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"The Magnifying Mixture" is a Season 1 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.

Characters[]

Locations[]

Synopsis[]

Brainy accidentally enlarges Hefty with a magic formula.

Plot Summary[]

Hefty The Giant

Hefty loves being big and strong... just not like this!

It is a really hot day in the Smurf Village -- so hot that there's only drops of water coming down the waterfall for Farmer to water his crops with. The crows that normally would be busy giving Farmer a hard time in his fields are resting under a shade, also affected by the heat wave. Just about all the Smurfs are outside their houses, fanning themselves in order to keep cool. Vanity's hand mirror melts in his hand. Lazy finds the day too hot to sleep (though he does sleep), while Greedy finds it too hot to eat (though he does eat). Brainy decides that he's going to make a big batch of smurfberry juice and that he won't share it with anybody, when he finds out that Farmer's patch of smurfberry bushes are all withered away, leaving him with no smurfberries to make smurfberry juice with.

Meanwhile, Papa Smurf is busy in his laboratory with his own method for "beating the heat" -- making up a formula that can turn little clouds into big clouds, so they can finally have rain. Brainy watches from a window Papa Smurf doing his work when he spills a bit of the formula onto a spider, which then grows so big it picks up the village leader and spins a cocoon around him. Fortunately, Papa Smurf reaches for the elfin root and, just before the big spider devours him, uses it on the spider, shrinking him back down to size. Slipping himself out of the cocoon, Papa Smurf is glad to see that his formula works and is now going to use it on the clouds. After he departs, Brainy enters into the lab to make up the same formula in the hopes of making really big smurfberries.

Meanwhile, Hefty is busy carting out big rocks from Smurfette's garden and dumping them at the base of Smurfberry Hill, with Smurfette tagging along, praising Hefty for his strength for doing so even in the heat. He collapses to rest after Smurfette departs, but as he rests, Brainy is racing up the hill with a batch of Papa Smurf's formula when he trips over a rock, dumping the formula on Hefty. As Brainy disappointingly returns to make up some more formula, Hefty grows into a giant Smurf, thinking at first that it's the heat and he's just dreaming, and then racing into the village to find Papa Smurf when he finds out he's not dreaming.

The other Smurfs are frightened, and so also is Brainy, when they see a giant Hefty coming their way, picking up the roof of Papa Smurf's lab in order to ask Brainy where Papa Smurf is. He said that he was resting at the bottom of Smurfberry Hill when he felt some powder fall upon him. Brainy realized that that was the magnifying formula he made up that he spilled. But instead of helping Hefty find Papa Smurf, Brainy tells his friend that he's now big enough to do things that other Smurfs could only dream of. Realizing that, Hefty decides to go into Smurfette's garden and weed out all the rocks in it. The other Smurfs cover their heads as Hefty unwittingly tosses the rocks toward them. Jokey watches in horror as Hefty relaxes from his task by sitting down, only to sit down on and crush Jokey's house.

Finally, an idea hits Hefty: since he's now big, he can go do what he's always dreamed of doing -- capturing Gargamel. Taking a net with him, Hefty heads off into the forest, walking across a log hanging over a chasm that splits in two before falling into the chasm. Smurfette at this point decides she's going to tell Papa Smurf about what's happened, and as other Smurfs join her, they leave Brainy muttering to himself that he's created a monster.

Meanwhile, in Gargamel's castle, the evil wizard is busy throwing darts at a Smurf picture, fussing about the cheerful sunny day that he knows the Smurfs are enjoying, when Azrael sees a big Smurf heading their way and alerts his master. Soon, Gargamel sees the giant Hefty for himself as he bursts through the door, and though Gargamel is still taller than him, he's still big enough to scare Azrael away. Hefty throws a net over Gargamel's head and says that he's going to take him back to the village as his prisoner. Realizing that this Smurf could be his free ticket there, Gargamel gets Hefty to drag him and Azrael there by sticking them inside a bigger sack, telling his cat to play along with him.

Back in the village, as Smurfette tells Papa Smurf about what happened to Hefty, the Smurfs overhear Brainy confessing that the whole thing was all his fault when Hefty arrives in the village with a sack containing Gargamel and Azrael. Hefty tells the cowering Smurfs not to fear, because he singlehandedly captured them once and for all -- to which Gargamel responds, "That's what you think!" Seeing that Gargamel has slipped out, Hefty is ready to give the wizard a good licking when he scoops up Hefty into the sack, laughing as he chases the other Smurfs around the village, collecting them into the same sack.

Planning to use the same formula to get his little Smurfs out of this mess, Papa Smurf reveals his plan to them: they were to distract Azrael by leading him on a wild-goose chase to capture Smurfs. As they do, Gargamel admonishes his cat for his failure in catching Smurfs. Soon Papa Smurf has Azrael right where he wants him and dumps the remaining magnifying formula on the cat when Gargamel's back is turned on him. The evil wizard now cowers in fear as he faces a bigger Azrael who wants to chase him around, causing him to let go of the sack of Smurfs he's carrying and forcing him to flee far away from the village, where Papa Smurf hopes Azrael will return back to normal size.

After returning Hefty back to his normal size, Papa Smurf calls Brainy to attention and hands him cleaning supplies for him to clean up the village with. Brainy sheepishly suggests that Papa Smurf could make up a formula for him to clean up the village with instead. This makes the other Smurfs very angry with Brainy, as a formula is what caused all the trouble in the first place. Brainy tries to state he was only kidding, but they were having none of it, as they start to chase Brainy around the village, holding the cleaning supplies to supposedly clobber him with. Smurfette says that the first thing Brainy needs to clean up is his act, to which Papa Smurf agrees. The episode ends with the chase going on non-stop, as Brainy continues to call for help.

In other media[]

This episode has been adapted into the children's storybook "The Giant Smurf".

Goofs[]

The_Smurfs_-_Goof_from_"The_Magnifying_Mixture"

The Smurfs - Goof from "The Magnifying Mixture"

A comparison of the synchronization goof in this episode

The_Smurfs_-_Fan-Made_Correction_to_"The_Magnifying_Mixture"

The Smurfs - Fan-Made Correction to "The Magnifying Mixture"

A fan-made correction of the synchronization goof

Jokey's House Sign (Magnifying Mixture)

A comparison of both shots involving the sign for Jokey's house.

  • As most written text in the cartoon is visually stylized as meaningless symbols and gibberish (likely a strict guideline in place given the setting and to avoid giving dubbing studios more work), the sign for Jokey's new house is unreadable when it first appears. That is, until a change between shots reveals the words 'JOKEY'S HOUSE' a bit more clearly.
    • Because of the shot being repeated with the change in the sign, the original Saturday morning airing of this episode features an audio/video synchronization problem:
    • First, when the Smurfs discover it is Brainy's fault for making Hefty large, the footage when the Smurfs stop working and Greedy says "Your fault?" is repeated, causing the Smurfs to stop their work twice, and when Greedy starts speaking again, Farmer is speaking.
    • Then, it occurs at the scene when Hefty drags the sack containing Gargamel and Azrael into the village. The other Smurfs shout, "Gargamel! Azrael!", Hefty then says, "There's nothing to fear; I've singlehandedly captured them once and for all!", to which Gargamel replies, "That's what you think!", Hefty replies, "Oh, going to be difficult, huh?", but afterwards, jump cuts to Gargamel already out of the sack.
    • For the syndicated version's run, as well as the USA DVD release, this problem was somewhat corrected by having some shots switched as Gargamel says his line. However, the first synching problem is kept and the original footage with Gargamel and Hefty's lines are presumably lost.

Videos[]

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