The Root of Evil

* First aired: 25 October 1986
* Story By: Kevin Hopps
* Duration: 11 Minutes
== Cast ==
* Don Messick as Papa Smurf
* Julie Dees as Baby Smurf
* Amanda McBroom as Chlorhydris
* Hamilton Camp as Greedy Smurf, Harmony Smurf
* William Callaway as Clumsy Smurf, Painter Smurf
* Danny Goldman as Brainy Smurf
* Frank Welker as Hefty Smurf
* Alan Young as Farmer Smurf, Miner Smurf
* Jack Angel as Homnibus
*June Foray as Mother Nature
== Summary ==
It is another beautiful morning in the Smurf Forest that Mother Nature wakes up to. In fact, she wakes up just to make sure that the sun rises in order to make it a morning. As Mother Nature gets ready for the day, Greedy in the Smurf Village is already preparing for his day with a batch of smurfberry muffins straight from his oven. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to enjoy them when they're nice and plump before Harmony's horn ends up making them as flat as his music-playing. Meanwhile, Clumsy is helping Brainy sort out his book collection and stack them on his shelves when Hefty pays a visit to Brainy to borrow some of his books. Brainy thinks that Hefty wants to exercise his mind, but it turns out that Hefty really wants to use the books to exercise his arm muscles. Elsewhere in the village, Farmer tests out Miner's new irrigation system for watering his crops, and Miner gets soaked during the test while he is in the fields ready to dig. Farmer looks up and sees that there isn't a cloud in the sky, saying that it's another "smurfy day".
In the observatory of the evil witch Chlorhydris, she looks through her magic telescope and observes the world around her, particularly the Smurf Village. She is totally disgusted with seeing all the happy faces of the Smurfs doing all sorts of things that make them happy and decides to do something wickedly evil about it. Searching through her library of spell books and magic items, Chlorhydris comes across a jar of seeds that she calls the Seeds Of Discord, through which she could grow her Root Of Evil. Taking the seeds outside her observatory, the evil witch plants them into the ground and recites an incantation to make the Root Of Evil grow. Suddenly it grows and extends itself far into the Smurf Forest, burrowing through the ground and tearing asunder everything in its path.
The Root Of Evil first shows up outside Homnibus' hovel, where he and Papa Smurf are busy playing a friendly game of checkers together. Papa Smurf makes a move that wins him another match over the elderly human wizard, who upon contact with the root turns nasty and chases after Papa Smurf with a broom. Papa Smurf also comes into contact with the same root and behaves in the same way against Homnibus, flipping over a log that knocks his friend down.
The root makes its way to the Smurf Village and touches Miner, causing him to burrow furiously into the ground and start pulling out all the carrots growing in Farmer's garden until Farmer gets touched by the same root and they get into a tug-of-war over a carrot. The fighting between the two Smurfs carries itself through the smurfball playing field and into the village, while Baby Smurf barely touches the root and causes it to move elsewhere. The root touches Greedy and makes him stuff one of his muffins into Harmony's horn. It touches Brainy and makes him kick a barbell toward Hefty, causing him to crash through the wall of a Smurf house. It touches a lot of Smurfs as it extends through the village, making the Smurfs accuse each other of growing the root until they gather around Farmer's fields and accuse him of growing it. Papa Smurf then shows up and says that it's Mother Nature's fault for growing the root. Then Baby Smurf shows up, and just by touching Papa Smurf, the influence of the Root Of Evil has been removed from the village leader.
Wondering who caused the Root Of Evil to grow in the first place, Papa Smurf takes his little Smurfs (who are still under the root's influence) to Mother Nature while carrying Baby Smurf as a magical defense, to ask her if she's responsible for growing the root. Alas, even Mother Nature has been affected by the root, and uses her magic wand to scare off Papa Smurf, and says that Homnibus told her it was Papa Smurf who grew the root. She closes the door with a bang. Papa Smurf decides to play along and act as if he's still under the root's influence, taking his little Smurfs to the place where the Root Of Evil has originated in order to destroy it.
Meanwhile, Chlorhydris watches through her telescope the fighting going on among the Smurfs in the village, ecstatic that her Root Of Evil is accomplishing her desire of making the Smurfs have a bad day, when she hears the Smurfs gathered outside her observatory. Papa Smurf has lured the Smurfs under the root's influence to using a saw in order to cut through the root and to destroy it. Upon reaching the door, Chlorhydris is pelted by tomatoes thrown at her by the Smurfs still under the root's influence. Soon, the root has been cut, and as it withers away, the Smurfs come to their senses and flee for their lives as Chlorhydris chases after them, only to slip on a basket of tomatoes and be splattered by them.
With everything back to normal among the Smurfs, Papa Smurf returns to Homnibus' hovel to continue playing checkers with his friend while Mother Nature joins them to see the beautiful day she has created come to an end. The story closes with Papa Smurf making yet another winning move in a game of checkers.
== Trivia ==
*Moral: You shouldn't accuse someone of a thing they didn't do.
*This is one of the two episodes where The Smurfs are seen with red eyes, The second is "Chlorhydris' Lost Love".
*The title of the episode is based on 1st Timothy 6:10, which reads, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.".
*Papa Smurf uses the "hippity-hoppity-hop" move from "The Grouchiest Game In Town" when winning the checkers game. He mentions that he learned from Slouchy.
*Baby Smurf is the only character to not get affected under The Root's influence.
*The animation of the Smurfs running away from Chlorhydris is recycled from the past few seasons. However, it edits out Smurfette and Vanity and a couple Smurfs are swapped.
*This is one of the few episodes in which none of the new characters that were introduced from Season 5 to this season (i.e., the Smurflings, Grandpa Smurf and Puppy) appear in.
*The background music played when Hefty borrows books from Brainy was the music played when Smurfette tells the Smurfs to dig faster in "Smurfquest".
** Also, the music played when Homnibus suddenly goes aggressive and chases Papa Smurf with a broom was the music played when Grandpa, Papa Smurf, Hefty, Handy, Greedy, and Sassette face a bottomless chasm in "Smurfquest".
*The music played when Mother Nature scares Papa Smurf and Baby with her wand was the music played in the Johan And Peewit episodes.
** It was later played again when The Smurfs destroy the root of evil.
* The episode uses a plot that is similar to other cartoon episodes, like.
** The Powerpuff Girls: "Tough Love"
** Yogi's Gang: "Mr. Hothead"
** My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: "All Bottled Up"
== Errors ==
* When Farmer and Miner are having a tug-of-war over a carrot, Farmer's eyes are white instead of red. In the next shot, his eyes are red.
*Evil Hefty is shown using a two-man crosscut saw to cut the Root of Evil, which evil Brainy quickly joined by holding the right handle. Evil Miner quickly joined Hefty and the other Smurfs joined them off-screen to eventually six Smurfs are shown using the saw to cut the root. However, when they cut the Root of Evil and returned to normal, Brainy and Miner are not among the six Smurfs that cut it.
*The evil Smurfs were able to cut off the Root of Evil, making it magically vanish and leave a crack in the ground where it used to grow. When the Smurfs returned to normal, the crack in the ground mysteriously disappeared.
Category:The Funtastic Index
Category:Smurfs
Category:Episodes about hate
Category:TV Episodes