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"The Smurfs And The Money Tree" is a Season 1 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.

Characters

Synopsis

Gargamel and his Mummy send the money tree to the Smurfs to cause greed among them, and Greedy is the first that finds it.

Plot Summary

Devilsmurf

Devil Smurf from "The Smurfs And The Money Tree"!

Gargamel, who is busy sleeping in his bed dreaming of capturing all the Smurfs, hears a pounding on the door of his castle and angrily tells whoever is knocking on the door to go away. But the person behind the door opens it, revealing herself to be his mother, who has come to give her son a hard time about him not being able to catch the Smurfs. Deciding to offer Gargamel help whether he wants it or not, Gargamel's mother looks through one of his books to find a weakness in the Smurfs that she could exploit and comes across a page where it says that they share and share alike, having no use for money. Believing that one of the Smurfs must have a speck of greediness in him, she pulls out of her bag a plant that looks like an aged dandelion, calling it her "ultimate Smurf-smashing formula". Joining with her son in reciting an incantation, Gargamel's mother sends the flower drifting toward the Smurf Village, where it lands outside of Greedy's window and plants itself in the ground, immediately growing into a bush.

As morning dawns and Greedy wakes up to eating his pies, he smells something delicious right outside his window. He goes outside and sees a bush full of golden coins, each one having his face right on it. He unwraps one of the coins, revealing it to be a confectionery of some sort, and gives it a taste. It is so delicious that Greedy decides to gather them all up and share them with the rest of the Smurfs -- until a small red devil Smurf shows up, calling himself "the real you" to Greedy, telling him that he shouldn't waste those goodies on his friends when a famine could hit, leaving him with no food. Fearful of that scenario, Greedy collects all the golden goodies from the bush and brings them into his house.

But soon, the scent of the golden goodies travels through the village, tempting the noses of the other Smurfs who are at this point practicing the Dance Of 100 Smurfs with Harmony bugling away. They all follow the scent to Greedy's house and see that they are coming from the golden coins he has. Hefty politely asks if they could have some, which Greedy is willing to give until the devil Smurf tells him that they'll take him for every goodie he has, making him decide to not give them away. Disappointed, the other Smurfs try again, asking if they could have at least a bite. Greedy still feels compelled to comply when the devil Smurf tells him why he should give them something for nothing, which Greedy also tells his fellow Smurfs. They all walk out of his house, wondering why Greedy is so greedy all of a sudden.

Some of the Smurfs, however, are willing to take up Greedy on offering something for a golden goodie, like Harmony, who goes back to his house offering a pot of smurfberries for one of the goodies. As Greedy is ready to accept the trade, the devil Smurf tells him to go for what is more valuable to Harmony: his horn. Harmony becomes fearful when Greedy asks for his horn in trade, but more fearful of what he could stand to lose by not going along with the deal, he gives up the horn to Greedy and gains a golden goodie. The devil Smurf congratulates Greedy for what he's done and tells him that as long as he sticks with him, Greedy will become a rich Smurf.

Soon, Papa Smurf sees Handy racing with his tools and tries to stop him, saying that he needs repairs on his roof. Handy tells Papa Smurf that he's going to trade his tools to Greedy for two golden goodies. This makes Papa Smurf curious as he heads toward Greedy's, but as he does, he runs into Brainy, who is without his glasses, whom Papa Smurf finds out has traded them for a golden goodie. As Papa Smurf confronts Greedy, his nose is also tempted by the smell of the golden goodie, so he asks if he could try one of them to see if they were all right. The devil Smurf tells Greedy to milk Papa Smurf for all he's got, causing Greedy to take the golden goodie away from Papa Smurf, telling him he must pay for it. This makes Papa Smurf turn up his nose in disgust and walk away. Greedy didn't like seeing Papa Smurf go away upset, but the devil Smurf tells him that soon he'll own everything, and people will be taking orders from him now.

Meanwhile, a group of Smurfs are gathered outside, ready to enjoy their golden goodies. As they do, they find out how fast the enjoyment was, and how they were now left with nothing on hand to do anything with: Handy has no tools, Jokey has no surprises, Hefty has no weights, and Farmer doesn't have a scarecrow. They go back to Greedy's house and ask him if they could have their things back. Greedy is ready to consider doing so, but the devil Smurf tells him to tell them that a deal is a deal, that they can't have them back. This makes the other Smurfs realize how more valuable things were to Greedy than his friends, and they all leave his house, leaving Greedy with no friends but with all their possessions, which he tries to make use of, but to a complete lack of success.

Soon, tiring of trying to entertain himself with his friends' things, Greedy looks outside his window to see his fellow Smurfs playing a game with a pinecone. He realizes from what he sees them do that they didn't need things to have fun, and that neither does he need them. So Greedy decides to give everything back to his friends. The devil Smurf protests and Greedy attempts to swat him to get rid of him. The devil Smurf disappears when Papa Smurf shows up and Greedy tells him what happened. Papa Smurf sensed from Greedy being generous again that Gargamel must have been behind the golden goodie bush in the first place, so he advises Greedy to continue to be generous. The devil Smurf becomes so upset when he sees Greedy return all his friends' possessions to them that he disappears back into the golden goodie bush that he came from. Papa Smurf then decides to "repay Gargamel's generosity" by returning the bush back to him.

Back at Gargamel's castle, his mother tries to keep his son's spirits up by telling him her greed spell will take care of the nasty little Smurfs once and for all, when they hear a knocking at the door. Gargamel's mother answers it and sees the golden goodie bush right outside. Fearful, she tells her son to close the door, but the scent of the goodies has lured him toward the bush, and soon it also lures his mother as well, causing the two of them to fight over who gets the golden coins. Greedy, who is one of the Smurfs watching this scene, is glad to see the golden goodies go back to where it belongs, saying that he now feels like the richest Smurf.

Trivia

  • This was the first episode that introduced the character of Gargamel's mother, also referred to as "Mummy".
  • A similar story appears in the comic books called "The Finance Smurf", in which a Smurf character introduces a capitalist monetary system in the Smurf Village, which ends up making him wealthy at the cost of his fellow Smurfs and leaves him lonely for their presence as they end up leaving him.
  • The Dance Of 100 Smurfs was last featured in the episode "The Hundredth Smurf". The difference of this episode and that one is that Smurfette can be seen and this takes place in the morning, not the night.
  • This episode marks the first appearance of Tailor, though he doesn't speak until his second appearance in The Smurfs Springtime Special.

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