3703. Smurfette

Smurfette (French: La Schtroumpfette) is a female character from the Smurfs. She was created by Gargamel, the Smurfs' enemy in order to distract and trap them; however, later she was rescued by Papa Smurf and turned into a real smurf. She was the only female Smurf until the creation of Sassette. A Granny Smurf was also later introduced, although it is unclear how she was created. Thierry Culliford, the son of Peyo and current head of the Studio Peyo, announced in 2008 that more female Smurfs would be introduced in the stories. Smurfette has more delicate features than the other Smurfs, with long blonde wavy hair, longer eyelashes, and wears a white dress and white high heels. She is the love interest of almost every Smurf. Those voicing her include Céline Monsarrat and Lucille Bliss. Smurfette is voiced by pop superstar Katy Perry in the 2011 film version, and voiced by Melissa Sturm in The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol. The Hanna-Barbera cartoon series of the Smurfs, introduced in 1981, had her as an actual Gargamel spy and saboteur who intentionally tries to disrupt life in the village. She was magically created from blue clay, sugar and spice but nothing nice, crocodile tears, half a pack of lies, a chatter of a magpie, and the hardest stone for her heart. She is found in the forest by Hefty Smurf (The Smurfs, season 1 volume 1, "The Smurfette"). Working for Gargamel, Smurfette tried a few different approaches to defeat the Smurfs, all of which failed. In the dam incident, she used a slice of cake to lure Greedy Smurf into opening it. When Greedy tried to close the dam again, Smurfette yanked it back. Greedy soon caught on, all the tugging eventually threw Smurfette off balance and she promptly fell into the river. While Greedy hammered the dam back down, Smurfette was rescued by Papa Smurf who sent her to court. In Smurf court, Smurfette's beauty was to no avail with the entire village angrily aware of her treachery. She finally admitted her slavery to Gargamel, and tearfully offered to submit the Smurfs' judgement. However, Papa Smurf absolves her of her guilt and offers to attempt to free her by making her a real Smurf. Papa Smurf magically undid some of Gargamel's spells, consequently turning Smurfette into a more beautiful creature. Her hair grew and became blonde. Her dress became frillier. As a final touch, her shoes turned into high-heel pumps. Of course, everyone now loved her and actually fought to do trivial favors for her such as walking her home. When Gargamel recontacts her, he is alarmed by her changed visage and realizes that Papa Smurf has undone his control of her. Instead he tries to placate his and manipulates her to lure the Smurfs into a trap. The trap is successful with the entire community captured and Smurfette is aghast at her unwitting role in it. However, she is then able to spectacularly undo her mistake by disguising herself as a male masked Smurf to lure away Gargamel and Azreal on a chase that both allows her to incapacitate the villains and free the Smurfs. At the conclusion of the story, any doubts of the Smurfs of Smurfette's loyalty are resolved and she is made a welcome permanent member of their village. Smurfette's original artificial nature arose again in the sequel episode, "Smurfette Unmade." In this story, Gargamel tells his apprentice Scruple (who was an added character by this time) about how he regrets creating her, he comments how bad is that Gargamel can't turn her evil again, and he remembers there is a way. They kidnap her and prepare a spell which initially doesn't seem to work and the Smurfs take her home. When Scruple turns on the next page of Gargamel's spell book, the bad guys realize the spell is complete but its effects won't become apparent until the next full moon's midnight, which happened to be that very night. The effects included Smurfette changing back to her original appearance and malicious personality before she could consult Papa Smurf on the matter. Thus changed into her original form, Smurfette managed to hide by concealing her black hair with a wig (in spite of her feet being a dead giveaway) but the Smurfs eventually learned the truth when she arranges the Smurfs to be captured. Papa Smurf said he couldn't repeat the spell that had initially turned her good. However, when Gargamel was about to get Baby Smurf to test his gold making potion (over Smurfette's objection), Smurfette's conscience rebelled and it changed her back to her blond-haired appearance. Gargamel and Scruple attempt to capture her to prevent them from losing again but Smufette destroys the potions sending the smurfs arch enemies into a tree. They all returned home with Papa Smurf guessing that Smurfette's Smurf nature was too strong to ever fully remove in the first place.