The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1976)

A villain named McCreep steals the Smurfs' magic flute, an instrument that makes people dance wildly, and uses it to rob them. The Smurf King sends out Peewit to track down the thief and retrieve the flute.

Director:

Peyo

Writers:

Peyo (adaptation), Yvan Delporte (adaptation)

Stars:

Georges Atlas, Jacques Balutin, Angelo Bardi

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Georges Atlas	...	Sénéchal (voice)
Jacques Balutin	...	Le buveur (voice)
Angelo Bardi	...	Le marchand (voice) (as Angélo Bardi)
Jacques Ciron	...	Le visiteur (voice)
William Coryn	...	Johan (voice)
Henri Crémieux	...	Homnibus (voice) (as Henri Cremieux)
Roger Crouzet	...	Schtroumpf #2 (voice)
Jacques Dynam	...	Mortaille (voice)
Michel Elias	...	Le grand Schtroumpf (voice)
Ginette Garcin	...	Dame Barde (voice)
Henri Labussière	...	Le pêcheur (voice) (as Henri Labussiere)
Jacques Marin	...	Schtroumpf-Fête (voice)
Albert Médina	...	Torchesac (voice) (as Albert Medina)
Michel Modo	...	Pirlouit (voice)
Georges Pradez	...	Le roi (voice)

Storyline

A villain named McCreep steals the Smurfs' magic flute, an instrument that makes people dance wildly, and uses it to rob them. The Smurf King sends out Peewit to track down the thief and retrieve the flute. Now Johan and Pirlouit must get it back at all costs, so they head to the magical kingdom of Smurfs to ask for their help.

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Plot Keywords:

based on comic strip | singing | castle | medieval times | wizard | 

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Taglines:

Your favorite cartoon characters in their first full-length feature film

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Genres:

Animation | Comedy | Family | Fantasy | Music | Musical

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Certificate:

G

Did You Know?

Trivia

Peyo personally drew all 1232 pictures that made up the storyboards from the entire picture (154 boards each featuring 8 different images), even though he claimed never to have heard of the term 'storyboard' before he started on this feature film adaptation of his comic book album first published in 1958.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: Once upon a time... wait a minute! This isn't just another once upon a time story. This story doesn't follow the book at all. It all began in a kingdom a long time ago in the middle ages. By decree of the good king, the kingdom was having a great celebration.

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Connections

Referenced in Nostalgia Critic: The Smurfs (2015)

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Soundtracks

La Leçon De Schtroumpf
("A Lesson In Smurf")
(Peewit asks for a glass of water as "a smurf of smurf")
Composed by Michel Legrand
Lyrics by Peyo & Yvan Delporte

User Reviews

Ah, what wonderful childhood memories

I used to be obsessed with comic books as a child. When we weren't playing soccer, me and my friends would ride our bikes to the city library where we'd spend the day reading their gigantic collection, and then take an average of 12 back home with us twice a week. Asterix, Les Tuniques Bleues, Chick Bill, Iznogoud, Thorgal, Achille Talon...all amazing series which I have to thank for my excellent proficiency in the french language. The library also had several movies the public was free to watch, including this one, one of my absolute favorites. I had forgotten all about it until I recently caught it on television while channel jumping...the wave of memories it stirred up at the moment made me cry, I'm not embarassed to say it.

This one-hour cartoon movie unites both the Les Schtroumpfs (the Smurfs) series and the Johan Et Pirlouit series, both by belgian comic book immortal Peyo. Pirlouit, the lovable midget prankster, gets his hand on a magical flute made by les schtroumpfs that forces whoever listens to its melody to dance uncontrollably. You can imagine what he does with it :) However he makes the mistake of demonstrating its power in front of Torchesac, a wandering traveller spending the night in the castle, who subsequently steals it and uses it to rob people by making them dance until they pass out of fatigue. Now Johan and Pirlouit must get it back at all costs, so they head to the magical kingdom of les schtroumpfs to ask for their help.

This movie is extremely old so the animation isn't up to par with what you see today, however it has something today's cartoons don't have: great humor and excellent dialogue. C'est inoui, halfway through the movie I couldn't help but feel pity for today's kids who grow up on cartoons where the dialogue is dumbed down as much as possible, or made cookie-cutter in the sense that there MUST be a moral lesson in the end. It's like they were americanized. This movie isn't like that, the dialogue contains vocabulary and sentence syntax of high level, it feels exactly like reading french comics.

The music is great as well, highlights are the "flute fight" between Pirlouit and Torchesac and the song "Un Petit Schtroumpf", which is probably one of the best musicals moments in film.

Details

Country:

France Belgium

Language:

French English

Release Date:

25 November 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Smurfs and the Magic Flute

Box Office

Gross USA:

$11,234,220

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$11,234,220

Company Credits

Production Co:

Belvision, Dupuis Audiovisuel

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor) Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1