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"Tattle-Tail Smurfs" is a Season 6 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.

Characters

Synopsis

Brainy uses a spell that makes the Smurflings' tails longer every time they tattle.

Plot Summary

Tails

It's three really long tails, and they just keep growing and growing.

Out in the forest, the Smurflings are busy watching Painter working on a clay sculpture of Papa Smurf when one of them notices that the rest of Papa Smurf's hat is missing. Painter realizes that he has run out of clay and runs off to get more to complete his work. Then Brainy comes along reading a book and is so preoccupied with what he's reading that he mistakes the Papa Smurf sculpture for the real thing. Nat snickers when he tells Brainy that it's only a statue of Papa Smurf. Brainy then says that it doesn't look a thing like Papa Smurf and then starts working with the clay to make the figure look more like Papa Smurf. The end result, however, is a somewhat distorted figure of Papa Smurf, which makes Painter so aghast looking at it that he asks the Smurflings who is responsible for this mishmash. Three of the Smurflings are so eager to point out that Brainy did it, which results in Painter using Brainy to pose for his next clay sculpture. However, Slouchy doesn't go along with the laughing of his fellow Smurflings, saying that being a tattletale isn't all that smurfy.

Soon, Painter's sculpture work is done, and he is proud that he has captured the likeness of Brainy in clay. Then Gargamel shows up, ready to get his hands on all the Smurfs. Brainy takes the clay discus in his hand and flings it into Gargamel's face, giving him and his fellow Smurfs time to make a run for the village.

In Greedy's kitchen, the village chef has made a special treat for the Smurflings -- smurf-water taffy. He tells them to take one end of the taffy and pull it as hard as they can so they can have as much as they want for helping him stretch the taffy. As the Smurflings pull their end far, they end up pulling it toward where Brainy is sitting reading his book on pulling smurf-water taffy. He tells them that smurf-water taffy should never be pulled that far because it might snap. He cuts off their end of the taffy, causing the rest of the taffy to snap back toward Greedy in his kitchen. When Greedy goes outside with his face and hat covered in taffy to ask who is responsible, three of the Smurflings point out that Brainy did it. Brainy sheepishly tries to explain his actions to Greedy when the village chef splatters Brainy's face with taffy.

Angry at the little blue tattletales, Brainy decides to get even with them. He goes over to Papa Smurf's house and knocks on his door to see if he is there. With nobody answering, Brainy goes inside and looks through one of Papa Smurf's books to see if there's anything in it for removing taffy. His hand, still moist with taffy, rips off a page from the spell book, only to reveal that the page behind it has a tattle-tale spell. He decides to use it, saying that this will teach the little snitches a lesson.

As Brainy is busy brewing up the formula for the tattle-tale spell, the Smurflings catch him through the window, with three of them saying they're going to tell Papa Smurf. Slouchy again warns his fellow Smurflings that it isn't smurfy to tattletale. But Brainy encourages the Smurflings to tattletale all they want, and so three of the Smurflings did... and as they do, their tails start to grow. When this revelation becomes apparent to the three Smurflings, Brainy smugly says, "why do you think they call it a 'tattle-tail'?", and that the more they tattle-tale, the more their tails grow. Soon, the tattle tailing Smurflings turn on each other, and this makes their tails grow longer and longer. In fact, Snappy's tail grows so long that he gets dragged into Handy's automatic clothes washing machine, ultimately wrecking it. Handy tells Snappy that he hopes he has a good explanation for it, and Snappy says it was Brainy's fault... which causes his tail to grow longer. Slouchy just calmly says it's not good to tattletale.

Meanwhile, Papa Smurf comes back to his house after a long walk, saying that he can't wait to see his little Smurfs because he's got a tale for them. But upon opening the door, he has three tails waiting for him... all of them belonging to three of his little Smurflings! Papa Smurf has a funny feeling somebody's been in his spell books, and three affected Smurflings tell him it was Brainy... which again causes their tails to grow. He scolds Brainy for playing around with magic without his permission, then he scolds the three Smurflings for their tattle-taling. While Papa Smurf goes to look for an antidote to the tattle-tale spell, he tells Brainy to watch after the Smurflings and make sure they stay in the village, for there's no telling what may happen to them in the forest. However, after an incident where Greedy tripping over a Smurfling's long tail has caused a string of other accidents to happen, Brainy is told by his fellow Smurfs to take those long-tailed Smurflings out into the forest or there won't be a village left.

While in the forest, Slouchy expresses his concerns to Brainy that they are disobeying orders to stay in the village, but Brainy tries to assure the young Smurfling that he and the other Smurflings are in good hands with him around. That's when Gargamel shows up with his claw machine, ready to snag Smurfs with it. Brainy and the Smurflings try to escape, but the long tails of the three Smurflings trip them up. The claw grabs them and scoops them up with only Slouchy managing to slip out. Gargamel finds it interesting that he has captured Smurfs with long tails because he always wanted to try out Smurf tail stew.

As Slouchy makes a run for it, he is debating with himself over whether he should tell Papa Smurf that Brainy has taken the Smurflings into the forest, which would mark him as a tattletale. Then Papa Smurf emerges from his laboratory with the completed antidote for the tattle-tail spell, with Greedy saying it will be "the end of our tattle-tail problems". But Slouchy says it won't be the end, because now he has to tell them that Brainy has taken the Smurflings into the forest and they are now captured by Gargamel. However, after Slouchy spills the beans, he realizes that his own tail hasn't grown and wonders why. Papa Smurf says there's no time to answer that, as their first priority is to rescue Brainy and the other Smurflings.

In Gargamel's castle, the evil wizard is preparing to have Smurfs for lunch while Azrael is playing around with the Smurflings' long tails. Gargamel tells his cat to be patient, that he will have a Smurf to eat if there are any left over. Brainy is spared the fate of the pot, though Gargamel decides he will have him as part of the dessert. As the three Smurflings are now held high over the bubbling stew boiling in the pot, a mist emanates from the window, which makes Gargamel turn to see Papa Smurf, Greedy, and Slouchy have now "joined him for dinner". But the mist causes the Smurflings' tails to shrink until they can easily escape from Gargamel's grasp. The wizard tells Azrael to chase after them, but then his attention is diverted to Greedy pulling Brainy out of the custard he was thrown into. He pounces onto them, but they duck out of the way and the bowl of custard is splattered onto Gargamel's head as the Smurfs make their escape.

Back in the village, Papa Smurf tells the three Smurflings he hopes they have learned their lesson when it comes to tattle-tailing. Slouchy then asks why his tail didn't grow when he tattled on Brainy, and Papa Smurf answers that it isn't tattle-tailing when you're telling on somebody when something really bad might happen, that he was only trying to help Brainy, not get him into trouble. Then Brainy shows up with a defaced cover of one of his books, demanding to know which one of them did it. The Smurflings simply whistle as if they had no idea who it really was. Papa Smurf notices a paintbrush held behind Painter's back but says nothing to Brainy about who did it. Brainy walks away frustrated, saying where a tattletale is when he really needs one.

Trivia

  • Two scenes from the original episode were omitted from the syndicated version:
    • Gargamel tripping after failing to capture the Smurfs.
    • Gargamel using an iron claw to capture a squirrel and then letting it go.

Goofs

  • After Brainy makes some changes to Painter's sculpture, his glasses are missing for the duration of the next shot.

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