"The Noble Stag" is a Season 3 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.
Characters[]
- King Gerard/Stag
- Malcolm The Mean
- Harmony Smurf
- Clockwork Smurf
- Papa Smurf
- Hunters
- Handy Smurf
- Hefty Smurf
- Grouchy Smurf
- Lazy Smurf
- Vanity Smurf
- Greedy Smurf
- Jokey Smurf
- Brainy Smurf
- Smurfette
- Baby Smurf
- Clumsy Smurf
- Mrs. Sourberry
- Hunters' Horses
- Animals
- Unnamed Smurfs
Synopsis[]
Harmony learns that Malcolm the Mean has turned King Gerard into a black stag when he's unknowingly taken to his castle.
Plot Summary[]
The Smurfs are busy collecting carts full of nuts for the winter, with some of them shaking them down through a hose that Grouchy holds that loads them into a basket that gets lowered to the ground along with Lazy. Papa Smurf comments on the good job his little Smurfs are doing while Jokey gives Greedy a nut that explodes. Soon they hear a horn sound off in the distance, indicating the presence of humans in the forest, and as the Smurfs wonder what they are doing in that part of the forest, a black stag leaps out from the bushes and runs right past the Smurfs, knocking over some baskets full of nuts. Then the Smurfs hide in the bushes as a pack of dogs and three men on horses pass by, heading in the same direction as the stag. After the humans pass by, Smurfette asks why they were going after the stag, and Papa Smurf says that they are hunters who intend to kill it, which Smurfette sees as being mean. To make matters worse, Papa Smurf recognizes one of the hunters as King Gerard's second cousin Malcolm The Mean, one of the greatest hunters in all the realm.
Smurfette says that they've got to save the stag, but as Greedy wonders how, Harmony says he has an idea. He has Hefty pull him up onto a tree while riding a bucket, and then he plays a signal tune that the dogs hear, causing them to move off in a different direction with the hunters following after them, believing that their target has now doubled back. But as Smurfette moves out from behind a bush, Hefty sees that she in the path of the oncoming riders and rushes to save her, though he lets go of the line holding the bucket, causing Harmony to fall and drop into the cowl of Malcolm the Mean's cape. The other Smurfs see Harmony ride off with the human and wonder what they're going to do when Papa Smurf says that they need to rescue Harmony before he is discovered. Hefty and Jokey volunteer to go with Papa Smurf to rescue Harmony while the other Smurfs are instructed to bring the nuts to the Smurf Village. Smurfette watches the three Smurfs go off into the forest to find the hunters and tells them to be careful.
By the riverside, Malcolm the Mean sees that the trail they have followed is a red herring, as the dogs just sniff around but are unable to pick up the scent of the black stag. He tells his fellow hunters that they will return to the castle and try again tomorrow, and so they ride off with the pack of dogs and with Harmony still hidden in Malcolm's cowl. Meanwhile, the Smurfs are on their way to the village with their carts when they come across the black stag hiding in the bushes, poking his head out to see who is there. Smurfette sees as the stag comes out of hiding that one of his legs is limp, so she has the stag follow her into the village where the Smurfs tend to the creature's broken leg while also building a shelter for the stag to rest in as he's being tended to. Handy calls for Clumsy to bring more branches for the shelter, but as Clumsy approaches the shelter, he knocks over the ladder Vanity is on, causing him to fall. The stag manages to catch Vanity by extending his head so that the falling Smurf can grab his horns and then lowers him safely to the ground.
Then as Smurfette brings some moss balm to help heal the stag's broken leg, Greedy comes with a cart full of smurfberry tarts and goodies while Brainy brings a cart of fruits and vegetables, telling Greedy that stags are herbivores and that they won't eat things like smurfberry tarts. But to Brainy's surprise, the black stag starts licking and eating the smurfberry tarts, which makes him wonder. Smurfette begins to suspect that there's something familiar about the stag that she couldn't put her finger on.
At King Gerard's castle, Malcolm the Mean scolds his fellow hunters for letting the black stag get away and tells them that the following day they will get the stag or else it's the dungeon for his hunters. Then Mrs. Sourberry appears and asks about King Gerard, which Malcolm answers that the king had some urgent business to deal with, some affairs of state that he had to attend to on such short notice, hoping that would satisfy her curiosity. Inside the castle in his private chambers, Malcolm looks at a portrait of King Gerard and sneers at it, while Harmony peeks out of the cowl and notices that the hunter has Clockwork Smurf inside a glass case, calling it his latest trophy. Malcolm tells the king's portrait that his greatest prize, the black stag, is yet to come, and that when he has the stag, he shall become king. He mentions that with his magic amulet he has turned his cousin into a deer and laughs at the irony that he now has the king's subjects hunting after him.
After Malcolm the Mean retires for the night, Harmony comes out of hiding to awaken Clockwork Smurf and get him to respond, but Clockwork is unable to respond to Harmony's knocking on the glass, so Harmony sees that he needs to get help. He quietly makes his way out of the castle, where he runs into Papa Smurf, Hefty, and Jokey who have been following the horses to King Gerard's castle. He tells the other three Smurfs what Malcolm the Mean has done and what he intends to do with King Gerard the following day. Papa Smurf sees that they need to get the amulet away from Malcolm in order to reverse the spell that was put on King Gerard, so the four Smurfs venture back into the castle and sneak into Malcolm's private chambers to revive Clockwork Smurf before they go after the amulet. After lifting the glass case, Papa Smurf opens Clockwork's hatch and turns a switch in the hope that it would revive the mechanical Smurf. Clockwork comes back to life, but instead of recognizing his fellow Smurfs, he walks straight toward the glass case and knocks it off the table, shattering it and waking up the dogs. Papa Smurf makes some adjustments, and Clockwork finally is aware of his fellow Smurfs and tells them what's going on.
But soon, they see the dogs coming into the main chamber, growling at whoever or whatever may be trespassing. Papa Smurf sees that he and his little Smurfs need a distraction so that they can get the amulet, so they get a raccoon pelt and use it as a temporary cover as well as a lure for the dogs to go after it. Then after a struggle with the raccoon pelt which snaps in two, Jokey loses a rhinoceros head from a mount and drops it onto one of the dog's heads, causing it to run after the other dog. In the meantime, Papa Smurf and Harmony got the amulet loosed from its cord around Malcolm's neck and start to leave with it, but soon the noises of the dogs barking and other creatures in the hunter's main chamber awaken him. As the other three Smurfs begin to escape with Clockwork, Jokey is left behind to deal with Malcolm and his dogs after the hunter closes off his escape, and so the Smurfs return to get Jokey out, but the door to Malcolm's chambers is closed, and they don't have the combined strength to force it to open. Fortunately, Clockwork sees a halberd that they can use to reach the handle of the door, so he brings it over for the Smurfs to open the door and peek in so that they signal Jokey to leave the room immediately.
With the dogs shut inside Malcolm's chambers, the Smurfs try to sneak out of the castle with the amulet, but Papa Smurf doesn't pay any attention to Clockwork's warning about the drawbridge, and he ends up tripping with the amulet now rolling away from them. They barely manage to catch the amulet before it falls into the moat, but unfortunately, Jokey's carelessness causes it to fall into the moat anyway. With the waters of the moat being too dark to see, Papa Smurf says that they will need a light and a rope to fish it out, and so a few Smurfs grab a lantern from a nearby guard while Clockwork goes into Mrs. Sourberry's sewing kit and gets a spool of thread and a needle bent in the shape of a hook. Carefully the Smurfs lower Hefty down into the waters, where he sees the amulet and dives in to latch the hook onto the amulet for them to pull up. With the amulet safely again in their possession, Papa Smurf says that they hope they won't run into any more surprises on the way home.
By morning, Malcolm the Mean arises to find that his amulet is missing, and so he calls on Mrs. Sourberry to help find the amulet. However, after an extensive search of the castle, Mrs. Sourberry reports that the amulet couldn't be found anywhere, so Malcolm decides that they will have to hunt the black stag without it, and so he rides off into the forest with his hunters.
Back in the village, the Smurfs watch as Brainy in surgical clothes approaches the black stag with a pair of scissors to cut the wrappings from the stag's leg, and soon the stag is able to stand on all four legs, making the Smurfs cheer with joy. Smurfette tells the stag that he can now go back into the forest, but the stag shakes his head no, and instead uses one of his hooves to draw out a picture of a castle. As the Smurfs wonder what the stag is trying to tell them, they hear the sound of a horn, and the stag runs off in fear, knowing what's coming for him. As it turns out, the horn was only the sound of Harmony playing as he, Papa Smurf, Hefty, Jokey, and Clockwork arrive in the village with the amulet and with news that the stag is actually King Gerard. With Smurfette telling Papa Smurf that the stag just left the village, Papa Smurf now tells his little Smurfs that they must find that stag while he works on a way to reverse the spell that Malcolm the Mean has put on the young king.
As the Smurfs search the forest for the stag, Harmony, Handy, and Clockwork find him again, this time chased by Malcolm the Mean and his hunters. Harmony sees that the stag is headed for Three-Eyed Gully, which is a dangerous rocky place that he must navigate through in order to escape. Soon the stag reaches a dead end in the gully, and Malcolm and his hunters have the deer trapped, which could mean the end of King Gerard. As the three Smurfs provide distraction for Malcolm and his men, Papa Smurf finds the reversing spell and recites it while using the amulet's power. Suddenly the stag turns back into King Gerard, and as Malcolm tries to recover from being bucked off his horse, he ends up being turned into a stag. Malcolm's men are now ready to aim after him as the stag, but King Gerard commands them not to, that he only wants him captured alive.
As the hunters go off to obey King Gerard's command, the young king goes to the Smurf Village to thank the Smurfs personally for their rescue, saying that if it weren't for their bravery and Clockwork's, he would have been just another prize on Malcolm's wall. Papa Smurf asks the king what will become of Malcolm, and King Gerard answers that he will restore his cousin to normal only after he learns his lesson. As the Smurfs raise up cheers for King Gerard, Harmony decides to join in with some music that makes even the king hold his ears to block the sound and say that is what he calls "cruelty to animals".