Unicef bombs the Smurfs in fund-raising campaign for ex-child soldiers The people of Belgium have been left reeling by the first adult-only episode of the Smurfs, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters' village is annihilated by warplanes. The short but chilling film is the work of Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, and is to be broadcast on national television next week as a campaign advertisement.
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. The final frame bears the message: "Don't let war affect the lives of children."
I have not yet found video of this. Please help.
Update: Lots of people have pointed at the video in the original article (faster mirror at Crooks and Liars) (and shame on you all for not reading comments before commenting) but that video is just a useless slideshow: it's a frame every three seconds. (The smurfs start about halfway through, after the legless kid.) I'm still hoping to find a non-slideshow video of the cartoon part.
Update 2: The Parking Lot is Full had the prescient scoop on this in 1999.
Update 3:
I don't know whether it's horrifying or clever.
It certainly is a little more able to be shown on television here in the States than the blown-apart children they're trying to keep from happening.
L.
That's pretty smurfin' smurfy.
It's enough to make a person feel blue.
(sorry)
-t
click on "campagne voor oorlogskinderen" under "video".
belgianwaffle on the somethingawful forums found it.
When word of this gets out wider, you KNOW there's going to be a stupid uproar. The video will be pulled. For the sake of posterity (and killing smurfs) we MUST preserve this important (sick, hilarious) piece of our smurf-bombing culture! ;]
The video clip is pretty short though. I have no idea if there's a longer version than played within the news article.
damn it, I think it's down already. I clicked the link and I get something on african children.
That's what the PSA is trying to preach about. Watch the video a bit and then it will play the smurf footage.
Every kewl videos usually ends up on ifilm.com - ie the trojangames, etc....
Ah, there it is. I had stopped watching shortly after seeing the kid with no legs.
It seems to be a stream, not a file, though? I can't manage to save a copy with the incantations I know. If someone could give me a Quicktime of just the smurfy bits, that would be appreciated.
Two versions are available: mp4, wmv. Both of them, however, play like slideshows.
It really is a slideshow -- the FPS of the mp4 is 0.3.
That page is http://unicef.org/videoaudio/video_psas_all.html . It isn't there now, but will probably go shortly after the video goes into official circulation, plus maybe a delay of a week or so.
BEST. TITLE. OF. POST. EVER.
http://x6.putfile.com/videos/28208544643.wmv
I get a good frame rate, but no audio in WMP. And ffmpegX can't convert it to quicktime (zero-length output.)
I converted it to mov using
pigfuckerPremiere, and email it to jwz@jwz.org.Looks like the thought police knocked down the video link. If anyone saved a copy of the smurfed up video I would appreciate a copy sent to neagle_public@yahoo.com
Thank you and have a smurfy day, just kidding.
There's a full-framerate clip in RealMedia format on BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4334086.stm