Film Name: 蓝精灵：寻找神秘村 / Smurfs: The Lost Village / The Smurfs 3 / Get Smurfy
In 2008, Thierry Coulliford, son of Smurfs creator Peyo and current head of Studio Peyo, announced that more female Smurfs would be introduced. This promise went unfulfilled in the two live-action Smurfs films released in 2011 and 2013. It wasn’t until 2017 that we finally saw these newly added female Smurfs in the latest fully CG-animated Smurfs movie, “Smurfs: The Lost Village.” And they weren’t just a few—they were an entire tribe, a clan, hundreds upon hundreds of them.
This marked a revolutionary change from the Smurfs’ previous lore. Because in Peyo’s original stories, women never appeared as regular Smurfs. Smurfette was originally sculpted from clay by Gargamel, whom Papa Smurf later transformed into a real Smurf using magic. Gargamel later sculpted another female Smurf from clay, which Papa Smurf also magically turned into a real Smurf—though her hair was red instead of Smurfette’s yellow. Later, the Smurfs discovered Grandma Smurf in a castle, but her identity remained equally enigmatic.
Björn avoided creating conventional female Smurf characters because he envisioned Smurf Village not as a society but more like a political party or religious order. Papa Smurf served as the patriarch, surrounded by disciples. These disciples didn’t need to be differentiated by gender—their personalities sufficed. They were all roughly the same height, weight, and build, almost as if molded from the same template. Early Smurf storylines featured themes like elections, tyranny, and underground resistance—reflecting the activist spirit of 1960s Europe. Later, the Smurfs gradually transformed into children’s entertainment.
Thus, the film persistently questions: What exactly is Smurfette? She is essentially a spy, a beauty trap, a seductress. Her introduction carries sinister intent, revealing a surprisingly realistic facet within the Smurf narrative. Sexuality in Smurf lore isn’t portrayed as a natural human function or a source of joy, but rather as a tactic employed by mortal enemies to undermine their own kind.
This dynamic is completely overturned with the discovery of the Mysterious Village. Beyond the mountains and across the sea, another group of Smurfs exists—not only lively and intelligent, but crucially, entirely female. This overturned the Smurfs’ previous worldview, yet from another perspective, it also served as a completion.
Henceforth, Smurfette, as a female Smurf, no longer had to bear the burden of her identity as a spy-beauty. She could truly become an ordinary, everyday female Smurf. From then on, Papa Smurf’s distinctive red hat and boots no longer symbolized episcopal dignity but reverted to being simply distinctive attire, akin to Santa Claus’s outfit. This was because the leader of the female Smurf tribe coincidentally shared his attire, and this coincidence diluted the symbolism. From then on, the element of gender also returned to ordinary human relationships. Everyone no longer had to secretly pine for Smurfette alone; they could pursue their own desires and love freely. Similarly, the Smurfs’ monastic nature formally dissolved, naturally giving way to a social structure.
Every change brings both advantages and costs. The introduction of female Smurfs equal to their male counterparts vastly expands the possibilities of the Smurf world. I can already envision the joyful scenes of these men and women living together in the next animated film, their diverse personalities creating delightful combinations during adventures. Of course, the cost is clear: the Smurfs have now completely bid farewell to the era of 1960s realism and entered a new age of pure entertainment.
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