A loosely-based Animated Adaptation of The Smurfs comic book stories "The Smurfnapper" and "Smurf Traps".
In the story, Smurfette has a nightmare that Gargamel has made Papa Smurf lose his magical powers, which makes her wonder about Papa Smurf when she wakes up in the morning. She sees him in his laboratory working on a plant-growth experiment that goes haywire, and a few other attempts don't do anything but make Smurfette suspect that her dream may be a premonition to something terrible on the horizon. She tells her fellow Smurfs about her dream, but they're not certain of whether to believe it was coming true ... especially since he had been working on a plant-growth formula and his search for the right ingredients hasn't quite resulted in success.
Meanwhile, Gargamel comes across a formula in one of his spellbooks for turning base metals into gold. The formula requires him to use ten Smurfs, which means he has to go and capture them. He set up traps to capture Smurfs one by one, but doesn't come up with more than just a few ounces worth of them. When Gargamel overhears the Smurfs talking to themselves about Papa Smurf losing his powers, he decides to use that to his advantage.
Soon Brainy discovers a message out in the forest that he brings back to the village that reads: "Under the Red Oak, this note says: I send bad news with no regrets. Four Smurfs must come once every hour, or Papa Smurf will lose all power." The Smurfs decide that they will go to the Red Oak to keep that from happening, but as they arrive, Smurfette dives out of the way as a net swoops down to capture her fellow Smurfs. As Gargamel takes his captive Smurfs home with him to make gold, Smurfette and Clumsy go to find Papa Smurf on the Mountain of Mists to tell him what has happened.
Papa Smurf comes up with a plan to rescue the captured Smurfs. First he makes up a batch of fake gold coins to lure Gargamel out of his hovel so he could go in and deal with Azrael alone, getting the cat to knock over the pot where the Smurfs are held captive in, then fleeing after Azrael is (briefly) stunned when the pot crashes onto his head. Soon Gargamel finds a mountain of gold coins, but he also finds himself captured by a net when he gets close to it. Azrael also comes by the same location while chasing the Smurfs and is also caught in a net.
With Gargamel and Azrael safely out of the way, the Smurfs return to the village and see for themselves that Papa Smurf hasn't lost his magic touch, as he is able to make his plant-growth formula a success. Papa Smurf finally explains to the others that he isn't in any danger of losing his powers ... rather, part of being a successful wizard, or a success at anything in life, means sometimes having things end in failure before there is success.
In the tag scene, Gargamel is still caught in the net trap when it begins to rain ... literally liquidating the gold.
This episode provides examples of
- All That Glitters: Papa Smurf, knowing Gargamel's greed is a weakness, draws him away from the boiling cauldron by using fake gold coins, tossing two at him to get his attention, then creating a trail to lure him outside, allowing Papa to rescue Gargamel's captives.
- An Aesop: Failure often results in success if you keep working at it.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game and A Taste of Their Own Medicine: Used by Papa Smurf when he uses fool's gold (gold coins that turn out to be fake) to distract Gargamel and draw him out of his hovel and away from the boiling cauldron of Smurfs. Gargamel had used this trick earlier to capture several Smurfs by exploiting their weaknesses (e.g., he grabs Greedy with a cake that turns out to be frosted with glue) or fears (Brainy and several others by pinning a note stating that four Smurfs must come to the Red Oak every hour to prevent Papa Smurf from losing his powers).
- Dream Intro: Smurfette's nightmare about Gargamel having captured her, screaming at her for her failure to help him capture her fellow Smurfs and Papa Smurf being unable to help her. It's metaphoric for Papa Smurf seeming to have lost his touch as of late.
- Foreshadowing: Future stories where Gargamel would need six Smurfs instead of ten in order to make gold.
- Nightmare Fuel: In-universe for Smurfette, who fears her protector, and all the Smurfs' protector, is becoming too aged to watch over her and them and keep them safe from harm, namely Gargamel. Papa Smurf's experiments being more error than trial seems to be evidence backing Smurfette's fears.
