Smurfs Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Smurfs Wiki

Cartoon Icon

"The Smurf's Apprentice" is one of the first three episodes of Season 1 from the Smurfs cartoon show.

Characters[]

Locations[]

Synopsis[]

When wanting to become Papa Smurf's apprentice, Clumsy steals a spell from Gargamel but it turns him into a lizard.

Plot Summary[]

Clumsy The Lizard

Oops! I think I smurfed something wrong!

In the Smurf Village, Papa Smurf oversees his little Smurfs putting up decorations, doing their chores, and making food. All seems well in the village until Clumsy trips over a rake while carrying firewood, which disrupts Lazy from his sleep and which causes Handy's smurfberry picking machine to go out of control, crashing into a Smurf house. Clumsy tries to speak in his defense, but neither Lazy nor Handy are willing to listen. Jokey offers Greedy one of his "surprises", which explodes and causes his cake to go splat on Brainy's head. Then Clumsy comes along and bumps into Jokey, causing his pile of logs to be dumped on Jokey and Brainy. Again, Clumsy tries to speak in his defense, and again nobody is even listening. Grouchy is having a peaceful walk when Clumsy runs into him, causing him to say, "I hate clumsy Smurfs". Clumsy realizes at that point that it's no use trying to explain himself to anybody.

He walks alone through the village, saying that no Smurf likes him anymore as he kicks an acorn that goes crashing through a window. And then he notices Papa Smurf busy in his laboratory working on an experiment which, although causes an explosion, ends up becoming a success. Clumsy was so amazed that he believes that if he can be a wizard like Papa Smurf, the other Smurfs will like him -- and that inspires him to become one. However, his first attempt at an experiment causes an explosion that knocks him into a pot. As he lies awake in his bed, trying to think of what went wrong, he realizes that Papa Smurf has been doing magical experiments for years, and so he needs to go to him for experience.

The next day, Clumsy goes out into the forest to find Papa Smurf, only to trip on his basket when he approaches the village leader. Papa Smurf asks Clumsy what he wants, and Clumsy answers that he wants to be Papa Smurf's assistant. Papa Smurf tells Clumsy that he already has an assistant, Brainy, who is more than enough. But Clumsy still wants to learn magic, and so he decides to go into Papa Smurf's laboratory to look through his spell books while he's busy in the forest. However, the door to Papa Smurf's laboratory is locked, so he goes in through the chimney, but he barely gets far in his search when Papa Smurf returns and finds him in his laboratory, demanding to know what he's doing in it. Clumsy tries to hide what he's doing by saying he only came to clean his laboratory. Papa Smurf thinks it's a good idea and so hands Clumsy a broom so he can start sweeping.

Then Clumsy has another idea: he leaves the village and heads straight for Gargamel's castle. He hides in the woods near the castle as he hears the evil wizard call his cat Azrael to come with him to draw water from the pond. Clumsy scoots into the castle after they both leave it and finds a book leaning against a wall on the table, which he can see is a spell book, but it is too big for him to carry back to the village. Then he hears Gargamel returning, noticing that somebody is in his house and recognizing the scent of a Smurf. Clumsy then tears off a single page from the book and takes it with him to the village as he escapes the castle before Gargamel and Azrael enter. The wizard notices his spell book on the floor and that one of its pages is missing... then chuckles as he says that the spell on that page will give the Smurfs a big surprise.

Late that night, Clumsy is busy in his house performing an experiment from the page of Gargamel's spell book, following its instructions to the letter. But after he has finished completing the experiment, he wonders why nothing has happened... until an explosion later, when he looks at himself and sees that he has turned into a green scaly lizard creature. He screams as he looks at his reflection in the mirror, and so do the other Smurfs when they take a look at his new form, calling him a monster. He finds Papa Smurf near the village well and tells him what has happened, saying that he made a magic potion from a book of spells in Gargamel's castle. Papa Smurf scolds him for going to Gargamel's castle, then takes him inside his laboratory to find a way to change him back to normal. After many tries with various potions and solutions (including an atomizer that caused Clumsy to sneeze flame), Papa Smurf tells the young Smurf that none of them seem to work. It makes Clumsy wonder if he's going to stay like that forever, but Papa Smurf tells him that he will look for an antidote while Clumsy goes home.

The next day, Clumsy walks by a group of Smurfs playing smurfball, who end up running off at the sight of him. Clumsy is distraught that no Smurf wants to play with him anymore, but then he decides that he can't wait for Papa Smurf to come up with the antidote. Soon, as Papa Smurf goes over to Clumsy's house to give him the bad news of not being able to find the cure, he finds a note from Clumsy attached to its door, saying that he's gone to Gargamel's castle to find the cure. Realizing that the young Smurf is in danger, Papa Smurf calls together his other little Smurfs to go with him to rescue Clumsy from Gargamel.

Speaking of whom, he is already at Gargamel's castle, which seems deserted but with the spell book waiting for him to grab. He enters the castle and tries to get the book but ends up trapped in a cage. Gargamel comes out from hiding along with Azrael, pleased to have captured the little spell-stealer and commenting on how ugly that Smurf is right now. Then Papa Smurf's voice calls out, telling Gargamel to leave that Smurf alone or he'll be sorry. The wizard sees the other Smurfs coming through the window and says that now he has the whole lot of them. He begins to chase after them, but it only serves as a distraction for Papa Smurf to mix up a little something while some Smurfs trip the evil wizard up. Then Papa Smurf has the mixture dumped right onto Gargamel's head, which coats him and causes him to freeze as it hardens around him.

After Clumsy is freed from his cage, Papa Smurf looks through Gargamel's spell book and finds the antidote to restore Clumsy to normal. He says that all the ingredients for the formula are right here, but the one thing he's lacking are three hairs from a cat's tail. Papa Smurf is looking for a brave Smurf that will volunteer to get those hairs from Azrael, but as most of the Smurfs just look at each other wondering which one will do so, Clumsy chooses to do that as he is the one who got the Smurfs into this mess. The other Smurfs decide they will help Clumsy, while Papa Smurf says he and some others will stay behind to start working on the antidote.

TheSmurf'sApprenticePromo

Promo for the episode on many DVD releases.

As the Smurfs with Clumsy go out into the forest to find Azrael, Clumsy thinks of a way to attract the cat's attention. Using a red cloth, he calls out Azrael's name, to which he responds by charging at the Smurf. Clumsy plays it out like a bullfighter, and then with Azrael's next charge he drops the cloth over the cat's face, causing him to blindly run into a hole in a tree where he gets stuck. The Smurfs cheer for Clumsy's bravery and success, which means getting the cat hairs will now be easy.

Back in Gargamel's castle, Clumsy gives the cat hairs to Papa Smurf to complete the antidote. Then Brainy warns Papa Smurf to hurry up because they can hear Gargamel start to loosen up. Soon the antidote is poured on Clumsy, and he is restored to his normal appearance. The Smurfs escape before Gargamel cracks his way through the glue and then goes out into the forest to find them, wondering where they could be. Then he sees some rustling in the bushes and goes over to pounce on his prey, only to find out that it's Azrael. He pounds his fists onto a tree in frustration, saying that it's not fair that he's bigger than the Smurfs and yet he can never win.

Back in the village, a few Smurfs are playing smurfball when Clumsy comes along with a basket of smurfberries and trips on a rock, spilling the smurfberries onto the other Smurfs. Clumsy apologizes for what he has done, but Hefty tells him that it's okay, and Handy tells him that they like him even if he is clumsy. Jokey offers Clumsy one of his "surprises" to show that they care about him, but as usual, when Clumsy opens it up, it explodes on him.

Trivia[]

  • This episode is based on the original comic book story of the same name, in which a Smurf named Alchemist plays the role that Clumsy plays in it.
  • On iTunes, which go by production order, feature this episode as the first. This implies this episode is the first chronological episode as this episode does not feature Smurfette.
    • In the production order, this is the first episode where Smurfette doesn't appear.
  • This seems to be the first episode in production order in which Jokey is voiced by June Foray. He is voiced by Ronnie Schell in the previous episode and the next.
  • In the syndicated Smurfs Adventures version, two scenes are cut: the scene with Papa Smurf warning the others of Clumsy's departure (causing them to feel bad about hurting his feelings) and the ending scene with Clumsy being accepted by the Smurfs (the cut version fades out after Gargamel and Azrael cry in frustration). Therefore, without these two important moments, the conflict between Clumsy and his fellow Smurfs is left sadly unresolved, especially considering how harsh they acted towards him in the beginning of the episode.
    • Unfortunately, the syndicated cut also ended up being used for international post-90s releases of the episode (including the UK and Australian DVDs of season 1, as well as Just Smurfy 1), as opposed to a majority of uncut episodes. However, the uncut version has been preserved in some countries, including TV airings in Germany (at least before the HD widescreen remaster airing on Disney Channel Germany), Italy and Poland, as well as DVD releases in Greece (which happen to use the original pre-90s unrestored foreign masters for their DVDs).
      • That being said, all official YouTube releases of this episode also use the international restoration of the syndicated cut.
      • On the other hand, the uncut version was restored twice in the USA: once in 2008 for Smurfs Season 1 Volume 1 on DVD, and again in 2020 for HBO Max.
    • The uncut version aired in America on Discovery Family which is actually the first time to feature the uncut version on live TV.
  • In some foreign markets, this episode is paired with the first part of Smurfette's origin episode.
  • This is one of the first three episodes in production order (this is the second); the first is "The Smurfette" and the third is "Vanity Fare".
  • In international countries, this episode was part of a theatrical compilation film, "Here Are the Smurfs", made around 1983 and 1984. The other episodes included were "The Astro Smurf", "The Hundredth Smurf", "Smurphony In 'C'", and "The Smurfs Springtime Special", and featured Papa Smurf (through voice-over) narrating the stories in-between said episodes.
  • On a photo on Clumsy’s wall, there is a white-bearded Smurf with a white hat. This is presumably Papa Smurf (though the animators may have miscolored it).

Goofs[]

  • The first half of the episode had the Smurfs drawn with off-model mistakes. Notable examples included having either bags under their eyes or their eyes being separated instead of joined.
  • Clumsy's hat switches between its usual droopy style to the average Smurf hat throughout the episode, making him bear strong resemblance to his comic book counterpart (prior to Smurfs: The Village Behind The Wall).
  • In the scene where Papa Smurf is warning the others of Clumsy's departure, Greedy is seen with an average Smurf hat, making him bear close resemblance to his original comic book counterpart.
  • Clumsy's arm turns blue when he gives Papa Smurf Azrael's hair.
  • When Clumsy tries to pick up Gargamel's spell book, which is on a table, it falls down on him. In the next shot where the book is on top of Clumsy, he's on the floor. In the next shot of Clumsy and the spell book back up against the wall, they're both on the table. In the shot where Gargamel discovers his spell book has a missing page, the book is on the floor.

Videos[]

Advertisement