Review: The Smurfs “Unsmurfable Smile/Mind the Cat”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Smurfette and Blossom try to make Grouchy smile by taking him on a camping trip. Gargamel falls under the mind control of Azrael, and the Smurfs must set him free.

Our Take:

There’s no need to be grouchy. Do you want to know why? Because we got ourselves another batch of smurfy adventures that’ll put a smile on our faces and make us purr like a cat.

The first episode, “Unsmurfable Smile”, centers on Smurfette and Blossom putting every Smurf in a good mood with a smile. Well, every Smurf except Grouchy, who hates smiling as much as he hates everything else. The girls decided to take Grouchy on a camping trip with Papa, Handy, and Hefty to see if they could make him smile. They tried singing, sharing ghost stories, and even zip-lining, but none of them worked. Their camping trip ended with Grouchy hurting his leg and attempting to carry him back to Smurf Village, but not before he showed off a big smile when he saw a great view in the sky. The episode proved that the show takes place after Smurfs: The Lost Village by reintroducing the viewers to Blossom, one of the female Smurfs that the characters encountered in the film. While it didn’t take advantage of Grouchy’s origin, as explained by Papa, it’s a fun trip that’s full of charm and features plenty of good slapstick humor. The Smurfs’ attempts at getting Grouchy out of the canyon with a seesaw were gleefully hysterical.

Its second episode, “Mind the Cat”, also had some enjoyable moments that’ll surely put its viewers under its control. It represents Brainy and Smurfette using Papa Smurf’s Hypno Glasses to hypnotize Scaredy Smurf into not being afraid of anything, including a vicious bear. Smurfette later came up with a plan to use the glasses on Gargamel and order him not to chase the Smurfs. Unfortunately, the plan quickly went awry when Azrael became the ruler of his master’s mind. So it’s up to Brainy to help Gargamel break free of the cat’s control. This episode fits Gargamel’s screen time well since the previous episode put him in an unnecessary situation with the Smurf robot. Even though I prefer Hank Azaria and Rainn Wilson from the films, I thought Mark Irons still did pretty well voicing the self-centered, villainous wizard. Other than that, it’s another good scenario where Azrael finally gets revenge against his master’s negligence.

Overall, both of these episodes provided enough smiles and hypnosis to continue the show’s charming reputation. The camping episode was a fun series of attempts to make the grouchiest Smurf smile. The Hypno Glasses storyline delivered plenty of innocence and slapstick in Azrael making a pet out of Gargamel. If those stories aren’t enough to get someone to smile, I don’t know what will.