THE SMURFS: Episodes 2.1-2.3

THE SMURFS: Season Two on Netflix follows the Smurfs in daily adventures in Smurf Village, and the first three episodes involve adventures with Brainy’s beloved Smurfway, a mysterious thief and the arrival of the new “nature fairy” who’s taking over for Mother Nature. The first three episodes of THE SMURFS: Season Two are vibrant and visually pleasing, with many colorful elements and fast-paced entertainment, but they have some light slapstick violence, a nature fairy and slightly rude behavior.

In the first episode of Season Two, “Where’s My Smurfway,” Handy gives Brainy his Smurfway back, telling him, “It’s as good as new.” However, Brainy complains about a smudge. Then he massages and kisses the Smurfway. Blossom asks to borrow the Smurfway, and Brainy gets angry at the idea but eventually allows her.

While Blossom rides the Smurfway, Storm hits her with her arrow. Blossom explains that she’s looking for roses for her hat. When she returns from picking roses, she realizes the Smurfway is gone. Some of the Smurfs distract Brainy while the others search for the Smurfway, only to find a giant is playing with it. They throw a rock at the giant’s head to distract him and retrieve the Smurfway.

On their way back, a monkey swings through the trees and takes it. They chase the monkey as he blows raspberries at them, but he gets distracted and hits a tree. Then a snake eats the Smurfway, and the Smurfs run into the snake’s stomach after it. He spits them out. Then, then a giant bolder appears to land on the Smurfway, but barely misses it.

Wild the Smurf then takes the Smurfway and yells, “Mine!” when the other Smurfs try to get it back from him. He blows raspberry at the group, then the monkey jumps on him, and they get in a physical fight over the Smurfway.

Meanwhile, back in the village, the other Smurfs are trying to distract Brainy. He screams at them to leave him alone and that he needs to find Blossom to get back his Smurfway. They reveal that Blossom lost his Smurfway, and Brainy screams and storms off angrily. He gets on a vehicle and rides off to find his Smurfway, only to run over it and destroy it.

Brainy goes crying to Papa Smurf that he broke his Smurfway, but he turns around to see that the other Smurfs had fixed it. Brainy kisses Blossom on the cheek, and the parade commences, but the Smurfway falls apart in the middle of it.

In Episode 2, “A Thief Among Us,” a shadowy figure walks around at night and steals a trumpet from Harmony’s bedroom. Hefty the Smurf says that someone took his dumbbells. Harmony is crying about his trumpet, and Brainy says, “Maybe someone was tired of him trying to play it,” and laughs. Then, we learn that someone stole Vanity’s mirror. The Smurfs go to tell Papa Smurf, who then realizes some of his things are missing too.

Brainy has an idea to set a trap to catch the thief. In the night, someone steals the Smurfway, and Brainy wakes up crying. The Smurfs all wake up and keep watch. Scaredy then begins sleepwalking while holding a frying pan and accidently hits Hefty in the face and knocks him unconscious. The Smurfs find Hefty unconscious and take him to Papa Smurf. Hefty wakes up and says Scaredy attacked him. Papa Smurf and the Smurfs go to Scaredy’s house only to find all of their stolen items.

Meanwhile, Scaredy sleepwalks over a bear and then steals food from Wild. Scaredy walks into a Gilgamel’s house, who wakes up to the noise and grabs a pan. Gilgamel screams at the sound of Scaredy knocking books off the shelf and falls into a chest, getting himself locked inside. Gilgamel’s cat, Azrael, spots Scaredy and tries to attack him but gets hit when the Gilgamel busts out of the chest. The Gilgamel calls his cat “useless” and a “stupid furball.” A cage gets stuck on his head, and he falls.

The Smurfs find Scaredy sleepwalking in Gilgamel’s house, but Azrael spots them and chases them. Eventually, the cat jumps on his owner’s face and attacks him. Scaredy falls but is rescued by the Smurfs and wakes up. The Smurfs put a treadmill in Scaredy’s room so next time he sleepwalks he doesn’t go anywhere.

Episode 3, “Manners Matter,” begins with Papa Smurf walking through the village yelling at the Smurfs to brush their teeth, put their items away and tidy up. Papa Smurf tells them the new “Nature Fairy” will be there soon, and they need to make a good impression on her. He says that last time they disappointed her, and she made it snow on the village for a whole month.

The Smurfs eat dinner, which is a total mess. Two female Smurfs come to teach the “sloppy” Smurfs some manners. They yell at Scaredy to “Move it.” They tell Brainy, “Papa Smurf asked us to whip your sorry butts into shape.” Papa Smurf returns to see the Smurfs have been taught wrong and are just as messy as before.

The Smurf dance to “digest properly,” and one throws up. Papa Smurf yells that those are improper manners. Brainy points to Miss Storm, who taught them the bad manners, and she slaps his hand.

Then the new Nature Fairy, “Leaf,” arrives. Papa Smurf pushes Sloppy Smurf out of the way and is embarrassed by how messy all the Smurfs are. At the dinner table, Papa Smurf burps so all the other Smurfs follow his lead and burp. He yells at them all to stop, but Leaf joins in and burps with them. “Maybe we should all just start over and be ourselves,” Papa Smurf says.

The animation in THE SMURFS is very pleasing visually, with bright and lively colors. The program has a moral worldview with entertaining story lines. For example, the first three episodes of Season Two promote family, teamwork and problem solving. However, they also have lots of light slapstick comedy. For instance, characters are accidentally hit by pans, there’s some fighting and an upset cat attacks someone’s face. Also, there’s a nature fairy in Episode Three, which ends with a burping contest. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children.