The Tragedy of the Smurfs
My kids got the Smurfs movie for Christmas this year, and we watched it over the weekend. This was not as painful an experience as some of you might expect. Azrael the cat was entertaining, Hank Azaria does a decently cartoonish Gargamel, and I’m rather fond of Neil Patrick Harris.
This wasn’t a great movie, but it wasn’t as painful as some of the “let’s-cash-in-on-80s-nostalgia-with-a-live-action-cartoon-flick!” films.
But when you get down to it, this film is a tragedy that doesn’t know it’s a tragedy.
At one point, the humans are asking the Smurfs about their names, questions like “Are you named when you’re born and that determines your personality, or do they wait until you display a noteworthy trait then name you after that trait?” The Smurfs brushed it off.
Later, Grace asks Smurfette about her origins, and about being the only female in the entire village. Once again, this doesn’t really go anywhere. (Smurfette gets to buy a new dress, and says how nice it is to have a girlfriend at the end of the film, but that’s it … and of course, she immediately has to leave her only female friend!) See also: The Problem with Smurfs.
These are great questions. Powerful questions. Is a Smurf limited by his (or her) name? Can a Smurf ever move beyond the narrow definition of that one limiting trait? The movie starts to go there with Clumsy Smurf, showing his dreams of becoming a Hero and giving him a randomly impressive drum solo … but there’s no true follow-through. At the end of the movie, despite his accomplishments, he’s will always be Clumsy Smurf.
And that’s why the Smurfs are tragic figures. They’re trapped as one-dimensional characters in a 3D film, and the worst part is that they know it. Smurfette knows she’s alone. Clumsy yearns to be different. The Smurfs do occasionally try to move beyond the confines of their names — Grouchy gets sentimental with a green M&M, Clumsy has one heroic moment at the end — but then they’re yanked back from the brink of freedom.
Imagine what that must feel like, to be forced into a single role at birth, a role that not only defines what you’ll do for the rest of your life, but what you’ll be. Trapped. Unchanging. Your name is a black hole, and no matter how hard you try, you’ll never escape its pull. And then to see in humans a freedom that you yourself will never know.
That’s the true dystopian horror of the Smurfs.
Stephen A. Watkins
January 17, 2012 @ 10:10 am
What’s interesting/funny about your analysis is that there’s been a lot of thought around the idea that the Smurfs are symbolic of Communism. As a kid, of course, that sort of claptrap wouldn’t have changed the fact that I enjoyed following their adventures (although in hindsight what appealed to me about the Smurfs has been better addressed by other animated series since… mostly that’s the fantasy milieu of the Smurfs, and the world of the Smurfs doesn’t stand up very well to adult scrutiny and modern fantasy tastes). Still… what you describe would be a dystopic horror for most humans, and I think that fact is at the root of the Smurfs = Communism criticism.
Jim C. Hines
January 17, 2012 @ 10:14 am
Wait, I thought it was the Muppets who were communist. I’m so confused!
Stephen A. Watkins
January 17, 2012 @ 10:27 am
Well, clearly, Muppets (being puppets as they are) are under the control of communist Smurf puppeteers (Papa Smurf = Puppet Smurf? Notice the similarity.) Ergo ipso facto quod est demonstrandum (or whatever). 🙂
mattw
January 17, 2012 @ 10:27 am
“Imagine what that must feel like, to be forced into a single role at birth, a role that not only defines what you’ll do for the rest of your life, but what you’ll be. Trapped. Unchanging. Your name is a black hole, and no matter how hard you try, you’ll never escape its pull. And then to see in humans a freedom that you yourself will never know.”
I smell a horror movie in which the smurfs start killing humans because they are jealous of the freedoms the humans have. The trailer would show furtive, shadowy glimpses of tiny forms trailing someone through their house at night, and would end with a creepy version of that “La la” song they do.
Jim C. Hines
January 17, 2012 @ 10:32 am
“Hi, I’m Serial Killer Smurf, and this is my friend Torture Smurf.”
I wonder if they sing because it’s the only way to stave off the madness…
Aníbal E. Quiñones
January 17, 2012 @ 12:41 pm
Now you know why they’re blue.
Michele Lee
January 17, 2012 @ 3:27 pm
My daughter asked me “If Smurfs are named after what things they’re good at, why is Smurfette names Smurfette. Is being a girl all that’s special about her?”
So I gave her the long answer, the the short one. Both come down to bad/lazy writing.
Melissa Mead
January 17, 2012 @ 5:57 pm
What bugged me in the original was that, IIRC, Smurfette started out as a rather plain brunette Pandora whom nobody liked. Then she got magically turned blonde and became sweet and coy and all the boys loved her.
Jim C. Hines
January 17, 2012 @ 7:01 pm
That matches my recollection of Smurfette’s origin, yep. She was an evil-Smurf made by Gargamel for some scheme or another, and Papa Smurf “redeemed” her by blondeificating her hair.
Lori
January 18, 2012 @ 2:17 pm
I hadn’t thought about all that you pointed out. I had just enjoyed the movie with my girls, remembering watching the Smurfs when I was little. I had always thought it was strange that Smurfette was the only girl. I must have missed the episode where she turned from being a spy to being a member of the community. In saying all that, I really enjoyed your analysis of the movie.
However, I disagree with your conclusion that Smurfs are so different from humans. Many people are judged by aspects they cannot control. I have two Caucasian friends who have what sound like African American names. They often receive odd looks when they say their names or are asked rudely why they got their names.
Also, humans often peg others into holes based on surface aspects of themselves. One form is racism. We judge a black man in a white neighborhood as either a possible criminal or a wealthy man who has only been lucky enough to live in such a neighborhood (the Bill Cosby syndrome).
Also, we judge people by their ages. We see an elderly person and either talk to them like they are senile before they even say a word or ignore them altogether, as if they did not exist.
As your other post also indicated, we judge men and women by their looks. A beautiful woman who is a high ranking professional is often assumed to have slept her way to the top. Meanwhile a short man is seen as annoying if he acts like his larger counterparts.
Maybe you were using allegory to talk about the human condition and I took your article too literally. Either way, thanks for allowing me to have a forum to spew my thoughts while I am between clients.
Jim C. Hines
January 18, 2012 @ 3:03 pm
Always happy to provide time and space for mental spewing! 🙂
It’s certainly true that people get judged based on a single trait, and I don’t disagree with the things you’re pointing out. The distinction is that the Smurfs, from everything we’ve seen, are inherently limited to that one trait. It’s not that people look at Clumsy Smurf and judge him for being clumsy; it’s that he’s incapable of ever being or becoming anything else.
liz
January 18, 2012 @ 11:02 pm
I haven’t seen the movie yet. But I’m actually surprised that you didn’t mention how they have taken the Smurfs from being high fantasy to low fantasy (high or low =/= more or less quality). Meaning they’ve changed the Smurfs from being in their own separate universe/fantasyland and brought them to our world. ie: Lord of the Rings is high fantasy while Harry Potter is low fantasy to use two popular examples. What do you think about this?
Jim C. Hines
January 19, 2012 @ 7:44 am
Actually, they’ve done it as a portal fantasy, transporting the Smurfs from their separate fantasyland into our world and back.
liz
January 19, 2012 @ 6:46 pm
ahhh. I see. I might be able to accept that 😉 If I see it starting on tv, I’ll give it a shot. You’re analysis seems like it might not be horrible.
cpierson
January 20, 2012 @ 11:58 am
It reminds me of a lot of Tolkien’s nomenclature, to be honest. Take Arvedui of Arthedain, for instance. His name means “last king.” How does it feel to live your life with _that_ name? Or Hama, whose name means “dwelling” in Old English, and who ends up the king’s doorwarden. Or Grima, for that matter, whose name means “mask.” How do you not end up the duplicitous advisor when your name means that instead of “spear-wolf” or “war-friend”? Similarly, Lindir and Gleowine, the two most prominent named minstrels in LOTR, basically mean “music guy” in Sindarin and Rohirric, respectively. And assorted old folks (Gamling, Ioreth) have the word “old” already in their name, presumably since birth, which is damn weird.
Makes you wonder if there’s some guy working in the sewers of Minas Tirith who really, REALLY hates his name.
Monday various « occasional fish
January 23, 2012 @ 6:36 pm
[…] The Tragedy of the Smurfs: Imagine what that must feel like, to be forced into a single role at birth, a role that not only defines what you’ll do for the rest of your life, but what you’ll be. Trapped. Unchanging. Your name is a black hole, and no matter how hard you try, you’ll never escape its pull. And then to see in humans a freedom that you yourself will never know. […]
Margaret
January 26, 2012 @ 1:37 pm
“Imagine what that must feel like, to be forced into a single role at birth, a role that not only defines what you’ll do for the rest of your life, but what you’ll be. Trapped. Unchanging. Your name is a black hole, and no matter how hard you try, you’ll never escape its pull. And then to see in humans a freedom that you yourself will never know.”
Frankly, that’s far too real to be fantasy, i.e., you’ve hit on a basic truth that fuels numerous forms of social bias.
Margaret
January 26, 2012 @ 3:43 pm
“Makes you wonder if there’s some guy working in the sewers of Minas Tirith who really, REALLY hates his name.”
Maybe he doesn’t hate it because his name precludes him from thinking there’s something wrong with it (or himself). I always appreciate authors who’ve done enough character development homework as to root their naming schemes in something deeper than randomly grabbing what their finger lands on when they flip through ‘10,000 Best Baby Names.’ Albus, Rubeus, and Severus, their connections to alchemical transformation, all in context of the Philosopher’s Stone — another excellent example.