Gargamel

Every good Saturday morning cartoon needs a recurring villain that is easy to hate and will always be the arch nemesis of the heroes. The Smurfs in the original comic stripe ant the 1980’s cartoon had such an enemy in the sorcerer Gargamel. He was the sorcerer that never really made it all that clear on what he wanted to do with the Smurfs but, it was plenty clear he did not want to do anything particularly nice to them. No matter what new evil force tried to destroy the smurfs, it was always Gargamel that was the only villain that always there in the end.

Gargamel was not to a character to be pitied or sympathized with, just like most other children’s cartoons in the 1980’s. His appearance just reeked of an evil wizard who was up to no good. He was perpetually stooped, wore a dark robe, and always had rotting teeth. Hating pretty much everyone, with the Smurfs the object of most of this hatred, Gargemel only uses friendship as a means to an end. He never acted friendly to another character unless there was some type of gain to be had. He was portrayed as someone to be despised because of that hatred except for maybe later in the series when he almost seems to be softening up there were reasons to feel pity for the old man.

Gargamel’s reasoning for wanting to capture the smurfs seems to vary from episode to episode. When he was initially introduced in the comic, he had captured a smurf in order to use them in a potion recipe that would result in the creation of gold. When the smurfs stopped him from going through with his plan, he swore to get revenge on the smurfs. Throughout the series though, he tended to switch his ultimate purpose for the smurfs from wanting to turn them into gold into eating them fairly consistently. At one point in the series, his frustration with his consistent failure at capturing the smurfs turned into a bit of rage as he screamed "I don't want to eat them, I don't want to turn them into gold, all I want now is to DESTROY THEM!"

Even though Gargamel seems to fit perfectly into the Saturday morning villain mold, there are times in the series where he almost lets go of the hate and helps the smurfs or the smurfs end up saving him. He saved Papa Smurf when he fell into the fountain of youth, making him a smurfling again. Instead of trying to take advantage of the leaderless smurfs, he decided to aid them and restored Papa smurf to his proper age. Maybe this was because the smurfs aided him in his time of need when dealing with other villains, such as Lord Balthazar who had enslaved Gargamel. Put this together with the period of time when he took on an apprentice who had been rejected at wizard school, there seems to be a little bit more then just a villain who hates everything in the world.

In the end, Gargamel was the true antagonist of the Smurfs cartoon and will always hold that position. No matter what other villain came into the series, how much he helped the smurfs, or was helped by them. He will always be that cranky old sorcerer that wanted to find a way to the smurf village so he could use those cute little blue people for whatever dastardly goals he had for that episode.