What blue Smurfy hell hath UNICEF wrought?
The horror…the horror…
The short film pulls no punches. It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around their familiar village of mushroom- shaped houses until, without warning, bombs begin to rain from the sky.
Tiny Smurfs scatter and run in vain from the whistling bombs, before being felled by blast waves and fiery explosions. The final scene shows a scorched and tattered Baby Smurf sobbing inconsolably, surrounded by prone Smurfs.
“Why? Why?”, shocked and awed Belgian viewers yelled as they saw the Smurf genocide unfold before them on their TV screens.
Julie Lamoureux, account director at Publicis for the campaign, said the agency’s original plans were toned down.
“We wanted something that was real war – Smurfs losing arms, or a Smurf losing a head -but they said no.”
Smurfageddon? Smurfpocalypse Now?
Relax, says UNICEF. It’s all part of a publicity campaign to bring home the message of the effects of war on children.
The final frame bears the message: “Don’t let war affect the lives of children.”
It’s only a cartoon. No Smurfs were seriously harmed during the making of the show. Stunt Smurfs suffered some scrapes and bruises but their animators are cleaning them up as we speak.
Bin Laden Smurf was apparently forewarned and escaped the village before the bombs were dropped. His whereabouts remain unknown.