Smurfs Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Smurfs Wiki

Cartoon Icon

"The Fountain Of Smurf" is the twenty-fifth episode of Season 1 of the 1980s Smurfs cartoon show.

Characters[]

Synopsis[]

The Smurfs give Papa Smurf a drink from the fountain of youth which turns him into a Smurfling.

Plot Summary[]

Hefty and a group of Smurfs are busy picking buckets of fresh smurfberries, with Greedy "testing" them to see if they are fresh, when Gargamel and Azrael sneak up on them disguised as smurfberry bushes, hoping to catch Smurfs. However, when Greedy turns around and starts picking smurfberries from the bushes they were hiding in, a branch snaps back and hits Azrael's face, then another snaps back to hit Gargamel's. The Smurfs are now alerted to Gargamel's presence and flee into a hollowed log to escape, leaving behind their buckets of smurfberries. Azrael heads into the hollowed log, but the Smurfs who escaped through a hole in the log now plug it up with a bees' nest, causing the cat to flee with the bees now chasing him. Gargamel and Azrael again pursue the Smurfs, but the terrible twosome are slowly tiring out and soon stop to rest, with Gargamel wishing he was ten years younger so he could catch the wretched Smurfs.

Soon, the Smurfs reach the village, and Papa Smurf is there wondering what happened to them. They explain that they have been chased by Gargamel, and that they were fortunate enough to escape, but unfortunate to have lost all their smurfberries. Brainy tries to share his wisdom with them in an I-told-you-so kind of manner, which earns him a boot to the village limits. Fortunately, Papa Smurf has his own private supply of smurfberries to share with everybody -- which he does since he's trying to watch his weight, as he implies. As Papa Smurf goes off to do some errands, the Smurfs talk about doing something nice for Papa Smurf since he's done a lot of nice things for them. Brainy says that he's seen a list of Papa Smurf's favorite things in one his books and takes the other Smurfs into the village leader's house to find it, though after going through so many of his books to do so. They look at the list and notice what his favorite things are: simple songs, poetry, pretty pictures, fragrant flowers, and a fresh forest salad with cave mushrooms. The Smurfs decide to gather up and prepare all those things as a gift for Papa Smurf while Brainy says that he will supervise, going on and on about why they need him to supervise, when he finds himself left all alone and follows after his fellow Smurfs.

After some time, the Smurfs have gathered everything but the cave mushrooms, and they have searched every cave, until Brainy stumbles right into a cave where he hears something growling from within. He runs back out and tries to tell the other Smurfs what he had heard, but he is too paralyzed with fear to say anything. Nonetheless, the Smurfs enter the cave and find the very thing they're looking for: cave mushrooms. They also find something else of particular interest: they see a deer drinking from a fountain of water, that suddenly turns into a young fawn. Realizing that it must be a Fountain Of Youth, they decide to scoop up some of that water and present it as a gift of youth for Papa Smurf, but as Hefty does, he is picked up by a giant troll who guards the fountain, who won't let them take any of the water without leaving him a nice present. Seeing a valuable book that belongs to Papa Smurf in Brainy's hands, the troll grabs the book and says it now belongs to him, telling them to take the water and go. As they leave with a bladder of the mystical water, Jokey leaves the troll with a present of his own -- one of his exploding "surprises".

Late at night, the Smurfs are waiting outside Papa Smurf's house to give him a surprise of his favorite things that they gathered for him when they accidentally wake up Papa Smurf, who gathers up their things without knowing what they are and drags them toward his house. As he reaches the door, he feels exhausted and thirsty, which is when Clumsy gives Papa Smurf the bladder of water that the Smurfs got from the fountain of youth, but not telling him what the water is supposed to do or where it came from. After Papa Smurf takes a swig, he tells his little Smurfs that he's going back to bed, saying that he's not as young as he used to be. "You soon will be," Smurfette says softly as Papa Smurf closes the door. But the other Smurfs don't see any miraculous change happening to Papa Smurf, which makes them wonder if the troll cheated them just to get Papa Smurf's book. Not liking what they would face if Papa Smurf knew that his book was gone, Jokey tells them that they should go ahead and surprise Papa Smurf so that he can't get mad. The other Smurfs decide to go along with this plan, and soon they knock on his door. As they hear him approach the door, Hefty opens the door at the count of three, and all the other Smurfs say "Surprise!" to Papa Smurf.

The Fountain of Smurf

But what they see is more of a surprise to them -- Papa Smurf is now a very young Smurfling, younger than what the Smurfs expected him to become. They realize that he must have drunk too much of the water, and now they have no idea of what to do now that Papa Smurf is too young to lead them. In fact, all that Papa Smurfling now wants to do is play with his once little Smurfs, who are all now older than him. Unsure of what to do, Hefty simply suggests that they should humor the Smurfling and play along with his games, until playing a game of "follow the leader" with him inspires Brainy to try finding a reversing spell to bring Papa Smurf back to his normal age. Unfortunately, as Brainy and Hefty look through Papa Smurf's books in his laboratory, they find that the reversing spell is in the book that the troll took from them, which means that they must get it back from him. As the Smurfs go off to get Papa Smurf's book back from the troll, Hefty tells Papa Smurfling that he can't come along because he's "too young", though Brainy chooses to stay behind to look after Papa Smurfling and Hefty has Clumsy look after Brainy.

Harmony And Papa Smurfling

Here comes Papa Smurfling!

As the two of them look after Papa Smurfling, he's busy in the laboratory mixing up various chemicals and causing explosions that blow Brainy and Clumsy out the window until Brainy decides to lock up Papa Smurf's laboratory until the other Smurfs come back. Papa Smurfling then decides to play "hide-and-seek" and has Brainy count to a thousand, taunting him into doing so, so that he could go find the other Smurfs. Clumsy comes along and tells Brainy that they need to look after Papa Smurf so that he doesn't get lost, but Brainy's still playing along with the Smurfling's game and doesn't want to be distracted from it, so Clumsy just lets him be.

Back in the cave, the troll is busy sleeping, so the Smurfs decide to creep silently around until they could find Papa Smurf's book. But soon the troll awakens and reveals where he has hidden the book, saying that it belongs to him, and soon they'll belong to him as well. The Smurfs start to flee the cave, but the troll blocks their way out, saying he won't let them leave unless he gets a present. Jokey offers one of his "surprises" again, tricking the troll into opening it long enough for the Smurfs to escape... but they do so without the book. They realize that it's going to take someone who knows magic to confront the troll so they could rescue the book, and the only wizard that could help them now is... Gargamel!

Meanwhile, Gargamel is busy spending a quiet day fishing when Papa Smurfling shows up, asking if he had seen any Smurfs and then asking if he was a troll. Gargamel humors the young Smurfling by saying that he's a nice friendly wizard, but Papa Smurfling gets a little wise mouthed by saying that Gargamel looks ugly enough to be a troll. Offended by this remark, Gargamel has Azrael chase him, but the little Smurfling is too fast for Azrael, who runs into a log. Gargamel tries to catch him as well but ends up running himself ragged through the forest. Back in his castle, Gargamel soaks his feet in some hot water, saying that he doesn't want to see another Smurf ever again, with Azrael seconding that emotion, when Smurfette and her group of Smurfs show up, promising to lead Gargamel to the fountain of youth if he helps them get their book back. Unsure of whether to trust them, Gargamel asks for proof when Papa Smurfling shows up again. Realizing that Smurf was Papa Smurf, Gargamel decides to help the Smurfs as long as they can lead him to the fountain of youth.

Back at the cave, Gargamel goes in first to deal with the troll, promising to get the Smurfs' book back for them, though he doesn't ask where the book was, making Papa Smurfling suspicious of him. Hefty agrees with Papa Smurfling that Gargamel can't be trusted, but he still could help them in spite of himself. As the Smurfs sneak quietly into the cave, Gargamel helps himself to the fountain of youth when the troll confronts him, saying no one takes any of the water without leaving him a present. Using his potions, Gargamel turns the troll into a giant toad, then into a giant winged insect, then just turns him back to his normal self while knocking him out... but not down for the count, as he suddenly gets back up to chase Gargamel and Azrael around. Meanwhile, the Smurfs try to form a ladder to reach the book, but they are still too short. Fortunately, Papa Smurfling is already where the book is and tosses it down along with himself. The Smurfs safely escape with the book while Gargamel, Azrael, and the troll are de-aged into youths by the fountain of youth, with the troll still chasing after the wizard and his cat.

Back at the village, the Smurfs try to explain to Papa Smurfling that they only wanted to make him a little young, and now he's too young to lead the village. The young Smurfling realizes that they need him back to his original age and thus starts work on the reversing spell. The Smurfs wait outside as the work takes a good while to complete, leaving them wondering if Papa Smurfling knows what he's doing, when there's an explosion in the laboratory... and soon Papa Smurf is back to his 542 years of age. Smurfette is glad to see him old again.

Meanwhile, Brainy is near the end of his count to a thousand when Clumsy tries to tell him that Papa Smurf is back, but Brainy doesn't want to be distracted. Soon he is off to find Papa Smurfling, saying that no Smurf makes a fool out of Brainy. All Papa Smurf could do at this point is give the viewer a wink.

Trivia[]

  • A Smurf comic book story called "The Smurf Of Youth" appeared in the Marvel Comics' Smurfs three-issue limited series, in which Smurfette looks for a fountain of youth controlled by a genie, who in actuality is Gargamel setting up a trap for the Smurfs to fall into, until Azrael shows up and ruins the plan. However, this has little to do with this episode about a real fountain of youth.
  • This is one of the few times that Papa Smurf "breaks the fourth wall". The second time is at the end of "Papa's Day Off".
  • The fountain of youth idea would be revisited in Season 9 with "Grandpa's Fountain Of Youth", though with certain plot differences.
  • When Papa Smurf was a Smurfling, he was that age of a 41- to 44-year-old Smurf, in human years is equivalent to 6-7 years old. He was younger than Natural, Snappy, Slouchy, and Sassette who are 50 years old Smurfs, in human years it equates between 8-11 years old. Technically, Grandpa Smurf left the village when Papa was a Smurfling, for that reason nobody knows previously except Papa Smurf.

Goofs[]

  • At night, when the Smurfs hold their respective bags, Handy, at first, has no straps in his outfit. Soon after, the handles appear.
  • When everyone announces that they are ready to shout "Surprise" to Papa Smurf, the napkin around Greedy's neck is small and the same color of his skin instead of the large, white napkin.
  • When Papa Smurfling leaves the house to play, night turns to day. As Papa Smurfling plays with the Smurfs, day returns to night.
  • When Papa Smurfling and the five Smurfs play "follow the leader", it is unclear whether the fifth Smurf is Jokey or Clumsy. Possibly it's Jokey, as he is the first to agree to make a funny face in the game. This is the first adult Smurf to step into the mud puddle and he even gives a quick smile before diving in. When he emerges from the puddle, Grouchy appears instead.

Videos[]

Advertisement