[Meeting…] Wild Smurf

I guess everyone knows the Smurfs (also known as Schtroumpfs or Smurfs), those little blue beings who first appeared as secondary characters in Johan and Piurit: The flute of the six Smurfs (story that was published in Spirou's Journal magazine in 1958), and due to its success it led these little beings to star in comics, animated series, video games, board games and movies.

I am convinced that If we made a list of how many different Smurfs there are, most would always remember the same ones.: Papa Smurf, Smurfette, the prankster with the bomb gifts, the one with the glasses who never stopped giving sermons, the one who complained about everything and perhaps, someone else like the strong man (with a heart tattooed on his arm), or one of those who had a clear job, like the chef, painter or carpenter.

And it is that, despite the fact that There are more than 100 different Smurfs, most of the adventures were starred by them, many of them being relegated to being mere background characters or to being mentioned in a single story, and then being partially or totally forgotten. The Wild Smurf is one of those Smurfs, but due to his curious story, I think it is appropriate to dedicate this section to him so that we all know him better.

Tragedy in the smurf village

One day, the Smurfs' forest is engulfed in a fire that causes a stampede of animals, which destroys a large part of their village. To try to save their small patch of forest, the Smurfs explode a small dam they have on the river, putting out the fire and flooding the remains of the town.

A few weeks before winter, the Smurfs have lost everything and Papa Smurf has to make a drastic decision to face a more than possible famine, so he interrupts the repairs to the houses to mobilize the entire village on an expedition to the farthest part of the forest, in order to collect food.

The next morning, they embark on their journey and begin to collect food, trying to ignore the insecurity that this part of the forest, so unknown to them, transmits to them. At the same time, Gargamel discovers the destroyed Smurf village, as it has been completely exposed after the fire has considerably reduced the vegetation that hid it.

The Smurf Who Doesn't Smurf

Upon returning to the village, the Smurfs hide the provisions in the warehouse and begin to lead a normal life until they discover that someone is stealing the food at night. After setting a trap, they discover, to their astonishment, that the culprit is a Smurf unknown to them.

The trapped Smurf is dressed in bushes and leaves from the forest and seems not to understand his brothers. He also has strength and agility far superior to the rest of the Smurfs, because after breaking the bars of the cage he flees by making very high jumps.

Papa Smurf decides to consult the Big Book of Smurfs to solve the mystery and soon finds the story of a baby smurf who got lost in the forest and was never found.

Now knowing the tragic story of the Wild Smurf, a small group of Smurfs go in search of him and find him living with a group of squirrels, who seem to be his family. One of the squirrels falls into the river and is saved (by chance) by Little Smurf, which helps Wild Smurf stop seeing his civilized brothers as a threat.

Civilized or savage

The Wild Smurf embarks on a journey back to the village, where Smurf Gafitas will try to teach him to speak the Smurf language and, at the same time, instill in him something about civility and good manners. without much success, which causes various annoyances among the civilized Smurfs. The situation is reversed when Gargamel reappears in the village and the Smurfs have to live in the forest temporarily, under the protection and advice of the Wild Smurf and accompanied by the squirrel family.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Wild Smurf is my favorite Smurf since I saw him by chance in the animated series a few years ago. What I liked most about him was that he (unintentionally) broke the “sacred dogmas” that I had seen a thousand times in the series, because this character does not know how to speak (or should I say smurf?) like the other Smurfs (although he can communicate with animals), he does not feel devotion to Papa Smurf and He does not hesitate to fight Gargamel directly with kicks and bites..

Its appearance is quite rare within the world of the Smurfs, so I can only recommend the book The Wild Smurf, where it made its debut, along with its corresponding chapter in the animated series (which told the story of the book with some changes) and also a Christmas special of the series, called Le Noël du Schtroumpf Sauvage (I don't know if it was broadcast in Spanish) where this character returns to the town to celebrate the holidays with the other Smurfs.