“Who Nose” (“Un nouveau nez pour Le Schtroumpf Costaud”)
Summary: Hefty Smurf has a weak spot: He thinks his nose is too big. An attempt to shrink it by 30% or so accidentally turns him into one giant nose. Hilarity ensues.
Comments: This episode was the first to air in France on April 18, 2021. It was paired with “Diaper Daddy,” which Nickelodeon aired as part of its first episode.
Here, Hefty comes off at the start as a much nicer version of one of those dudebro musclemen you might find at the gym. He’s the guy who is full of himself and thinks he should get the girl because he’s in the best shape of anyone around him. But he comes off as just trying to be too helpful. He’s showing off his muscles because it’s what he has to work with, but he’s not being pushy and mean and rude.
Yes, that means he has a slight crush on Smurfette, which likely half of Smurf Village does. But it comes across as a sweet longing here and not the attitude of something he thinks he deserves. He’s not quite self-aware enough at the beginning to realize the mistakes he’s making. His ego gets the better of him, leading to the incident that turns him into a giant nose. It’s all a part of the learning process for him.
Thankfully, not every episode featuring Smurfette is about a different Smurf that pines for her. This little bit is just enough, thanks.
It’s a subtle thing, but there are different ways the Smurfs stand and act based on their personalities. You don’t always notice it, but with someone like Hefty, it’s obvious. He holds himself a little differently to simulate more of a barrel-shaped chest and bigger biceps. It’s an attention to detail that’s part of what makes this series so strong, to me. There are no shortcuts in here. The animators and designers care about their work and put in the thought to make it entertaining.
There are moments where he’s showing Smurfette how easily he can lift the weights where his arms stretch a bit too far. I think they did that to help show how easy it was for him, but it got a bit awkward once or twice. I appreciate good squash and stretch in my animation, but this almost went off-model.
Hefty’s continued frustration with his own appearance leads to him stealing a spell from Gargamel to help shrink his nose by the 30% or so that would make it statistically perfect. He overdoes it, of course, and turns into a giant nose for the third act of this story.
It’s an utterly ridiculous concept that works well. As a giant nose, the animators give him life and movement that is believable and entertaining. They turn his every inhale and exhale into an event that the other Smurfs have to fight against. It’s a race against time while Papa Smurf works up a counter-spell.
The whole thing ends quite quickly, and it’s brilliant. There’s no need for a denouement in this short. Once the reversal spell has been delivered, there are about five seconds left for a cut to the future to show Hefty getting his nose back. He delivers the perfect groan-inducing pun and the episode quickly cuts to black.
I love that bit of pacing. These stories have a relatively short time frame to work in. Viewers have to come into the story quickly and get out as soon as the main event is finished. It’s something this series does well, in general. You’ll see it in a lot of the episodes.
Special credit goes to Poet Smurf in this one for his silly rhymed couplets delivered in super dramatic fashion. “And there she goes! Up the nose!” cracked me up for silly juvenile reasons, probably.
Title Translation: The original French title works out to “A New Nose for Clumsy.” The English version goes with the wordplay and “Who Nose”. (No question mark.) I like the alliteration with “New Nose” in the French version, which works even in the English translation.
But I also love a good bit of wordplay. “Who Nose” isn’t a bad title, but is far less descriptive than the original French..
Credits:
Script: Peter Saisselin, Amy Serafin
Storyboard Supervision: Alexandre Viano
Storyboard: Bruno Issaly
Director: William Renaud
“Clumsy Not Clumsy” (“Être ou ne pas être maladroit”)
Summary: Clumsy’s clumsiness gets him kidnapped by Gargamel. Gargamel has a special trinket that will help him be the opposite of who he is. He steals it and runs to safety. But Gargamel was pulling a fast one on him, and Clumsy is about to lead Gargamel right to Smurfs Village.
Comments: This is the short that premiered on Hulu ahead of the official release schedule for the series. I can see why they went with it. If nothing else, it starts with Smurfette, Clumsy, and Hefty walking through the forest while humming the Smurfs theme song. It’s all a delicious tip of the hat to the series’ 1980s run. It feels like the opening credits from there, and I loved it.
It’s a beautiful, bucolic day ruined only by Gargamel and Azrael’s sudden appearance. Suddenly, The Smurfs are running for their life.
This is a good place to point out some of this series’ design language. “The Smurfs” makes use of speedlines when there’s a chase in progress. White slashes emanating from the center of action out to the border help to add more speed and direction to animation that already does a better-than-believable sense of actions and adventure.
There are a lot of chases in this series, particularly in the forest. Most impressively, the writers find ways of adding new twists to them every time, whether it’s a foot chase through logs and over rivers or some high flying action thanks to Handy’s rocket pack or with the help of bird friends.
This episode has lots of hallmarks of Smurf storytelling, and that includes the tropes of a chase in the forest and Gargamel catching and locking up a Smurf before losing everything. It’s a little of everything, and it’s a fun one. Adding in a musical number might be slightly controversial amongst Smurfs purists, but I bet the younger viewers that this is directly aimed at enjoyed that part greatly.
Yes, this episode has a musical break in it. Picture Clumsy as Bruno Mars in an extended sequence with the sunglasses on and dancing with all the right moves. It’s several TikToks’ worth of dance moves strung together.
It reminded me of the cartoons of my youth when so many of them were obsessed with characters being or becoming rock stars. The Chipmunks are the most obvious reference point here, but it felt like other shows had musical breaks in them, as well. Don’t forget Jem and the Holograms, either.
Nothing’s changed: Just check out the sit-coms for kids on Nick Jr. or the Disney Channel for more examples. There’s not a one of them that hasn’t devoted at least one episode to their lead character’s sudden rock star turn.
So, back to that race in the forest — Clumsy gets caught because, well, he’s Clumsy and the least likely Smurf to outrun Gargamel and Azrael.
Gargamel offers Clumsy an amulet that will make him graceful and then tricks him into thinking he stole it before he runs back to Smurfs Village. The trick is, the amulet is also a tracker and Gargamel is using it to find the Village. (The tracker is great. It has GPS-like directions, complete with a Siri-esque voice.)
Gargamel goes on to capture every Smurf in the Village, leaving super powered Clumsy to save the day.
Seeing Clumsy with the amulet on is like seeing what a superhero Smurf would look like. Suddenly, he can jump off vines and run along mushroom-shaped rooftops. He’s not just nimble and steady on his feet, but he can do more than the average Smurf. Technically, the amulet grants its wearer the power to be the exact opposite of what they are. For Clumsy, that includes walking in a straight line without incident, bouncing around the village on his twinkletoes, and putting on complete song and dance numbers.
In the end, the episode is a straightforward and simple wish fulfilment tale with all the trade-offs that come with it for the character. Lessons are learned, adventures are had, songs are sung.
It’s the first story in this series I saw and it made me a believer that they had something good on their hands here. This is more than a simple dumb kids show. This works on multiple levels and is entertaining for all ages.
Title Translation: Here, the French title translates literally out to “To Be or Not To Be Clumsy”, a play on Shakespeare’s classic speech from “Hamlet.”
The Nick title went for what might be a play on Demi Lovato’s 2017 song, “Sorry Not Sorry”. Or it might just be referencing the phrase that took hold on social media before that song really made the phrase explode.
Credits:
Script: Peter Saisselin, Amy Serafin
Storyboard Supervision: Alexandre Viano
Storyboard: Jean-Luc Abiven
Director: William Renaud
