Los pitufos

I am in my 40's and loved to watch the Smurfs when it was on. I see all the new stuff on Saturday mornings now, and just shutter to think that some parents allow their kids to watch. Smurfs had good story lines that taught respect and good values to our children. I wish they would make more toons like the Smurfs!

There's no competition there. This is THE series of my childhood. I considered myself the biggest fan ever. I bought every kind of Smurfs merchandise I could afford and even dressed up as Papa Smurf at Purim (the Jewish equivalent of Halloween).

The series was cute without pushing it. The Smurfs were charming and adorable. The storyline were child friendly, but still clever and inventive. I will never forget my favorite episode where a spooky mosquito bites a smurf and turns him to a purple zombie who then bites other smurfs, turning them all to zombies one by one. It was quite spooky and the climax was better than many horror-thriller movies I've seen. Classic magical stuff.

*Sigh* Today's series are either too quirky or too mushy.

Anyone who flipped on cartoons from 1981-1989, or was under 10 in those years, knows The Smurfs. It's as standard as Superfriends, and just as Hanna Barbara -esque. As such, you'll never not see it on Cartoon Network.

Still a good percentage of the classical music I know I first met through the background music on The Smurfs.

Retrospectively, the thing that amazes me the most was how much of a springboard it was for all the actors involved. Click on any name above, and you'll see that almost every character is still making major features. You'll recognize those whom they became. Azrael was the voice of the Martians on Mars Attacks! and Bandit on Johnny Quest. Gargamel became Dick Dastardly. Vanity Smurf was Skeletor. Papa Smurf was the same as Droopy Dog.

Basically, everyone who ever touched this show became an industry-standard in voice-overs.

I used to love The Smurfs when I was a kid. They were a true highlight. I've been hearing lots of stuff lately that they were socialists and all the stuff about stereotyping, but I think that's digging in a bit too deep. The show was obviously aimed at kids. What do kids care about such things? I didn't. I thought the Smurfs were cute and the episodes were all good. For some reason, I've never been able to get such episodes as "The Purple Smurfs" and "Forget-Me-Smurf" out of my mind. Those episodes made huge impact on me. I think every kid would be enchanted by these little blue creatures. I loved them.

*** out of ****

I'm really surprised when I see that so few user comments on such a hallmark show. To me the Smurfs defined the 80's. And most importantly, it was what a cartoon should be - plain and simple fun, a touch of morale lessons and most importantly, very little violence.

When you consider other cartoons that were popular in the 80's like Thunder Cats, the Smurfs come out way up ached, in all departments. What makes the Smurfs more interesting than its counterparts is the fact that it also was intellectual, not just a shallow action adventure cartoon, so even grownups can have fun watching it.

If you ever get a chance to watch it, don't miss it.

Trust me.