The Smurfs That Time Forgot

"The Smurfs That Time Forgot" was an episode that appeared in Season 9 of the Smurfs cartoon show. It is that season's premiere episode along with "Lost In The Ages", and is the first part of the story arc which also includes "Cave Smurfs".

Summary

In the present time...

It is the dead of winter, and Snappy, Hefty, Brainy, and Clumsy are up in the mountains fetching a frost fern for one of Papa Smurf's experiments when Snappy gets too loud and Hefty shushes him, warning that he could start an avalanche. Of course, Brainy overdoes it by telling Snappy, "QUIET!" -- which ends up burying the four Smurfs in snow. As they dig themselves out of the heap, they hear a heart beat and ice cracking nearby. It is a baby dinosaur that wakes up, scaring Brainy and sending the other three Smurfs cowering in fear until Snappy bravely befriends the awakened creature.

Back in the village, Papa Smurf is mixing up his frost-free formula while Farmer is busy covering the smurfberry bushes with blankets when the three adult Smurfs come back with the frost fern needed to complete the formula. Snappy comes home as well, this time riding on the back of a baby dinosaur, which sends the Smurfs scurrying this way and that and rocking things inside some Smurfs' houses. Soon the baby dinosaur comes to a complete stop, and as Snappy asks Papa Smurf if they could keep the dinosaur, the village leader looks toward Brainy, Hefty, and Clumsy waiting for an explanation.

Snappy starts playing fetch with the dinosaur that he now calls Crinkles, sending him throughout the village to chase the ball, but also causing him to damage various Smurf houses along the way, including Greedy's kitchen, where he is busy cooking up a pot of chili. But later on, the playing around begins to exhaust Crinkles, so Snappy turns to Papa Smurf for his help, and he suggests that maybe he needs something to eat. Unfortunately, even with all the food the Smurfs manage to put in a giant bowl for Crinkles, the dinosaur doesn't seem too hungry for it. Grandpa Smurf tells Snappy that the dinosaur needs to be home with his own kind, munching on prehistoric plants. This inspires Papa Smurf to call upon the only being who can send Crinkles back to his own time -- Father Time.

Papa Smurf sends Hefty and Clumsy to Father Time's workshop to ask for his help, but unfortunately all they get is a message from him saying that he's "taking some time off" and that he will "be back in time" -- meaning that he's currently unavailable. This doesn't fare well for the Smurfs or for Crinkles, who seems to be getting weaker, and if he doesn't return to his own time soon, then he's doomed. It is then Grandpa Smurf tells Papa Smurf that they will need to use whatever it is that's been hidden underneath his cellar, because it's their only hope now. He shows the rest of the Smurfs by using a crank that spins his house out of the way, revealing a winding staircase leading down into a chamber with three doors that only Grandpa Smurf could open.

Through the three doors, the Smurfs see a room full of crystals, plus a bunch of scrolls placed in cubbyholes. Grandpa Smurf tells them that these are the Time Scrolls that are used to travel through time, and as the elderly Smurf selects the one that will send Crinkles back to the prehistoric era, Handy is using his crane to lower Crinkles into the chamber. Papa Smurf tells his little Smurfs to leave the cellar, with Grandpa Smurf warning them that time travel is too dangerous for a bunch of "whippersmurfers". As they leave, Grandpa Smurf gets the time crystals ready to be assembled, but as he uses the magic key to arrange the crystals in the required order for the destination, Handy's crane is getting strained by Crinkles' weight. Soon the rope breaks, and Handy and more than a dozen other Smurfs grab hold of it so they could lower Crinkles safely without damaging the crystals or the chamber. Nanny and Farmer join in, but they are too late: Handy and the dozen or so other Smurfs fall into the chamber with Crinkles just as the time crystals generate a magical whirlwind that sucks them in along with Grandpa and Papa Smurf. The Time Scrolls are also pulled out of their cubbyholes and shredded to bits as the whirlwind rises up above the cellar and then vanishes with Crinkles and his tagalong Smurfs, dumping the remains of the Time Scrolls on the ground.

As Nanny and Farmer along with the remaining Smurfs look down into the cellar at the remains of the Time Scrolls, hoping that things won't be over for Grandpa Smurf and those that went with him, Father Time shows up, receiving Hefty's message that he left behind. He looks into the cellar and sees that Grandpa Smurf has used the time crystals, which he tells the remaining Smurfs are very powerful magic crystals, but he assures them that as long as Grandpa Smurf has the ruby key, they should return home safe and sound. Or so he hopes.

In the prehistoric era...

Soon the magical whirlwind vanishes, dumping Grandpa Smurf, Papa Smurf, and all the Smurfs that were sucked into the whirlwind with them in what would appear to be the Smurf forest thousands of years ago. As Grandpa Smurf gathers the time crystals, the other Smurfs notice that their clothes have changed -- the male Smurfs seem to be wearing Smurf hats and loincloths made of animal skins, and Smurfette and Sassette tunics of the same material. Smoogle, however, remains unchanged. Grandpa Smurf tells them that, with the use of the time crystals, it makes its travelers wear whatever is the latest fashion in that era. Soon they also spot Crinkles, briefly hiding behind a plant that he suddenly eats.

Papa Smurf tells the others that, now that they have brought Crinkles back to his own time, all they have to do now is reunite him with his parents. But soon they get an unfriendly greeting from a couple of very big dinosaurs, which sends the group of Smurfs scurrying for safety. In their flight, they end up running on top of a tar pit that they slowly sink into. As the Smurfs cry for help, Crinkles comes running toward the tar pit, eager to help them. Snappy warns his animal friend not to get stuck in there. Instead, Crinkles backs up and butts a big enough rock into the pit to make most of the tar go away. This leaves the Smurfs with less sticky stuff to deal with, but they end up with a big squabble over who's to blame for getting them into this situation in the first place.

Papa Smurf and Grandpa Smurf decide that the best course of action would be what they originally planned to do -- take Crinkles back home alone. So, with the help of Crinkles, Papa Smurf gets the attention of his little Smurfs to tell them to stay where they are, and to remind them that their being here was just an accident. Snappy then calls Crinkles, and the two of them head off with Papa Smurf and Grandpa Smurf following behind.

Meanwhile, in some prehistoric community of humans, a caveman teacher leads his young students in some lessons about dinosaurs when one of them, Grog, decides to play a nasty prank on a fellow girl student named Unga. This attracts the attention of the teacher, who then kicks the pet Grog wasn't supposed to have in the class outside the cave. Grog is sent to sit in a corner wearing a primitive dunce cap and wasn't permitted to go with the class on their field trip. As the girl student teases Grog before she leaves, he decides to go on his own field trip and takes his pet sabertooth cat along with him.

Back where the other Smurfs are waiting, they are trying to make themselves as comfortable as possible while waiting for the three Smurfs to return, with Handy vainly trying to start a fire with damp prehistoric firewood. Clumsy tells them about Grandpa Smurf's story about being able to start a fire using rocks and, despite Brainy's disbelief, decides to go out and find some. While he does, Papa Smurf, Grandpa Smurf, and Snappy are galloping along the trail Crinkles is following when they stop and realize that both Crinkles is lost and another kind of giant dinosaur has found them. Snappy gets Crinkles going to outrace the big lizard, but they soon find themselves in a dead end with no way out. Papa Smurf tries to use a hidden pouch of magic powder to create a lizard creature that could scare off the big dinosaur, but the dinosaur ends up scaring the lizard into oblivion.

With the two elder Smurfs out of ideas, Snappy comes up with one of his own, which requires getting to higher ground. Using the remainder of his magic powder, Papa Smurf gives Snappy wings to fly himself and Grandpa Smurf to the ledge, barely managing to make it before its power runs out. Now above the dinosaur, Snappy jumps on top of the big dinosaur, closing one of his eyelids, while Grandpa Smurf does the same closing the other, thus causing the big lizard to go out of control until Crinkles bumps him into knocking himself out with a rock. Snappy and Grandpa Smurf safely drop out of the way before the dinosaur drops cold, allowing the three Smurfs and Crinkles to escape.

Meanwhile, Grog tries to have fun on his own field trip, attempting to capture a lizard to scare his fellow student Unga with, when he notices a "blue lizard" walking around gathering up rocks, which turns out to be Clumsy. He races back to the Smurf camp with his rocks when he trips over a branch, losing most of the rocks but two, with which he accidentally starts a fire. Clumsy is impressed, and so also are Grog and his cat, who capture him and force him to make the flame appear again with the promise that they will let him go if he does. Clumsy tries to do it again, but ends up striking his hand and causing one of the rocks to strike the cat's face, angering him. As Clumsy backs away from the cat, he accidentally causes the fire to start with the rocks again. But Clumsy doesn't get to go far before Grog takes him back to his class, proving that his promise to the gullible Smurf was worthless, and hoping that his discovery will make him the head of the class.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Background Information

• This episode was originally featured as a three-part episode, and was later broken into two separately titled episodes when it was aired in syndication. Parts 1 and 2 were combined into a single episode, retaining the original title, while Part 3 became "Lost In The Ages".
• This would be the last episode for most of the Smurf characters that were introduced since the show's beginning in 1981 to appear in, since the show would not be picked up for yet another season after Season 9, although in actuality only a few characters that would make their final appearances in this episode, such as Nanny, Harmony, and Farmer, do appear here.