The inside story of the little blue tribe that conquered the world

Les Schtroumpfs Noir

Instantly recognisable with their white trousers with a hole for their short tails and white hat in the style of a Phrygian cap, the Smurfs soon eclipsed Peyo’s other creations.

Their success meant Peyo was able to open his first studio in Uccle in 1964, working with future big names in the comic strip world such as Derib, Gos, Walthéry and Wasterlain. Peyo continued to produce the Johan et Pirlouit adventures in tandem with the Smurfs and launched a brand-new character, Benoît Brisefer, his favourite, about a very strong boy.

Peyo collaborated closely with Yvan Delporte, editor-in-chief of Spirou, on scripts and trained artists Alain Maury, Jeroen De Coninck and Pascal Garray to ensure the continuity of his work. They were succeeded in turn by a new generation of illustrators, including Alain Peral, Miguel Díaz Vizoso and Laurent Cagniat, who all still work with the studio.

The Smurfs in their secret forest

The Smurfs made their cinema debut in 1965 with a black-and-white animation called Les Aventures des Schtroumpfs, packaging five cartoons made for Walloon television. A film version of La Flûte à six schtroumpfs followed in 1976. Michel Legrand, the Oscar-winning composer behind the scores for Catherine Deneuve’s films Les Parapluies de Cherbourg and Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, provided the soundtrack.

An even bigger audiovisual breakthrough came in 1981 when US animation giant Hanna-Barbera adapted the Smurfs adventures into an Emmy-winning cartoon TV series for NBC. The 272 episodes, each lasting 24 minutes and now digitally remastered in 40 languages, are still hugely popular, distributed in over 100 countries for broadcast on TV, DVD and streaming platforms such as Netflix and iTunes.

Family business

Peyo and Nine were joined early on in the family business by son Thierry and daughter Véronique. Thierry, now 67, focused on script development. He continues to contribute, collaborating notably with Alain Jost, but is no longer involved day-to-day at the studio.

Véronique, 64, concentrated on the business side of the operation. In 1984, she set up IMPS (International Merchandising Promotions & Services) to manage the rights linked to Peyo’s characters. She remains president of the company, as well as being involved with several associated firms including LAFIG Belgium, which oversees rights in the US and Canada. One of her sons, Nicolas, looks set to follow in her footsteps and is currently working with the board to learn the ropes.

In 1988, Peyo moved the studio to its present location in Genval. In all, he produced 16 Smurf books but the runaway success of his creation came at a high cost to his health. Worn out by stress and debilitated by diabetes, he died on Christmas Eve 1992, aged 64, a month after releasing his last Smurfs album, Le Schtroumpf financier (The Finance Smurf). Nine passed away on July 5, 2016, aged 86.

Peyo always intended that the book series would be published beyond his lifetime and the studio has since produced a further 24 albums, the latest of which is Les Schtroumpfs et les enfants perdus (The Smurfs and the Lost Children), scripted by Thierry Culliford and Alain Jost, with illustrations by Miguel Díaz Vizoso. Each album takes around nine months to produce – “and about one hour to read,” quips Glorieux.

So who are The Smurfs?

Papa Smurf is the leader of the tribe, easily recognisable as the only Smurf with a beard and moustache. He wears the classic Phrygian cap, but it’s red rather than white to match his trousers. He’s older than the rest, but his precise age isn’t known. All we’re told is that he will be 542 years old at some unspecified date in the future. We say “quand les poules auront des dents (when chickens grow teeth)” explains Glorieux.

Nearly all the other Smurfs are named after their personality, much like Snow White’s Seven Dwarfs. This was no accident. “Peyo was a big fan of Walt Disney. He was a mentor for him,” says Glorieux.

There were 99 Smurfs to start with including Brainy, Lazy, Greedy, Grouchy, Vanity, Clumsy, Hefty, Jokey, and Dreamy. Others were named after their trade, such as Farmer, Painter, Tailor, Miner, Architect, Reporter, Barber and Doctor Smurf. Despite their eternally youthful looks, the sarsaparilla-loving vegetarian Smurfs are all supposed to be 100 years old.

Initially, there was no female presence in the Smurf village. “In the 1950s and 60s there were just a few girls in comic books. That’s how it was at the time,” shrugs Glorieux.

Philippe Glorieux and friends

Peyo introduced feisty Smurfette (Schtroumpfette) in 1967. The evil wizard Gargamel creates her in the hope that the 99-to-one gender imbalance will sow discord and cause the Smurfs to fight over her. They don’t – and there’s no easy way of saying this – because Smurfette is initially blessed neither with looks nor brains, so Gargamel’s cunning plan fails at the first hurdle.

Even when Papa Smurf uses his magic to turn Smurfette into a blonde bombshell, the other Smurfs don’t trust her and give her the cold shoulder, so she leaves the village. After the first 15 albums, Smurfette starts to visit the Smurfs again and ends up moving into her own pink mushroom house with Baby Smurf, whose parentage is unknown. “That’s because in the Smurf world, there is no sex,” explains Glorieux.

Today, Smurfette is the most popular Smurf, along with Papa. A second female, Sassette, appeared in 1988 and Nanny Smurf (Mémé Schtroumpf) ten years later, but both had minor roles. Full gender equality came only in 2017 with the film release of Smurfs – The Lost Village, directed by the late Kelly Asbury, who also made Shrek 2. The story introduced 100 new characters, all girls, living in a village near The Smurfs. The studio in Genval quickly produced a successful tie-in book entitled Les Schtroumpfs et le village des filles. It proved so popular it’s become a series in its own right. The sixth edition, L’île vagabonde (The Wandering Island), is due out soon.

The latest album of the spin-off Girls Village series

The next classic Smurfs book, the 41^st, is set for release in October. But before that, there will be an 'hors-série' called Qui est ce Schtroumpf? by French comics author Tebo, released in French on May 5, with other languages to follow.

When The Lost Village movie came out, the Smurfs also became ambassadors for the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. "It felt the right moment to launch equality between the boys and girls,” says Glorieux. Two years later, the loveable imps formed another institutional partnership, this time with the European Commission, to promote the Global Beach Cleanup campaign. “I think the Smurfs are the only characters that can use their body, colour and everything to send a message to the world – a message to the children – to say to people ‘pay attention to your planet,'” Véronique said at the launch.

While the Smurfs live in an idealised world, Véronique was always at pains to stress that the studio has never been afraid to tackle challenging issues in the stories. I wonder aloud if this means Smurf HQ will follow the lead of Disney, which has featured LGBT characters in a raft of recent films including Finding Dory, Toy Story 4, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Glorieux shakes his head. “There are no plans for that. LGBT doesn’t exist in the Smurf world.” But what about narcissistic Vanity Smurf? “We’ve never said that Vanity is gay, he’s just a bit ‘precious,’” he replies, with a twinkle in his eye.

Blue man group

Given that Smurfs tend to revolve around simple tales of adventure and aim to promote harmony, it’s hard to imagine that anyone could find them controversial. However, they have found themselves at the centre of polemical debate.

As previously mentioned, Peyo’s first full-length Smurfs album, Les Schtroumpfs noirs, was re-named for the US market – though the French-Belgian edition kept the original title. It’s the story of a “lazy Smurf” who is stung by a bee and turns black. He bites the tails of other Smurfs who also become black. But when a fire breaks out in Papa Smurf’s lab, it releases a cloud of pollen that makes the black Smurfs sneeze and turn blue again. The US publishers asked for the book to be re-written and re-coloured so the “contaminated” Smurfs turned purple rather than black.

Les Schtroumpfs Noir became The Purple Smurf for US audiences

Peyo also raised a few eyebrows with his ninth album, Schtroumpf vert et vert Schtroumpf (Smurf versus Smurf), published in 1972. In the story, the Smurf village is split between north and south and the residents on both sides can’t agree on linguistic terms. It appeared to many that Peyo was gently mocking the language row between the French and Dutch-speaking communities in Belgium.

But this was small beer compared with what came later. For a decade and a half, claims have persisted that Tthe Smurfs are communist and even anti-Semitic. In 2008, YouTuber Evan Topham released a tongue-in-cheek video highlighting similarities between an ideal communist society and the Smurfs’ way of life, pointing out that they all dress alike, live in identical houses and work for the common good. Not to mention that their leader loves red and bears a passing resemblance to Karl Marx. Topham claims greedy Gargamel represents capitalism. “He’s what happens when the individual makes himself more important than the society he lives in,” he says. The video is blocked in Belgium due to breach of copyright.

French sociologist Antoine Buéno took the allegory seriously and went further in his 2011 book Le Petit Livre Bleu (The Little Blue Book), alleging that Peyo’s cute characters are representative of a “totalitarian” utopia. He describes the portrayal of greedy Gargamel, with his prominent nose and love of gold, as an antisemitic trope.

Glorieux laughs off such suggestions. “It’s true that Papa Smurf wears a red hat but, as for the rest, it’s ridiculous. Peyo wasn’t political at all.” Thierry Culliford decried Buéno’s take as “grotesque” at the time. The communist narrative was somewhat undermined when, to tie in with the first movie which came out the same year as Buéno’s book, Smurf characters were invited to ring the ceremonial opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange and Smurfette appeared in Harper’s Bazaar modelling luxury fashions from Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Lanvin and Marc Jacobs.

That said, the controversies do not stop there. The Smurfs have also been on the receiving end of some rather rude treatment in other movies. In Richard Kelly’s 2001 psychological thriller Donnie Darko, the main character played by Jake Gyllenhaal announces that Smurfette doesn’t engage in sexual relations – or words to that effect. His friend Sean (Gary Lundy) disagrees, saying: “Why do you think Papa Smurf made her? Because all the other Smurfs were getting too horny.” But Donnie puts him right: “First of all, Papa Smurf didn't create Smurfette. Gargamel did. She was sent in as Gargamel's evil spy with the intention of destroying the Smurf village. But the overwhelming goodness of the Smurf way of life transformed her. And as for the whole gang-bang scenario, it just couldn't happen. Smurfs are asexual. They don't even have reproductive organs under those little white pants.” A response that Glorieux would surely approve of.

Then there’s the 2015 Pixels sci-fi film, directed by Chris Columbus. In one clip, Violet (Michelle Monaghan) spots a sparkly little Smurf who is dancing and humming “sing a happy song”. “Oooo”, she coos, then blasts him to pieces with her space-cannon. Instantly aware of just how bad this looks, she says: “Don’t tell anyone I killed a Smurf.”

Glorieux confirms that Studio Peyo was aware of the scene before the film’s release. “We knew about it but didn’t make a fuss. It’s not worth it,” he says. No such thing as bad publicity? “Well, maybe. But you have to keep a sense of perspective. For example, we know that blue Smurf ice creams are being sold in lots of places. They’re not licensed, but it’s fun. We won’t ask the police to investigate.”

Comic rivalry

It seems a good moment to bring up another potentially sensitive topic: the relationship between the Smurfs and that other hugely successful Belgian comic book export, Tintin.

“We are not rivals with Tintin,” Glorieux insists. “Hergé produced Tintin 100%, Peyo always worked with other artists. He decided that The Smurfs would survive him. Thanks to his legacy and Véronique, today we’re still creating new stories. They can’t do that with Tintin because Tintin passed away with Hergé when he died.

“The Smurfs and Tintin come very different environments. Tintin is more intellectual, he’s a journalist and he’s travelling a lot. I’m a big fan of Tintin myself. But now when kids travel, they’re not reading so much, they’re mostly watching YouTube on their smartphones.” The differences between The Smurfs and Tintin are also evident in their marketing, he suggests. “The Tintin business is more high-end than ours. It’s more for nostalgics,” says Glorieux.

And when it comes to controversy, he insists that Tintin has faced more serious difficulties than the Smurfs. “We don’t have a Tintin in the Congo," he says – a reference to the furore around the colonial-era portrayals in Hergé’s second adventure, neatly sidestepping the issues created by Les Schtroumpfs noirs. There are, incidentally, no plans either to introduce a “sensitivity review” of the kind which recently resulted in revisions to Roald Dahl’s books, sparking an uproar against “woke censorship”.

Glorieux’s last word on the relationship with Tintin is to stress that IMPS has a very good relationship with Nick Rodwell, who manages Tintinimaginatio (formerly Moulinsart) and the rights to Hergé’s estate. “Nick’s a friend. We lunch together three or four times a year,” he comments.

I ask if sanctions against Russia have affected Studio Peyo’s relationship with the Ostrov Mechty (Dream Island) theme park in Moscow, which has a large zone devoted to the Smurfs. “The park is still open. We can’t close off our area. But we have frozen our commercial relationship with Russia for the time being. We are of course against Putin’s attack in Ukraine, but we should recognise that not all Russians are bad,” says Glorieux. “Like everyone, we hope the war ends soon.”

The Smurfs also have a presence at two other major park parks, Motiongate Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Dreamcity in Shanghai. “China has been our biggest market for a long time. The Hanna-Barbera TV series was one of the first series from abroad shown in China. Of course, it helped that Peyo was a communist,” jokes Glorieux.

Future Smurfing

Like the Smurfs, Véronique Culliford will also celebrate her 65^th birthday later this year (on November 6) and has decided to step away from running the business day-to-day. “She remains president and has no plans to retire,” says Glorieux. However, her co-CEO, Brigitte Ikmans, is retiring in June and a transition is underway.

Véronique has announced that four members of the board will jointly run the business: Fabienne Gilles, chief commercial officer, merchandising and family entertainment; Nele De Wilde, chief commercial officer, audiovisual; Olivier Nomen, chief operating officer; and Glorieux himself.

He suggests that the board has no plans to revolutionise a formula that has been successful for decades but acknowledges that the company needs to “focus on reinventing ourselves to entertain the next generation.”

Digital design in the Smurf HQ

“We have to move with the times. The world is changing fast and we have to be agile. We’re in a good position to do that because we don’t have layers of decision-making. We can take decisions on the spot. If we receive a licensing request, we can respond quickly with a yes, a no or a maybe.”

There is still some hand drawing

My host glances at his smartphone. We’ve over-run but he insists on showing me around the studio. It employs around 40 staff but it’s a holiday and the building is quieter than usual. “The artists and colourists often work from home. It’s easy to operate from almost anywhere in our business. You just need a laptop,” he says.

We stop by one of the graphic designers who’s carefully tweaking a 3D Smurf on his screen, checking every element is spot-on. The comic books are created in 2D and, before converting the drawings, the designers often first create lightweight physical versions of the characters, using 3D printing and nylon thread.

We move onto an area dedicated to new licensed products. Glorieux picks out a figurine from a bag and shows how the team ensure that the dimensions are just so. The measurement from the top of a Smurfs’ cap to his neck should be equal in size to the rest of his body. “If it’s wrong, we can’t take it,” he says.

It’s time to leave and Glorieux hands me a memento, a Smurf notebook that’s perfect for a journalist. As well as the familiar logo and happy chappie on the cover, it carries the motto “from paper to metaverse, 1958-2023”.

Peyo’s Smurfs have enjoyed a magical history, even with the occasional bump along the way. You wouldn’t bet against them enchanting many future generations of kids – and parents – way into the wide blue yonder.