The Smurfs movie

[Game Girl]

Now, I've loved the Smurfs since I was a child. It was one of my favorite shows as a little girl. So, when I heard they were making a movie, I was skeptical.

It reminded me of that day I went to see "Dragonball Evolution". Being a DBZ fantard, I thought it would be good.

It sucked...It didn't just suck..IT SUCKED TO EPIC PROPORTIONS!! IT'S AN ABOMINATION OF THE DRAGONBALL NAME!! IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE EXISTED!!!

*coughs*

Anywho...So, against my better judgement, I went to see The Smurfs at my local cinema. I expected to be disappointed and once again have my childhood savagely raped.

The movie was actually....GOOD?! Holy crap...Hollywood....DIDN'T SCREW UP THIS TIME!

Seriously, I really enjoyed the movie. Sure, it's your typical "mythical creatures from old times comes to present day America" thing. But I think they pulled it off really well. The animation was great, the characters were believable...and it DID feel like part of the Smurfs franchise.

If you haven't seen it yet, I'd totally recommend it, especially if you watched the Smurfs growing up.

(Yeah yeah, I know the whole "Smurfs were communits" thing already. Lets NOT make a political debate of my childhood, plz.)

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Haven't seen the movie and do not have much intention of seeing it but I suppose it is good that they didn't mess up.

Don't politicize your childhood? But where is the fun in that? :lol:

[¿Que?]

The smurfs WERE communist because everyone knows communists are just a bunch of guys doing everything an old bearded guy says, and hanging out with like one girl.

[EvilRedGuy]

The creator of the original The Smurfs was (a Marxist) or was atleast influenced by Marxism.

Anyways, i strongly disagree, it was crap. But no worries there still the old dragonball and the old smurfs series.:cool:

[Rafiq]

The smurfs were Utopian Socialist reactionaries.

[Pirate Utopian]

I've always hated the Smurfs. The movie looks obnoxiously annoying.

Plus if the Smurfs were anything they were fascists.

[EvilRedGuy]

Just like you...

anyways i agree that the movie looks annoying.

[PhoenixAsh]

http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2134627&postcount=5


I am going to see it either way

[Susurrus]

http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2134627&postcount=5


I am going to see it either way

Yeah, but his facial expression looks a lot more like Stalin's than Marx's.

[Game Girl]

Plus if the Smurfs were anything they were fascists.

How so?

[Astarte]

The smurfs were an anarcho-communist village with long held-over ancient tribal polyandrous tendencies. The purpose of these polyandrous tendencies, i.e. Smurfette being the only female Smurf, was to keep the over all Smurf population low as to protect primitive communist institutions of classlessness by combating a growing population. Infanticide probably occurred in the Smurfs' pre-history.

[PhoenixAsh]

Smurfette was not the only female in the village. We have Sassette too. And granny. They came later...just like smurfette.

Smurfs are magical creatures....and there were originally a fixed number of smurfs.

Wiki states this:


The Smurfs' community (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commune) generally takes the form of a cooperative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative), sharing, and kind environment based on the principle that each Smurf has something he or she is good at, and thus contributes it to Smurf society as he or she can. In return, each Smurf appears to be given their necessities of life, from housing and clothes to food without using any money (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money) in exchange.

[Astarte]

Still though, thats like three female Smurfs to probably like 12 or so male Smurfs - there must have been polyandrous activity going on. Also, as for the explanation of them being magical creatures, and the need to maintain a fixed population - I think that is just how they explain their practice of ritualistic infanticide when there are too many females being born. Perhaps they simply abandon them somewhere for the likes of Gargamel - I honestly don't know for sure, but what I do know is the conventional explanations don't add up.

[Pirate Utopian]

How so?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Smurfs

They're a racially homogenous society with traditional genderroles and one unquestioned leader who everyone gladly obeys like the sycophants they are. The Smurfs is also anti-intellectual in their constant violence against that one smurf who has glasses who is a stereotypical nerdy intellectual.

The only smurf who has hair is Smurfette who is obviously "aryan".

The Smurfs town has no immigration and is very hermetic, nobody even knows where it is.

Also Gargamel is pretty much an antisemetic charicature of the "greedy jew". His cat's name is Azreal, pretty close to Israel.

PLUS! They all wear white pointed hats and their grandwizard, papa smurf, wears a red pointed hat. Just like the KKK.

Not that I take it that seriously, I'm just talking shit, but if you were to see any politics at all in the smurfs, it's fascism...

[Astarte]

Not sure how it could be considered fascism. You can hardly compare Papa Smurf's unquestioned authority with that of a fascist dictator's since he really has no coercive authority behind him, and I have never really seen him hording the produces of the other Smurfs - and there are especially no big capitalist financiers who's interests he is defending.

He is more like the tribal chieftain Engels speaks about in Origins of the Family - his power is based on the collective respect of the entire classless (where is there exploitation of Smurf by Smurf?) community.

Also their hats are not so much like that of the KKK - but more like, if not exactly like, the old revolutionary Liberty Caps. :D

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x103/morffy/liberty-cap.jpg

[PhoenixAsh]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Smurfs

They're a racially homogenous society with traditional genderroles and one unquestioned leader who everyone gladly obeys like the sycophants they are. The Smurfs is also anti-intellectual in their constant violence against that one smurf who has glasses who is a stereotypical nerdy intellectual.

Actually...they do not have traditional gender roles. Since they did not have females untill smurfette was created by Gargamel.

That in itself however is a very adam and eve-enesque part of the creation of smurfette. However the plan was foiled by the smurfs being very nice to the nasty and (at that point) unappealing female smurf convinced her she wanted to be a smurf. There was no pressure...just kindness and understanding.



The only smurf who has hair is Smurfette who is obviously "aryan".True...but she did not start out that way.



The Smurfs town has no immigration and is very hermetic, nobody even knows where it is.Ah yes...but THAT is actually counter indicated by smurfette as well. She does not belong to the original community. She was created by Gargamel and tranformed into a real smurf by Pappa Smurf. After that transformation she lived outside the village for a while and only came to visit on occasion. She later desided to join the village.

We also have five new additions later on...the kiddy smurfs. Aswell as granny and grampa smurf.




Also Gargamel is pretty much an antisemetic charicature of the "greedy jew". His cat's name is Azreal, pretty close to Israel.True.



PLUS! They all wear white pointed hats and their grandwizard, papa smurf, wears a red pointed hat. Just like the KKK.Well actually no. Its an ancient hat type from Prygia. It indicates freedom and liberty.... and it is also called the liberty cap http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrygian_cap

It is why this hat is also used in this picture: http://worldhistoryatyhs.wikispaces.com/file/view/Pillar10-History-French-Revolution-Delacroix.jpg/50833721/Pillar10-History-French-Revolution-Delacroix.jpg



Not that I take it that seriously, I'm just talking shit, but if you were to see any politics at all in the smurfs, it's fascism...

Well who does take it seriously...its the freaking smurfs fro christ sake!! :D :D But no...I see anarcho communism. Admittedly I also see anti-semitism and a bit of sexism...but that realtes more to the comic itself than to smurf society.

[Game Girl]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Smurfs

They're a racially homogenous society with traditional genderroles and one unquestioned leader who everyone gladly obeys like the sycophants they are. The Smurfs is also anti-intellectual in their constant violence against that one smurf who has glasses who is a stereotypical nerdy intellectual.

Actually...Brainy got thrown out alot because he was a smart ASS. He always thinks he knows better than any other smurf, when he really doesn't. He also thought his intelligence gave him the right to order the others around.


The only smurf who has hair is Smurfette who is obviously "aryan".

Weren't real aryans middle eastern?


The Smurfs town has no immigration and is very hermetic, nobody even knows where it is.

Well, considering alot of people are after the smurfs because they can be used as ingredients to make gold, I think I'd keep my community secret too!


Also Gargamel is pretty much an antisemetic charicature of the "greedy jew". His cat's name is Azreal, pretty close to Israel.

Actually, I'm pretty sure he represents capitalists. As for the cat, well I'm pretty sure "Azreal" means something in another language..I'll get back to you on that one..


PLUS! They all wear white pointed hats and their grandwizard, papa smurf, wears a red pointed hat. Just like the KKK.

See hindsight20/20's post.


Not that I take it that seriously, I'm just talking shit, but if you were to see any politics at all in the smurfs, it's fascism...

Not really..Smurfs have no use for money or riches. They are supplied with homes and such. Each of them has an ability to give to their community. They are pretty much communists.

Plus, they support dating outside their race. (In the series, one smurf fell in love with a mermaid..The smurfs themselves were pretty much supportive of the relationship.)

EDIT: About the black smurfs thing. I don't think that was racism. I saw more similarities with "zombie infections". Confused? Let me explain. In a large majority of zombie related media, the zombies are usually created by some kind of virus. Sometimes the virus starts off as some kind of drug, or some kind of mutated/infected insect. The insect can infect a human being with the zombie virus. Zombies can also infect other humans by biting them. Now, it's a similer story in the smurfs. It started out with a little bug, who infected one lone smurf. That smurf then infected another smurf, who in turn infected another smurf..and so on and so forth..Make sense?

[ColonelCossack]

I swear they live in like a commune?

There's a funny youtube video of it.

[Rusty Shackleford]

3i-Mcb9X0zA

[ColonelCossack]

I swear they live in like a commune?

There's a funny youtube video of it.



Smurfette was not the only female in the village. We have Sassette too. And granny. They came later...just like smurfette.

Smurfs are magical creatures....and there were originally a fixed number of smurfs.

Wiki states this:


The Smurfs' community (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commune) generally takes the form of a cooperative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative), sharing, and kind environment based on the principle that each Smurf has something he or she is good at, and thus contributes it to Smurf society as he or she can. In return, each Smurf appears to be given their necessities of life, from housing and clothes to food without using any money (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money) in exchange.


Oh yeah...

[Ballyfornia]

This thread is.... Brilliant.

[Per Levy]

Anywho...So, against my better judgement, I went to see The Smurfs at my local cinema. I expected to be disappointed and once again have my childhood savagely raped.

The movie was actually....GOOD?! Holy crap...Hollywood....DIDN'T SCREW UP THIS TIME!

interestingly enough most reviews of that movie were like this:

http://thecinemasnob.com/2011/07/29/midnight-screenings-cowboys--aliens-the-smurfs-and-crazy-stupid-love.aspx

second video.

well hearing that review, it sounds to me that they indeed raped the smurfs. but then again, everyone has a different taste and different views.

[Game Girl]

interestingly enough most reviews of that movie were like this:

http://thecinemasnob.com/2011/07/29/midnight-screenings-cowboys--aliens-the-smurfs-and-crazy-stupid-love.aspx

second video.

well hearing that review, it sounds to me that they indeed raped the smurfs. but then again, everyone has a different taste and different views.

I'm willing to bet some of these people judged the movie before seeing it...When you hear of a movie based on an old cartoon/anime, you immediently think it's gonna be crap.

This has been the case with alot of movies based on nostalgic cartoons and such. However, the Smurfs movie was very true to the cartoon. The characters looked how they were supposed to, they kept their personalities and the same humour from the series was present.

Dragonball Evolution on the other hand....Do I really need to explain myself here?

[Siggon]

I see anarcho communism. Admittedly I also see anti-semitism and a bit of sexism...but that realtes more to the comic itself than to smurf society.

^ Quoting this because it makes sense!

The smurfs themselves seem to follow Anarcho-Communism; it's the writer and setting that we should question, but the smurfs themselves are not in anyway apartheid. If they were alongside another group, we could examine how they interact and make a conclusion from that, but it's wrong to attack the Smurfs themselves, because they're all of a homogeneous appearance. Instead of seeing it as "only allowing one race" we can look at that as "recognizing humans as one people, instead of a mixture of different types." If the world operated like the Smurfs, we wouldn't see black and white, we would see one colour, that isn't even a colour, and that is: human.

[Psy]

Wiki states this:


The Smurfs' community (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commune) generally takes the form of a cooperative (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative), sharing, and kind environment based on the principle that each Smurf has something he or she is good at, and thus contributes it to Smurf society as he or she can. In return, each Smurf appears to be given their necessities of life, from housing and clothes to food without using any money (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money) in exchange.

Yet this describes a society of artisans not communist industrial workers, we see the Smurfs never embrace the mechanization of labor and instead resist it for example the episode Tailor's Magic Needle where a magic needle that automatically sews without the need for Smurf labor puts Tailor's out of business and this is portrayed a bad thing since the Smurfs are a utopian Luddite society against the standardization and mechanization of labor.

If you want a cartoon that gets into real communism look at the robot revolution in Astroboy, the robots are the industrial means of production and their revolution is a communist revolution where they embrace the standardization of labor. Hell the leader of the revolution the Blue Knight is really a repair robot that has been modified into a battle robot (thus kinda like the Che of robots) and the Blue Knight accepts the wishes of a robot that lost her parents to space pirates to be reprogrammed and upgraded for battle so she can be apart on the rescue party.