- NOTE: For the Live-Action version of this character, click here and for the 3D animated movie version, click here.
| “ | I don't want to see them, I don't want to eat them, I don't want to turn them into gold. All I want to do now is DESTROY THEM! | „ |
| ~ Gargamel's villainous breakdown |
Gargamel is the main antagonist of the Smurfs franchise.
He is an evil wizard of debatable skill and is the owner of his cat Azrael, the master of Scruple and the archenemy of the Smurfs (mainly Papa Smurf, Brainy, Clumsy, Smurfette and Grouchy).
Ever since his first defeat at the hands of the Smurfs, his main goal in life is to capture/destroy them, though his reasons vary from story to story, but in general, is to to either eat them or use them as ingredients in one of his potions to create Gold from lead or simply turn the Smurfs into Gold.
Portrayals[]
- In the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, he was voiced by the late Paul Winchell from Season 1-8 and Michael Bell in Season 9.
- In the live-action film duology, he was portrayed and voiced by Hank Azaria, who also played Snake Jailbird, Bob Arnold, Dexter Colt and Frank Grimes, Jr. in The Simpsons, as well as Kahmunrah in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Venom in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and voiced Carlos in Hop.
- In Smurfs: The Lost Village, he was voiced by Rainn Wilson, who also played Gallaxhar in DreamWorks' Monsters vs. Aliens, Jack Morris in The Meg, Dwight K. Schrute in The Office, Lex Luthor in the DC Animated Movie Universe and Peace Master In the Adventure Time.
- In the 2021 TV series, he is voiced by Emmanuel Curtil in the French dub, and Lenny Mark Irons in the English dub.
Personality[]
Gargamel has a nasty and objectionable personality, being a vain, menacing and manipulative individual who dislikes pretty much everybody, but his hatred of the Smurfs is a particular fiery and vocal one, as he always wished to inflict such harm on them. He initially sought to capture them as an ingredient to create the Philosopher's Stone, which has the power to turn any metal into gold, however, following his first defeat at their hands, this led him to develop his signature hatred of the Smurfs, where he now sought to either eat them, use them as a key ingredient for a recipe or to create gold from their essence. As Gargamel has a very bad temper, he tends to fly into a rage at times at the view of the Smurfs, to the point where all he now cares about is destroying them entirely.
Despite his strong hatred of them, he will feign friendship if it suits his interests or rather for personal gain, but he nevertheless continued to be the Smurfs' greatest adversary. Gargamel can be downright ruthless at times, as he takes enjoyment in tormenting the Smurfs and other enemies, as evident when he wanted to burn Puppy alive. Gargamel would even go as far as to ruin the happiness of others. He is also frequently abusive towards his pet cat Azrael, often insulting and mistreating him at times. He tends to like being evil due to many complicated reasons, but despite the darkness in his heart, it proves to have its limits, as shown during Christmas, he refuses to help a mysterious wizard in kidnapping two children, to the point where he helps the Smurfs in defeating him.
While he has strong knowledge on magic and a wealth of grimoires, and being very inventive and resourceful, he is shown to be bumbling and more often than not fails to think beyond his initial idea, and tends to overlook crucial details, leading him to fail in his schemes due to petty reasons. His plans to capture the Smurfs are always elaborate and bizarre but doomed to failure. Later comics made him more comedic, and while never stupid, less of a threat.
At a few occasions, Gargamel displayed some genuine emotion, as despite his abusive over Azrael, he cares for him for real on rare occasions; an example is when he would protect him against his own godfather Lord Balthazar, claiming that his cat is all he has and possibly his only real friend. Another example is when he was forced by Balthazar to behead Puppy, Gargamel pleaded him to find a different way, despite his dislike towards the dog, but he ultimately gave in to his godfather's cruel intimidation.
The reason behind Gargamel's unfriendly, reclusive, and sinister behavior may stem from his miserable past, where he lived a tragic life of neglect, abuse and upbringing; he despises having to celebrate his birthday on Halloween, because on said holiday, nobody greeted him nor gave him a present, and all Gargamel wants is for somebody to remember his birthday. He often gets mistreated in his childhood by his own mother, who did it just to make her son more evil, however, she also resents her son for failing to complete Wizard's School. Because of the suffering inflicted on him and because of his appearance, Gargamel became aloof and even developed a deep insecurity of being seen as ugly, to the point where he admits that nobody has ever said that they genuinely loved him.
Though he greatly despises the Smurfs, he has had to be aided by Papa Smurf on a few occasions, usually when he is targeted 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. As revealed in the 1980s show, Gargamel is shown to have a small amount of kindness and to the point where the evil within him could not even withstand any love that was given to him; This was shown when he was moved to tears by Sassette's kind and loving words, as she is the only one would really loves him. However, Gargamel's inner goodness would not be brought until he was put under the effects of the magical pan flute of wood elf Woody, which led Gargamel to finally feel happiness after so many years and basically made him redeeming himself. Though the kindness spell's effect was only temporary, Papa Smurf nevertheless knew that the memory of that event would remain in Gargamel forever.
Powers and Abilities[]
Gargamel is fairly intelligent, having a vast knowledge about magic and a wealth of grimoires second only to that of Papa Smurf. He is also shown to have am inventive and resourceful side in himself, being capable of constructing advanced machinery and traps in a medieval setting.
Although he is a wizard, Gargamel almost never used magic spells, preferring to rely on his other skills. His debuts in comics showed him as a deadly competent and dangerous, and he would have made the Philosopher Stone if the Smurfs did not intervene. Later comics and the cartoon reduced him to a bumbling buffoon and a mostly inept wizard though.
He has shown himself to be quite competent in magic potions, able to create many of them almost always successfully and possessing many spell books (although he does not know his formulas and compositions by heart).
Gargamel's main ability is still his inventivity; he has proven to be able to create many effective traps and machines and to manipulate many people to achieve his goals.
Family[]
Gargamel's living relatives include his hag of a mother who regards him as a failure, and his godfather Balthazar who also regards his godson as a pathetic amateur. In the final season of the cartoon, the Smurfs encounter many other villains that look like and act like their foe, whom Papa Smurf theorizes are ancestors.
In a Smurfs story, he is the twin brother of Gourmelin, who is the contraries because his sibling is gentler than him. Anyone supposes that they got one of the different side of their parents Gargamel have the evil side from their mother and his twin have the good side from their father. he also have three nephews who are triplets they are maybe from a other brother he have. He force them to capture the Smurfs. But they trapped him by make him go to a lynx cave. He also have a cousin a other warlock, who is also gentle than him he hate all of his family member who are nice.
Other Media[]
Robot Chicken[]
Gargamel appears as a recurring character in Robot Chicken. In the shorts the he has appeared in, Gargamel is typically portrayed similarly to in the animated series. But due to the Robot Chicken's comedic nature, fun is constantly poked at his evil schemes and varying motivation for wanting to capture the Smurfs.
In one episode, Brainy Smurf accuses Gargamel of being the murderer who has been plaguing Smurf Village, but Gargamel states that he actually just wants to turn the Smurfs into gold and when Brainy tells him that he thought he wanted to eat the Smurfs, Gargamel states that his motivations were never fully clear. In another episode, after a disastrous flood ravages Smurf village and leaves dozens dead, Gargamel takes advantage of this and finds and cooks dozens of dead Smurfs, only to find that he doesn't like their taste and sadly orders takeout instead.
In another episode, after the Smurfberry crop is destroyed by Gypsy Moths, Gargamel finds Smurf Village on Google Maps and offers to hand over his Smurfberries in exchange for having twelve Smurfs fight to the death in a Hunger Games style tournament, although he is later killed when Azrael returns to his lair with an exploding steak. In his most notable appearance, in a parody of Avatar, Gargamel turns himself into a Smurf in order to infiltrate Smurf Village but ends up enjoying being a Smurf instead and reforms, unknowingly leaving Azrael to starve.
The Smurfs live-action films[]
- Main article: Gargamel (The Smurfs Film Series)
Smurfs: The Lost Village[]
- Main article: Gargamel (Smurfs: The Lost Village)
Britney Spears Oh La La Music Video[]
Gargamel makes a cameo appearance when he accidentally zapped Britney Spears by transferring her in Smurf Village.
The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol[]
Gargamel appears in the story in the future shown to Grouchy by the Smurf of Christmas Future, who has captured nearly all of the Smurfs and proceeds to capture Grouchy as well.
The Smurfs: The Legend of Smurfy Hollow[]
Gargamel appears in the story to collect the Smurfs that his traps have captured, only to be chased after by the Headless Horseman. He finds temporary safety inside the covered bridge which the Headless Horseman cannot cross through, but when he taunts the spirit, the Headless Horseman throws a flaming pumpkin inside the bridge, causing Gargamel and his cat Azrael to fall into the river and be carried away toward a waterfall.
Gallery[]
.webp "Gargamel (Hana-Barbera).webp (19 KB)")
Trivia[]
- According to French sociologist Antoine Buéno, it is believed that Gargamel represents a Jewish stereotype, due to having a big nose, magic powers, love of gold, and balding looks.
- He was created by the late Pierre "Peyo" Culliford.
- Gargamel has served as an archenemy to four major Smurfs in his life.
- For Papa Smurf who serves as Gargamel's primary nemesis who they both have mastered every magic and curses of sorcery. Unlike other Smurfs who wish Gargamel to be gone forever, Papa will always be a truly honorable Smurf and wizard and is willing to help and spare Gargamel's life by undoing all of his mistakes after he sees his cowardly side who not stronger than other pure evil sorcerers, as long he does not double cross him.
- For Brainy Smurf who serves as Gargamel's primary nemesis and mostly Brainy is the other Smurfs that Gargamel destro the first for opening his mouth and also messing up his schemes.
- For Clumsy Smurf who Gargamel hates the most because his clumsiness always gets in his way while Clumsy still remains a threat to his schemes, while the other Smurfs, who still have a change of heart, when they see Clumsy there only solution to foil Gargamel's plans. Yet Gargamel still enjoy kidnapping Clumsy as his only prey to slow down before getting foiled. Yet despite this Gargamel also has some clumsiness himself just like his nemesis, but he still ignores his mistakes while he only blames these accidents on Azrael instead of himself.
- For Smurfette she has always been Gargamel creation but slave since he made her to manipulate the Smurfs in order to find the village. yet he threatens to destroy her if she fails. Later after Papa made Smurfette a real Smurf, and then later on she decided to rescue the Smurfs from Gargamel. like Clumsy, Smurfette also gets kidnapped by Gargamel (who can be too obsessed with her) but yet she's either rescue by her friends or she escapes on her own.
- For Grouchy Smurf, he serves as Gargamel's dark foil and arguable archrival. They both hate each other including Gargamel believes Grouchy is just like the other Smurfs who have too much happiness and wants to capture him. While Grouchy may not always like or hate everything he sees, but he truly holds a grudge against Gargamel who's not only a threat to him but also his own friends, which is why he always Quotes, "I Hate Gargamel!" Yet in the Kaplowey Scroll when Gargamel tries to find the scroll so he can eliminate the Smurfs by saying the magic but forbidden word, instead his rival Grouchy only said it when Jokey Smurf laugh at him which blind him in rage and made Jokey disappear which later, he regrets it when he realized his mistake and claims he hates himself when he almost become hateful, heartless and cruel as Gargamel himself.
External Links[]
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