Smurftastic! The Smurfs Turn 50

A Smurf tries to woo Smurfette with a big piece of birthday cake. Photography copyright Nevit Dilmen via Wikipedia.

If you were a little girl growing up in the early 80s like me, you no doubt remember watching the cartoon show The Smurfs Adventures on Saturday morning TV and you likely owned several of the plastic figurines. I still have the "La, la, la la la la" theme song stuck in my head.

Up until now I thought the Smurfs were an 80s creation, but it turns out they actually celebrated their 50th birthday yesterday. They were the creation of the late cartoonist Pierre Culliford, also known as "Peyo", who introduced the blue elf-like mushroom dwellers in a comic strip in October 1958. To mark their 50 years of existence in the entertainment industry, organizers are planning a 3-D animation feature film expected to be released next year. Supposedly the new movie is going to include more female Smurf characters, so that Smurfett won't be lonely.

That's comforting to hear. I always thought Smurfette, being the only female Smurf in her village, was either very lucky or unlucky. I guess it depends on how smurfslutty she was.