starts sailing off, saying that his family can fill their bellies with all the fish they can eat and that he won't have to sell off his wedding ring to pay for bread. Then comes the sound of a cannonball being launched, and the fisherman sees that a pirate ship is nearby, which makes the Smurfs wonder what a pirate is. The fisherman hopes that the pirates don't see his fishing boat, but then another cannonball flies toward the boat and misses it. The leader of the pirates, Captain Keelhaul, captures the fishing boat and has his crew bring its passenger on board, tossing the net of fish that the Smurfs are in aside. He sees the wedding ring on the fisherman's finger and takes it off his finger, adding it to the ones the pirate already has. The pirates send the fisherman off on his boat all tied up before they take the net of fish into the cabin to fry them up for their supper.

As the pirates are busy playing cards with each other, the Smurfs escape from the net and look for a way off the ship when Dreamy sees an open window which is high up. Hefty swings a rope that catches on a latch in the window, and the Smurfs try to carefully and quietly climb up when Clumsy slips and causes the others to fall down. The noise causes Captain Keelhaul to turn his attention from his card game to whatever has caused it, thinking that it may be ghosts. The Smurfs overhear this and Dreamy has an idea of how to get themselves out of this situation. Soon the Smurfs are making scary ghost noises, saying that they are the ghosts of victims' past, and Keelhaul and his crew shiver in fear as the Smurfs make it appear as if there really are ghosts on board the ship. The "ghosts" tell the pirate to return the things that they have stolen, which makes Keelhaul all too eager to hand over not only the net of fish, but also a treasure chest to the fisherman, as they sail off in another direction with Keelhaul saying that his mother never wanted him to be a pirate in the first place.

While the fisherman is more than happy to get his wedding ring back and a lot of treasure to boot, the Smurfs escaping on the raft are less than pleased with Dreamy's adventures not making them heroes like he promised. After a while of rowing, the Smurfs are now starving without food and without fresh pure water to drink. Greedy and Clumsy decide they would go fishing and so pull-out fishing rods with worms on the end of their lines so they could catch fish. They don't see that their lines got tangled with each other's underwater and so end up with a tug-of-war that makes the both of them think they caught a big fish. The other Smurfs try to help Greedy and Clumsy pull in their catches, only for the lines to snap and the Smurfs to pile up in a heap on top of each other.

SmurfsAtSeaPromo

Promo for the episode on many DVD releases.

Sometime later, hunger has affected the Smurfs to the point where Dreamy thinks he sees and hears Smurfette and Papa Smurf as mermen, saying that a couple of starfish have invited them down to dinner. Dreamy is ready to join the mermen Smurfs, but Brainy keeps Dreamy from going overboard, saying that it's just a mirage. Then Greedy sees an island that is made of giant cookies, Vanity sees one made of rock shaped in his image, and Lazy sees one that looks like a bed. They row their way toward that island, but it also turns out to be just a mirage. Eventually, they do find a small, deserted island to land their ship on, but Dreamy says there's nothing to eat on the island except for some small seeds. Then a swarm of bees come around and chase the Smurfs back onto the raft, causing them to row very rapidly to escape the swarm.

Back on shore near the village, Papa Smurf sees that the crew of the Sea Smurf should have returned days ago and is now raring to organize a search party when Jokey sees what's left of the ship returning to dock. Papa Smurf was glad to see that his little Smurfs have returned and is eager to find out what Dreamy and his crew have discovered. From all the responses given, he hears that they have discovered nothing but a bunch of seeds on a deserted island. Dreamy plants his Smurf flag on the ground in despair, believing that the whole trip was a flop. However, as Papa Smurf's story ends, he tells the other Smurfs that the seeds took root and blossomed into the very first smurfberry bushes in the whole forest.

Clumsy then looked outside and sees that the bees are gone from the village, although they have mostly gathered around a bee's nest to produce honey, which drips to the ground for the Smurfs to enjoy. Papa Smurf says that maybe Smurfette's idea wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Trivia[]

  • This is one of only a few episodes set before Smurfette's arrival that does not also take place in the very distant past as well.
  • The episode contains a continuity error. Originally, Papa Smurf states that Dreamy's adventure took place long before Smurfette arrived. Yet in the part of the story that takes place in the past, when Dreamy sees hallucinations, he sees both Papa Smurf and Smurfette as mer-people, inviting him to come onto the rocks, which would have been disastrous. The original broadcast made this clear. Syndicated showings almost cut off Papa Smurf's statement about Smurfette.
  • At one point in the episode, Hefty is seen with his tattoo on both arms.
  • Dreamy quotes a variant of Neil Armstrong's "That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" by saying "One small step for Smurf, one giant leap for smurfkind!".
  • The scene with the whale that swallows the ship whole during a storm, is extremely similar to Pinocchio.
  • When the Smurfs first try to escape inside the whale, Greedy's standing at the bow as the other Smurfs row is reminiscent of the George Washington crossing the Delaware River painting.

Videos[]

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