I SPY: a Village Three Apples High!

Pop Quiz! What blue skinned alien race living in peace with nature, but hounded by humans is featured in a blockbuster movie next summer? If you said the Na'vi from James Cameron's Avatar you're close - but wrong.

Side note: some critics see Avatar as a thinly veiled retelling of Pocahontas, but Saturday Morning cartoon fans know Cameron really cribbed from Hanna Barbara cartoons*.

The appropriate answer for the pop quiz is the Smurfs - the cutesy, animated azure-skinned,"three apples high" characters made popular by cartoons in the 1980's, recently revived for the silver screen in 2011.


The similarities between Smurfs and Na'vi are deeper than the blue tint. Both live inside plants - Na'vi in tree top cabanas, Smurfs in Mushroom cottages. Where the Na'vi were hunted by a corporate military pursuing Unobtainium, the Smurfs were chased by the gold hunting wizard Gargamel.

Besides the Smurf's decidedly (near) all-male review and homogeneous look the biggest cultural difference from Cameron's Na'vi are the Smurf personalities. Smurfs are defined by one trait, attribute, possession or skill. For instance:

Biking Smurf

or Viking Smurf.

Of course, Gargamel never catches the Smurfs because their village is hidden and appears like Brigadoon, only every so often. So we were surprised to stumble upon it while pedaling down the Cedar Lake Trail last week:


The non-stop rain brought forth a shantytown of Smurfs.



Rows of fungus towers, shacks and bungalows dotted the otherwise empty field.


A Mushroom Metropolis, filled with dainty, dancing, free spirited Smurfs.


So of course, like any fiscally conscientious person stuck in a recession I got to thinking: all my problems are solved! I'll catch a few and turn them into gold. So I rounded up a few, and despite their high pitched squealing dropped them in simmering pot. Turns out the joke was on me.


Newsflash: The cartoon lied. Perhaps I lacked the proper cauldron, or maybe Gargamel had better alchemical insight but merely boiling Smurfs does not turn them into gold - rather, they make a fine gooey, blue paste.

Still, when life gives you lemons - or in this case, paste and mushrooms, well, I was determined to make the best of a bad situation.

Smurf Pizza anyone?

*Parts of this story may have been dramatized...