For many people born in the 1970s and 1980s, the cartoon "Smurfs" is an integral part of their childhood memories. After entering the 21st century, this lively theme song "There is a group of Smurfs in the forest and the sea..." has become a nostalgic object for a generation.
With this nostalgic mood, I casually browsed the information related to "The Smurfs" on the Internet, trying to find a little memory of my childhood. However, completely unexpected, I found a lot of very interesting things. It turned out that the English name of "The Smurfs" is "Smurf". It was created by the famous Belgian cartoonist Peyo and is a cartoon series that enjoys considerable popularity around the world. This is probably another major contribution of Belgium, a small country, to the world's comic and cartoon culture, in addition to "The Adventures of Tintin".
Peyo was born in Brussels, Belgium in 1928. His real name was Pierre Culliford. He was a columnist cartoonist in his early years. Around 1958, he created the image of the Smurfs in his comic strip, and because it was very popular with the audience, he developed a series of comic strips with the Smurfs as the protagonist on this basis. The 1960s and 1970s were the most popular period for the Smurfs in Europe (mainly in the French-speaking and Dutch-speaking regions). Around the same time, the Smurfs were also made into black-and-white and color cartoons. In the early 1980s, the Smurfs hit the American screen with great success. Soon after, the Smurfs invaded China and have since become the growing companion of a generation of teenagers in the 1970s and 1980s.
These are just a little history of the Smurfs, nothing particularly interesting per se. What's really interesting is some of the interpretations of the Smurfs story and content -- especially, there's a market for that interpretation.
The heyday of The Smurfs in Europe was in the 1960s and 1970s. As we all know, this was the time when the left-wing movement in Western Europe was in full swing. At that time, many Western European intellectuals were still deeply attracted by various forms of socialism and communism. It is said that the cartoon "The Smurfs" also bears a certain imprint of the era of socialism and communism. Some even suspect that "The Smurfs" is the author's special means of promoting communism and utopian ideas: the author hopes to use the unobtrusive form of children's literature to achieve his lofty political goals. Because the object of the cartoon "The Smurfs" is mainly children, it may be that our painter hopes to instill some kind of communist ideal in the growing sun at eight or nine o'clock, and secretly carry out revolutionary education to the dolls. There are also good people who point out that the so-called Smurf essentially implies the Soviet/Socialist Men Under Red Father (Soviet/Socialist people under the leadership of the Red Father). The elf's name is Schtroumpf, and Smurf is just a later English translation.
Without analysing the content of The Smurfs, it is probably impossible to understand why it received this "charge". But once I analyze it patiently, I will find that there are some elements of communist utopia in the cartoon. What surprises me is the interpretation of "The Smurfs" by some people, which I think is quite reasonable.
First of all, some characters in the film are considered to be consciously or unintentionally alluding to real-life political figures.
Blue Daddy = Karl
Marx The head of the Smurf village is the wise "Blue Daddy". He is more than 500 years old, and through his rich experience, experience, knowledge and wisdom, he leads the whole team of basketball spirits. He has the status of a spiritual leader, like the "Godfather" of the Basket Elf Village, who can often save the little Smurfs from the big villain Guggu at the most critical moment, so he has the nature of a "savior". In addition, it is not difficult to see from the picture that in addition to having the same iconic beard as Marx, Dad Blue also wears a big red hat. In Europe at the time, red was traditionally considered the new color of the left-wing socialist movement. So the blue dad is the leader of the communist movement insinuating.
Cong Cong = Trotsky Cong Cong,
known as "a pen in the village", may secretly project Trotsky, a historical figure in the Communist movement. Cong Cong also has the same round eyes as Toshi, and is a faithful believer/apprentice of Blue Dad (Marx).
The village where the Smurfs live has an obvious utopian nature. It is a communal society with public ownership of property, collective labor, and economic self-sufficiency. Each Smurf has its own responsibilities and special functions (such as cooks, carpenters, scholars, musicians, poets, etc.), honestly working in their respective positions for the entire village. There is no such thing as a commodity economy in the village, and under the leadership of the blue father, the village is unified in production and consumption, living an egalitarian communal life, and has no external contacts, which belongs to its own self-sufficient closed planned economy.
The Smurfs all wore the same clothes, with the exception of the big brother "Daddy Blue" who wore a red dress with a distinctive logo, and everyone else wore a white hat and white pants that looked like a uniform. This uniform dress itself is a denial of the individual self, or downplaying, and instead emphasizes the importance of the collective. Except for the difference in occupation, most of the Smurfs are the same (except for a few, such as Jianjian, who have a heart tattoo on their arms), and all Smurfs are male except for the blue sister.
The emphasis on collectivity is a particularly necessary part of this communal community life, otherwise there will be no stability and unity, no unity to look forward, and no harmonious society.
In one episode of the story, a gold-standard currency system was introduced into the village at one point, under the leadership of an elf. The Smurfs discovered that everything had to be bought with money; some elves couldn't get jobs because of their abilities; greed, corruption, and inequality began to flourish. Guggu also coveted the Smurfs' gold coins, causing an alien crisis. In the end, under the wise leadership of Dad Lan, he gave up this currency system and returned to the original commune life. Money is seen as the root of all evil.
The GGU represents the evil capitalist system (or bourgeoisie/capitalist). This man was greedy, thinking about how to seek personal gain, thinking about how to use the Smurfs to meet his own needs. Gegwu is black all over, with black eyes and black hair. In the cultural context of Western Europe, he looks like a Jew with strong Jewish characteristics. And the stereotype of Jews is that they are greedy, materialistic, familiar with money manipulation, and mostly engaged in business and finance. The Aziz cat is the object of Guggu's enslavement. It has no discernment ability, but only blindly obeys. It is attached to Gegu and is a minion. It has been pointed out that the name Aziz itself is also Jewish (sounding like a Hebrew name).
The GRU represents a bourgeois force, a major danger to the Smurfs communist community. As long as such bourgeois forces exist, "war is inevitable". One of the main lines of the Smurfs story is the contest between the Smurfs (communist society) under the leadership of Father Smurf (Marx) and the evil bourgeois exploiting class GGU. This is a contest between black and white, good and evil. It is a fundamental struggle between two forces, two classes.
It can be seen that the cartoon "The Smurfs" does represent a certain idealism and a yearning for a certain way of life. The author does not necessarily consciously shape his image according to the actual system or person - everything may be done quietly and unconsciously. Perhaps somehow, his political ideas and ideals influenced his own creations.
The extent to which this cartoon instills this utopian ideal in the children who watch it is unknown.
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