The Smurfs (French: Les Schtroumpfs; Dutch: De Smurfen) is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony of small, blue, humanoid creatures who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest.

[1][2][3] The Smurfs franchise began as a comic and expanded into advertising, films, TV series, ice capades, video games, theme parks, and toys.

Johan serves as a brave young page to the king, and Peewit (called Pirlouit (pronounced Peer-loo-ee) in the original French version) functions as his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midget sidekick.

In 1958, Spirou magazine started the prepublication of the new Johan et Pirlouit comic book La Flûte à six trous ("The Flute with Six Holes").

[citation needed] Worldwide, there are about 55 translations of the word Schtroumpf, including[9] The storylines tend to be simple tales of bold adventure.

They love to eat sarsaparilla (a species of Smilax) leaves, whose berries the Smurfs naturally call "smurfberries".

Context offers a reliable understanding of this speech pattern, but common vocabulary includes remarking that something is "just smurfy" or in some cases, "smurftastic".

[13] When they first appeared in 1958, the Smurfs lived in a part of the world called "Le Pays Maudit" (French for "the Cursed Land").

To reach it required magic or travelling through dense forests, deep marshes, a scorching desert and a high mountain range.

[14] The Smurfs themselves use storks in order to travel long distances, such as to the kingdom where Johan and Pirlouit live, and keep up-to-date with events in the outside world.

[15] In the Johan et Pirlouit stories, the Smurf village is made up of mushroom-like houses of different shapes and sizes in a desolate and rocky land with just a few trees.

However, in the Smurf series itself, the mushroom-like houses are more similar to one another and are located in a clearing in the middle of a deep forest with grass, a river, and vegetation.

Other Smurfs are generally named in reference to their main personality trait; for example, Brainy, Greedy, Vanity, Lazy, Clumsy, Hefty, Jokey, Dreamy, Grouchy; or their profession; for example, Poet, Actor, Handy, Harmony, Farmer, Clockwork, Painter, Tailor, Miner, Architect, Reporter, Timber, Barber and Doctor Smurf; much like Disney's Seven Dwarfs.

[20] In 1965, a black-and-white 87-minute animated film called Les Aventures des Schtroumpfs was released in theatres in Belgium.

The film would be released in the United States in 1983 (after the animated series became popular there) in an English language dubbed version titled The Smurfs and the Magic Flute.

[6] In August 2022, Paramount Pictures announced that the movie was pushed back to February 14, 2025, with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 taking its previous release date.

The Smurfs was nominated multiple times for Daytime Emmy awards, and won Outstanding Children's Entertainment Series in 1982–1983.

It is co produced by Ketnet (Flanders), TF1 (France), KiKa (Germany),[34] OUFTIVI (Wallonia), Peyo Productions, and Dupuis Audiovisuel[35][36][37] (the TV branch of the comics publisher).

[23] Other Smurf figurines have been created for advertising purposes, e.g. worldwide for McDonald's and Kinder Surprise, or nationally for e.g. Albert Heijn in the Netherlands, and Delhaize in Belgium.

This started in the 1960s for Kwatta and Kellogg's, and later for companies like BP in the UK and Australia, or Benco (a Dutch chocolate drink).

Over the decades, many singles and albums of Smurf music have been released in different countries and languages, sometimes very successfully, with millions of copies sold.

The best known is the single The Smurf Song and its accompanying album, created by Dutch musician Pierre Kartner who sang under the alias Father Abraham, which reached the #1 position in 16 countries.

: Tenth Anniversary Commemorative Album, released by Quality Special Products in Canada and the United States and Dino Music in Australia.

In 1984, the Smurfs began appearing in North American theme parks owned by Kings Entertainment Corporation.

In 1989, in the French region of Lorraine, the Sorépark group opened a complete Smurfpark, named Big Bang Schtroumpf.

[62] Designed as a UNICEF advertisement, and with the approval of the family of the Smurfs' late creator Peyo, the 25-second episode was shown on the national television after the 9 p.m. timeslot to avoid children having to see it.

In honour of their 50th anniversary in 2008, the Smurfs began a year-long "Happy Smurfday Euro Tour" in connection with UNICEF.

The Smurfs visited fifteen European countries on the day of their 50th "Smurfday" in the form of publicly distributed white figurines.

In 1998, writer Marc Schmidt wrote a parody article citing the Smurfs as an example of the impact of socialism in continental European culture.

[66] French sociologist Antoine Buéno described Smurf society in a 2011 book as a totalitarian and racist utopia with antisemitic tones.