Gargamel

"I don't want to eat them, I don't want to turn them into gold, all I want now is to DESTROY THEM!"

- Gargamel

Gargamel is an evil wizard of debatable skill who acts as the main antagonist of the Smurfs cartoon and written-fiction. His main goal in life is to capture the Smurfs, the reasons varying from story to story but in general so as to either eat them or use them as ingredients in one of his potions.

He has a nasty personality - being a hateful old man who dislikes pretty much everyone, but his hatred of the Smurfs is a particular fiery and vocal one. Gargamel will sometimes feign friendship for personal gain and is, like many cartoon villains, a coward at heart. His abode is a run-down hut which he shares with his cat Azrael - who can be considered an enemy of the Smurfs as well.

Gargamel's plans to capture the Smurfs are always elaborate and bizzare but doomed to failure - this failure seems to have given him a very bad-temper as he commonly yelled out his hatred for the Smurfs after every defeat (a trait not dissimiliar to a certain Dr Robotnik in the old Sonic cartoons). In his efforts to cause trouble to the Smurfs Gargamel created Smurfette. Despite his hatred of the Smurfs he has had to be aided by Papa Smurf on a few occassions - usually when he is targetted by a more wicked (and competent) villain or to rescue him from a potion gone horribly wrong.Despite his antisocial nature he has an apprentice named Scruple, a magical troublemaker that only he is willing to teach magic.

Gargamel also appeared as the main antagonist in the 2011 movie, The Smurfs. In this movie, Gargamel is portrayed by the american actor Hank Azaria. Azaria is famous for his voice work in ''The Simpsons. ''Actor Frank Welker provides his voice for Gargamel's cat, Azrael. In the movie, his reason for wanting to capture the Smurfs is that their essence will make him more powerful than anything else in the world.

The Smurfs (2011)
Gargamel appears as the main antagonist in the live-action film The Smurfs. When he chases them out of their village he ends up in New York city along with 5 of the Smurfs and plots to extract the smurf essence.

The Smurfs 2 (2013)
Gargamel returns as the main antagonist in the sequel The Smurfs 2. He creates 2 smurf-like creatures called the Naughties to help him harmness the magical smurf essence. Using his new creation, he kidnaps Smurfette and takes her to Paris where the Naughties teach Smurfette to become one of them.