An Animated Adaptation of The Smurfs comic book story "The Weather-Smurfing Machine".
In the story, Handy is excited to wake up on the day of the spring picnic, but finds out that the day is rainy. Going to his workshop, he designs and eventually builds something called "the weather-smurfing machine" through which he could control the weather. The Smurfs laugh at this at first, but when Handy shows a demonstration of the completed invention at work, the rainy skies suddenly clear and it is now a bright sunny day for a picnic.
While most of the Smurfs go off on their picnic together, Poet stays behind in the village to compose his poem while Farmer tends to his crops. He sees that they could use a bit of water, so he goes to the weather-smurfing machine to make it rain. Poet finds his poetry composition interrupted by rain and so goes to the machine to make it sunny again. Farmer sees his crops dry up and goes back to the machine to make the rain return. And so the two Smurfs fight over whether to make it sunny or rainy until they break the controls of the machine, causing the weather to go out of control.
At the picnic site, the Smurfs see that the weather is so crazy that it's making even the birds confused over whether they should migrate south or north. They decide that they should go back to the village so that Handy could see what's wrong with the weather-smurfing machine when Farmer and Poet arrive to tell them that they broke the machine. Handy becomes so upset that he races toward the bridge over the River Smurf, but he barely escapes falling into the river when a log floating down the raging river destroys the bridge. Realizing that they will have to find another way across, the Smurfs endure through the random weather changes as they make their way to the machine.
Finally arriving at the machine, Handy finds that it is so out of control that he cannot stop it. Seeing Brainy's umbrella on hand, Handy takes it and fashions it into a kite that he sails up into the suddenly stormy sky. Lightning then strikes the kite, sending electricity down the string into the machine and causing it to explode, restoring weather conditions to normal. As the Smurfs learn that it's better to leave the control of weather to nature itself, Poet now wonders how he's going to complete his "Ode To The Rain"...and Jokey obliges by sprinkling water on top of Poet with a watering can.
Tropes associated with this episode include
- Blame Game: When the Smurfs try to get some rest from the fierce weather conditions, there's a bit of this going on with both Poet and Farmer until Papa Smurf silences them.
- Natural Disaster Cascade: Played With. When the weather-smurfing machine goes haywire from the abuse, it causes the setting's weather to become completely chaotic and rapidly shifting, until the Smurfs destroy the machine and the weather returns to normal.
- Improvised Lightning Rod: Brainy's umbrella becomes a kite that is attached to a wrench in the weather-smurfing machine's control mechanism.
- Weather-Control Machine: The weather-smurfing machine.
