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"The Blue Plague" is a Season 2 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.

Characters

Synopsis

Brainy's attempt to make all the Smurfs like him accidentally transforms them into bird-acting yellow Smurfs.

Plot Summary

Out in the forest, Papa Smurf is pleased to see his little Smurfs at work collecting zingberries which only grow once a year. Greedy, who wishes he has a few more hands as he fills baskets with the green berries that clash with Vanity's eyes, sees what appears to be a giant zing berry on the top of a bush. However, as soon as he grabs it, it is revealed to be a frog that leaps out from behind a bush, taking Greedy along for the ride. Soon the frog stops in front of Papa Smurf, who then interprets from his croaking that this frog is actually a prince who has been transformed into a frog by a wizard and has been looking for a cure ever since. To make matters worse, the frog says, the spell becomes irreversible after three days, and that day ends up being the third day. Papa Smurf consoles his amphibian friend by saying they must go to Toadstool Ravine where he will make up a poultice in order to restore him to his original human appearance.

Yellow Bird Smurfs

Every Smurf's trying to do the Bird!

As Papa Smurf leaves for the hollow with the frog, he tells his little Smurfs to take care of the village while he's gone. Afterward, Hefty challenges his fellow Smurfs to a race back to the village, leaving Brainy behind in the dust. Brainy is so disgusted with his fellow Smurfs' behaviors that he wishes that he was Papa Smurf, the Smurf with all the answers, so that they would be perfect like himself. This inspires Brainy to use Papa Smurf's laboratory so he could create a cure-all for his fellow Smurfs, but as the green mixture fizzles all over the place like soda carbonation, Brainy finds out that Papa Smurf is all out of stinkweed and so he needs to get more.

He realizes that the only known place he can go to get stinkweed is to Gargamel's castle, and so he fearfully sets off in that direction. By the time he gets there, Brainy sees that the wizard and his cat are both asleep, so he quietly slips past them and finds a bottle of stinkweed sitting on a shelf, filling his bag full of it. He hears Gargamel muttering in his sleep, thinking that he may soon wake up, so he hides himself behind another bottle waiting to see what will happen. As it turns out, Gargamel and Azrael remain asleep, so Brainy quietly slips back out, not noticing that he has a rip in the bag and that he is leaving a trail of stinkweed behind.

Blue Plague Song Dance

Gargamel has jolly good fun plotting an evil against the Smurfs.

After Brainy leaves, Gargamel awakens and picks up the scent of a Smurf. He goes to the shelf where the bottle of stinkweed was located and finds instead a pile of smurfberries with a note left behind by Brainy, explaining that he needed stinkweed and that he was giving smurfberries as payment. Disgusted by what he saw as an unfair trade, Gargamel dumps the smurfberries onto Azrael's head, then spots the stinkweed trail left behind by Brainy and decides to follow it, believing it will lead him straight to the Smurf Village. The trail goes over a log cross a ravine which breaks, then through the forest where Gargamel bumps his head into one tree and trips over another, then it goes through a patch of sumac which he and his cat are allergic to, then it goes across a body of water. And then soon the trail ends, making Gargamel realize that Brainy ran out of stinkweed. Believing that Brainy will have to come back to get more, the evil wizard prepares a little something for Brainy, singing a song as he creates it.

Meanwhile, Brainy arrives in the village when a few Smurfs playing smurfball with each other ask what's in the bag. Brainy answers that it's the cure for all their problems, but after he opens it, the other Smurfs notice that the bag is empty, and Brainy sees that there is a hole in the bag. The other Smurfs walk off laughing, but Brainy tells them to wait and see, because he will show them what a great Smurf he is. He returns to Gargamel's castle with his bag patched up and finds a bottle of some elixir with a label that says that it's the cure for all illnesses. Brainy thinks that it's better than stinkweed and so fills his bag full of the elixir, noting how horrible it smells. After he leaves, Gargamel and Azrael laugh, knowing that the Smurf has taken the bait.

Brainy tries to offer his fellow Smurfs the cure-all elixir in his bag, but they all hold their noses and stick out their tongues, collectively saying that they don't want it. As Brainy figures out how to administer the cure-all, he passes by Greedy's kitchen and sees the village chef preparing lunch. He offers to stir the soup while Greedy rings the dinner bell, and after Greedy goes out to ring the bell, Brainy mixes the elixir into the soup, saying that someday the Smurfs will thank him. Soon the Smurfs all come to the dining hall to eat the meal, with Brainy watching them from outside. Afterward, they all feel so sickly, and then suddenly they turn yellow and begin to act like birds.

Brainy realizes his error and wishes that Papa Smurf was there so that he could deal with the problem. However, the only available wizard he could turn to was Gargamel, and so he bravely returns to the human wizard's castle to tell him about what he wanted the elixir for and what it had done. Though secretly disappointed that the elixir wasn't as strong as he had hoped, Gargamel does offer to help administer the cure for the Smurfs, but only on the grounds that he must be taken to the Smurf Village which is the only way he could administer it. Brainy makes Gargamel promise that he wouldn't do anything to harm the Smurfs once he's there, and as a show of faith, the wizard blindfolds himself and his cat so that the way to the Smurf Village will remain a secret.

After passing through the forest with its various dangers (like the patch of sumac again!), Gargamel arrives to see the Smurfs are all acting like birds. But then he shows Brainy that he has lied about his promise as he starts collecting all the Smurfs into a bag. He tries to grab Brainy, but he escapes and runs to Toadstool Ravine to find Papa Smurf.

The Frog Prince

The frog is now a prince again.

At Toadstool Ravine, Papa Smurf is finished creating his poultice and decides it's time to test it out, saying that he hasn't made it in over a hundred years. With his various tests, though, Papa Smurf has only managed to change the prince from one animal form to another. By the time Brainy reaches Papa Smurf, the bespectacled Smurf sees that he is now a human, which at first makes him faint because he doesn't realize that it was the frog. The prince is happy to be back in his original form and is willing to repay the kindness that was shown unto him, which Brainy is all too eager to take advantage of at the moment, explaining what is currently going on.

Back in the village, Gargamel is having fun collecting Smurfs when the prince shows up, demanding him to hand over the Smurfs. Gargamel refuses and runs off with the sack, and the prince chasing after him. Azrael smells something in Greedy's kitchen that's making him hungry and tastes it, but it turns out to be the soup with the elixir mixed in that turns him blue and acting like a bird. As the prince continues to chase Gargamel, the Smurfs grab the sack from the wizard and exchange the captive Smurfs within it with the transformed Azrael.

Bird Brain Gargamel

Gargamel gets a taste of his own bad medicine.

Gargamel sees the sack and grabs it, thinking that he's got the Smurfs. However, upon opening, he finds out that it's only Azrael. He tries to get Azrael off his hands, seeing that he is sick, but he ends up falling and causing the elixir to be dumped into his mouth, also turning him blue and acting the same way.

Back in the village, Papa Smurf is busy working on an antidote that would restore the bird-like Smurfs to their normal forms and behaviors. Brainy apologizes to Papa Smurf, saying that he only wanted to be a great problem solver. Papa Smurf says that he simply can't be one overnight, for being a great problem solver takes time. Soon the antidote is ready, and Papa Smurf sprays a cloud over his little Smurfs, changing them back to normal. As the Smurfs cheer for Papa Smurf, Poet recites his get-well poem for Gargamel and Azrael, who at this moment are fleeing from a bird who wants to roost with them.

Trivia

  • The villain song Gargamel sings is a recycled version of a villain song featured in two of Hanna-Barbera's previous works, Oliver and the Artful Dodger and Yogi's First Christmas, the backing track the same and the lyrics more resembling the 1972 original.
  • Brainy Smurf, Papa Smurf, and The Prince are the only characters who aren't affected by Gargamel's spell.

Goofs

  • A bit of a story continuity glitch in the episode: at the point in the story where Papa Smurf is supposed to be at Toadstool Ravine working on his poultice, he is also seen working at the dam with his little Smurfs when Greedy rings the dinner bell.
  • Poet has no way of knowing that Gargamel has drunk the potion. Gargamel only drinks it at his castle, and by an accident not caused by the Smurfs.
  • When the Smurfs are playing smurfball, a duplicate of Brainy can be seen for a few frames.

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