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"The Man In The Moon" is a Season 4 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.

Characters[]

Synopsis[]

The moon stops shining when the Man in the Moon leaves the moon and joins the Smurfs' Moon Festival.

Plot Summary[]

It is a clear night sky over the Smurf Forest, and as Papa Smurf goes out of his house to check the sky, he notices something about it that isn't right. Dreamy also notices as he checks off the calendar and realizes that the moon should be out on that night, but it isn't. Father Time also raises a fuss over it, as he tells Mother Nature that it was 4,000 years ago that the moon was late, saying that it was her brother Harold's fault. Mother Nature tries to assure Father Time that it simply isn't true as she offers him a cupcake. Up on the moon, a disk-shaped being with a face is lying on a bed, sneezing and cursing the cold that he came down with and saying to himself that he's going to get moon-itis again if he doesn't stay in bed. He feels that he should stay in bed for the whole month, not caring if anyone even notices the absence of the moon, saying that only the rats care about him because of his cheese, which he feeds to one of the rats that he plays fetch with.

Back on Earth in the Smurf Village, Dreamy asks Papa Smurf if they would still have the Festival of the Full Moon, and all Papa Smurf can say is that he hopes so. In Mother Nature's house, Father Time becomes so upset at the Man In The Moon not showing up on time to do his job, saying that this will affect the tides, that he demands for him to light up the moon on time. At that moment, Gargamel is in his lair mixing up a formula that he intends to use on a rat that he had captured, saying that it will make him big and strong, while Azrael licks his chops at the thought of a "big and strong" rat that he can sink his teeth into. With the preparation complete, Gargamel reads off the instructions to the formula: "Dip the rat three times in the dippy goo, and while still wet, dangle for two minutes beneath the light of the new moon." After dipping the rat into the formula, Gargamel brings it out to his window to expose it to the moonlight, only to find out that there's no moon up in the sky.

The next morning, the Smurfs prepare for the Festival of the Full Moon, with Greedy making new moon cookies (and testing one of them), and Brainy making Clumsy go back and forth with the box of moon decorations that he accidentally knocks over Handy who is up on the ladder, making him land on top of the drum that the village orchestra is using for its practice session. Dreamy asks Papa Smurf if they should tell the other Smurfs that they may not have a Festival of the Full Moon, and Papa Smurf shakes his head, though whether it's to say no or to get the noise of Harmony's horn playing out of his head is anyone's guess.

In Mother Nature's house, the guardian of nature decides to give her brother a call on her magic telephone, but as she is making the call, the Man In The Moon is already on his way out to leave the moon forever, disappearing from the moon's surface in a blink. After Mother Nature hangs up the phone when she gets no answer, Father Time goes into a rant about what will happen if her brother doesn't do his job, that the tides won't change, and the calendars won't work among other things. Back in the Smurf Village, Papa Smurf and Dreamy pass by Smurfette carrying Baby Smurf, gushing over how it's going to be his first full moon, with Papa Smurf saying that it will be a sad world if the moon never shines again. Gargamel, meanwhile, is so upset at the moon not showing for four days to complete the transformation that he pounds the table in his laboratory with his fist in frustration, saying that it must.

Finally, Papa Smurf decides that it's time to visit Mother Nature concerning matters of great importance, so he leaves Brainy Smurf in charge of things with a list of instructions while he's gone. Of course, Brainy wastes no time trying to exert his authority over his fellow Smurfs, and neither do they waste any time showing Brainy what he could do with his "authority" as they hurl him out of the village. As Papa Smurf arrives at Mother Nature's doorstep to see that Father Time is also with her talking about the moon's absence, Harmony is trying to get Poet to finish up his poem about the moon, and Dreamy is out in the forest calling out to the moon to shine down on him. At that moment, however, the Man In The Moon appears right behind Dreamy, though he materializes upside down. Both he and Dreamy introduce themselves to each other, with the Man In The Moon liking being down on Earth rather than up on the moon.

While Dreamy is happy to see the Man In The Moon face to face, Father Time is upset and says that there's no way that he can make a trip to the moon, that time demands his very presence. Mother Nature tells Papa Smurf that as much as she would like to visit her brother on the moon, there's too many things on Earth for her to take care of that require her attention. She then suggests that Papa Smurf could go in her place, which Father Time agrees upon. Papa Smurf thinks that the idea is very smurfy, but he couldn't leave his little Smurfs unattended, although he says he could send volunteers to go in his place to visit the moon. Upon his return to the village, he selects Vanity, Greedy, Handy, and Smurfette as his volunteers, with Smurfette saying that she wishes that Dreamy were here because he would love to go visit the moon.

While Dreamy takes the Man In The Moon's luggage to the Smurf Village with the traveler rolling right behind him, and Gargamel threatens the rat by saying there had better be a full moon out that night or else he will feed the creature to Azrael, Mother Nature and Father Time show the four Smurf volunteers a secret passageway that leads to the River Of Time, which they say flows in two directions at once. They go down into the passageway and see a boat waiting for them at the edge of the river, with Father Time telling them that when they see themselves coming, then it's time for them to go back into the boat. After closing up the hatch, Father Time spins the sand glass and causes the boat and its four passengers to split in two as they disappear from where they were, only to merge together again as they reappear in another location. The four Smurfs see that they are now on the moon, so now they must follow the well-worn path to find the door that leads to where the Man In The Moon lives.

Back on Earth, the Man In The Moon finds that the village has been decorated for a party, with Dreamy telling him that it's the Festival of the Full Moon. The Man In The Moon feels elated that the Smurfs would hold a party to honor him, but when Dreamy tells him that there may be no party because the Man In The Moon left his place on the moon, his visitor shows no regret for leaving it behind.

Up in the Man In The Moon's workshop, two of the four Smurfs are fascinated with what they find up there: Smurfette looking out into space and seeing the planet where she came from, Vanity looking at himself in the reflection of a giant mirror. Handy is just wondering what he's supposed to do, then he sees a series of cranks and starts turning one of them, which at this moment causes the moon to appear in the sky during one of its phases. While this is happening, Gargamel has his captive rat sitting on the table as he ponders what to do when the moonbeam shines down upon the rat through the window, then he comes over and recites the words that would activate the transformation spell. The rat starts growing until he is about as big as Azrael, then he breaks his bonds and starts running away while Gargamel chases after him.

Back in the Smurf Village, Dreamy and the Man In The Moon sees the moon starting to shine as it quickly goes through its phases with the Smurfs up there working the levers to make the moon shine. However, the Man In The Moon is still insistent on never going back up to the moon to do his job, but Dreamy says that he must because he's the inspiration of all of Dreamy's dreams. As Papa Smurf meets the new visitor to the village, the four Smurfs see themselves arriving at the moon and realize that it's time to go, with Handy getting as much of the moon to shine as possible. They get back into the boat and return back to Earth, though with Greedy bringing so much cheese with him for the return trip, the boat ends up sinking.

After a talk with Papa Smurf, the Man In The Moon realizes how much people still care for him, including his sister Mother Nature, that he feels inspired to return to the moon and do his job again. However, as the Smurfs make their goodbyes, the rat that Gargamel had transformed into a giant rat made its way into the village, seizing Dreamy and making the other Smurfs run. The Man In The Moon gets the rat's attention and feeds it a piece of cheese from his suitcase, causing it to let go of Dreamy and to be very friendly and harmless. Dreamy sees that the Man In The Moon will have very good company on his return to the moon as he leaves the village.

That night, as the Smurfs sit together at the Festival of the Full Moon and sing a song to the moon, the Man In The Moon makes his face briefly appear in the face of the now full moon.

Videos[]

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