He likes painting since he was a child. The little blue man with a round head higher than the grass was originally a supporting role in his other book. However, the children liked these lovely humanoid creatures very much, so he created a cartoon specially for these little blue people, which became the "Smurfs" that became popular all over the world.
If you don't analyze the content of Smurfs, you probably can't understand why it is accused. However, once patiently analyzed, I did find some elements of capitalist utopia in comics. To my surprise, some people's interpretation of "Smurfs" makes sense to me.
First of all, some characters in the film are considered to allude to real political figures intentionally or unintentionally.
Blue Dad = Karl Marx
The leader of the Smurfs Village is the wise man "Blue Dad". He is over 500 years old and leads all the basketball elves with his rich experience, experience, knowledge and wisdom. He has the status of spiritual leader, just like the "godfather" of the Blue Elf Village. He can often save the Smurfs from the harm of the villain gegewu at the most critical moment, so he has some kind of "savior" nature. In addition, it is not difficult to see from the picture that Blue Dad is wearing a big red hat besides his trademark beard like Marx. In Europe at that time, red was traditionally regarded as the new color of the left-wing socialist movement. So blue dad is alluding to the leader of the proletarian movement.
Congcong = Trotsky
Known as "a pen in the village", Cong Cong may secretly plan Trotsky, a historical figure of the Universiade. Cong Cong, with Tolstoy's round eyes, is a loyal disciple of Blue Dad (Marx).
The village where the Smurfs live has obvious utopian nature, and it is a commune society with public property, collective labor and economic self-sufficiency. Every Smurf has his own duties and special functions (such as chef, carpenter, scholar, musician, poet, etc.), and works honestly for the whole village in his post. There is nothing in the village that can be called a commodity economy. Instead, under the leadership of Lan's father, he unified production and consumption, lived an egalitarian commune life, and had no external contacts, belonging to a self-sufficient closed planned economy.
Smurfs all wear the same clothes, except that big brother "Blue Dad" wears a red dress with a distinctive logo. Everyone else is wearing white hats and white pants that look like uniforms. This kind of dressing itself is a denial or dilution of the individual self, but it emphasizes the importance of the collective. Except for professional differences, most Smurfs are the same (except a few, such as Jian Peijun, who has a love sign tattooed on his arm), and all Smurfs are male except Blue Sister.
Emphasis on the collective is a particularly necessary part of this kind of community life, otherwise there will be no stability and unity, no unified view and no harmonious society.
In one episode of the story, under the guidance of an elf, the gold standard currency system was once introduced into the village. Smurfs find that everything needs money to buy; Some elves can't find a job because of their ability problems; Greed, corruption and inequality began to breed. Gegewu also coveted the Smurfs' gold coins, which triggered an external crisis. Finally, under the wise leadership of Dad Lan, he gave up this monetary system and returned to the original commune life. Money is regarded as the root of all evil.
Gegewu represents the evil capitalist system (or bourgeoisie/capitalist). This man is greedy, thinking about how to seek personal interests and how to use the Smurfs to meet his own needs. Gegewu is all black, with black eyes and black hair. In the cultural background of western Europe, he looks like a Jew with strong Jewish characteristics. The prejudice against Jews is that they are greedy, materialistic, familiar with the operation of money, and most of them are engaged in business and finance. The Az cat was enslaved by gegewu. It has no ability to distinguish, but follows blindly and is attached to gegewu. It is a chess piece. It has been pointed out that the name Az itself is Jewish (sounds like a Hebrew name).
Gegewu represents the strength of bourgeois capitalism, which is a great danger to the production community of the Smurfs. As long as this bourgeois force exists, "war is inevitable." A main line of the Smurfs story is the contest between the Smurfs (capitalist society) led by Blue Dad (Marx) and the evil bourgeois exploiting class gegewu. This is a contest between black and white, good and evil. This is a fundamental struggle between two forces and two classes.
We can see that the cartoon "Smurfs" really represents some kind of idealism and yearning for a certain way of life. The author does not necessarily consciously create his own image according to the realistic system or characters-everything may be done quietly and unconsciously. Perhaps somehow, his political ideas and ideals influenced his own creation.
As for the extent to which this cartoon instilled this utopian ideal into the watching children, it is not known.