Wednesday 19 September 2007

UNICEF: Smurfs



Not really a PIF or PSA (or their foreign equivalent) because it's a charity awareness campaign from UNICEF. I don't know how old it is, but it's recent - 2005ish, I think.

You remember the Smurfs, don't you? Those little bouncy blue things from Belgium that jump up and down and sing all day in their whiny Smurfy voices. Why is it always the Europeans who come up with horrors like this? Anyway, UNICEF did the thing we'd all like to do to the Smurfs, but made it a hundred times scarier.

The Smurfs weren't around during WWII, so UNICEF brought the Blitz to them.

The film starts like any other crappy little Smurf cartoon. The singing, the dancing, the music, the fluttering butterflies, it's all there. THEN ... the bombs drop! Aargh! The music turns eerie, the sky darkens, Smurfs run for cover and get blown up and their stupid toadstool houses are knocked down. As Smurfs collapse and die everywhere, a baby Smurf screams, which is, I admit, not pleasant to watch. Finally, the endline comes up, and it translates as: "Don't let war affect the lives of children." Support UNICEF. Very effective, I think.

This wasn't supposed to be viewed by children, don't worry. It was shown in Belgium and only ever broadcast after the 9pm "watershed". Which is just as well, because over there that's like the equivalent of showing a film where Teletubbyland or the Hundred Acre Wood is bombed. It would traumatise your kids for life.

Face it, though, you've always wanted to get back at those annoying blue bastards, haven't you? Can we bomb Barney the dinosaur next?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wow. I've been trying to find that one for a while. It's more surreal than I thought. Nice find. XD