La Flûte à six schtroumpfs

Hello from Barcelona. Yes, this is a great movie. The smurfs don't appear until minute 35 or so but never mind. Johan and Pewee characters are lovely and we know they will meet smurfs later so never mind. The film is 74 minutes long, not 89. Michel Legrand songs are really beautiful and brilliant. All children will love this film and many not so children... Smurfs are drawn much better than the terrific Hanna-Barbera cartoon shows. Here they are just smurfs as they must be, not some kind of bad project bad drown and with no gracefulness. We see Peyo WAS in this movie. If you know the book of this film then you must watch this it. I wonder why it doesn't exist on DVD. There are some smurfs official DVD's in France but this movie is not available yet and I don't understand why if this is the only smurf film ever. I think you can find it in USA, UK, France, Germany, Belgium and Netherlands, but always in VHS format. In some countries it is long deleted since lots of years ago but easy to find in eBAY for example. It's nearly impossible to find in Spain 'cause it was only for rent. In Catalonia there are the catalan version which is just adorable. So...we want this movie on DVD today!! And you must watch it right now!! Joan from Barcelona

Though only 17 years since I've known of it, I thought I'd commemorate the 25th(!) anniversary of the film by revisiting my childhood memories of it. Being a kid of the 80's, the Smurfs was one of the cartoons I grew up on. Apparrently they've been around since the late 50's and made it to the big screen in 1976 with this Belgium feature. I still remember saying "Mom, why are their voices different than on the tv show?" Today is still puzzles me. If this was dubbed for American audiences two years after the show premiered, why did they not go with the tv voices? Still don't know. And also, the voices we do get all seem to be echoing somewhat, with the exception of Papa Smurf. And there is no Smurfette. Or Gargamuel. Or Azreal. But it doesn't hurt the film at all, as the Smurfs are secondary anyway. They don't even show up until 25 minutes in! And aren't even really seen until 35 minutes in! But when the Land of the Smurfs is reached, it's guilty pleasure time, for me at least. The three dopey songs featured are somehow extremely catchy. The one explaining how the Smurfs tell each other apart. Then later it's human character Pee-Wee trying to make out the Smurf language. Capped off by "We're the Smurfs, la, la!" The main story concerns the title instrument, which makes people dance upon hearing it. It's stolen by a villian named McCreep, who robs people by playing the flute, which causes them to be unable to defend themselves. They dance about and he makes off with their gold. The flute was created by the Smurfs, so a prince and a short, excitable musician from a royal court are recruited in tracking down the Smurfs for help. Harmless fun for kids, and I still get a kick out of it today. The animation if fair for a 25 year old movie, as the real star for me was Pee-Wee. So, give it a shot for youngsters or have fun taking yourself back in seeing it for the first time in awhile.

The Smurfs and the Magic Flute

Earning money with a musical instrument is possible on the right subway platform.

Mind you, the musician in this animated movie is making money through magic.

When the king's jester Peewit (Cameron Clarke) gets a hold of a magical flute that can make people spontaneously dance when played, he attracts the attention of a merchant McCreep (Mike Reynolds), who steals the wind instrument to rob villagers.

Now, Peewit and a knight's squire named Johan must use a wizard's spell in order to convene with the mystical blue-skinned forest creatures that first forged the flute if they hope to change McCreep's tune.

Written and directed by the Smurf's creator Peyo, this 1976 hand-drawn feature from Belgium set the standard of what would go on to become the 1980s Saturday morning cartoon phenomenon; mostly because it feels like three episodes pieced together.

Incidentally, when Smurf's hear the magic flute played they turn rabid.

Green Light

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With this title, you would expect the movie to be about the smurfs, but in fact they only appear in the second half of the movie. The actual main characters are Johan and Pirlouit, the heroes of a different comic book series by the same creator (Peyo), which are much less well-known internationally. In fact the English dubs renames them as a generic John and William. I gather this was the first appearance in film of the smurfs, and they were not yet famous. Anyway, this was a decent movie that never trascended its target audience. Little kids should enjoy it, but for adults it does not have much to offer, although certain moments and details are funny, and it has decent songs and animation. I did enjoy Johan and Pirlouit more than the smurfs, who are tiny and cute but a bit tiresome with their insistence of substituting every verb with "smurf" when they speak.

The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1975) is the second movie in the Smurfs franchise and it was very average.

Positives for The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1975): The animation in this movie looks pretty good and is a nice update from the 1960's movie. The Smurfs are still fun characters to watch on screen. The human characters were a nice addition and their interactions with the Smurfs were fun. And finally, I watched this movie for free on YouTube.

Negatives for The Smurfs and the Magic Flute,(1975): The Smurfs are barely in the movie and this movie has them as the title characters. The movie spends too much time on the human characters and they aren't even the reason to watch this movie. The magic flute doesn't really play a major part in the story and is just a random item for the humans to play with. And finally, this movie feels like it was supposed to be something different, only for the Smurfs to be added in at the last minute.

Overall, The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1975) is a fine animated movie from the 1970's, but it barely qualifies as a Smurfs movie.