Smurfs up: The Smurf renaissance

Les Schtroumpfs were the invention of Belgian cartoonist Pierre Culliford, who wrote as Peyo and published his first strip in 1958, but global smurfication came with the Hanna-Barbera television treatment in 1981. Today, the first series on DVD is a collector's item and will set you back £45. On eBay prices rocket and in Notting Hill shop Mimi Fifi, there is a whole floor signposted Smurfland.

From 1981 to 1989, the cartoons documented Smurf life. Blonde squeaky Smurfette (voiced by Katy Perry in the new film) brought a woman's touch to their world and Papa Smurf doled out benevolent advice. The Smurfs' elastic use of their own name, which can be substituted as a verb, noun or adjective, and can mean anything, is one of their wittiest and gently naughty traits. Indeed, the Smurfs were created out of a linguistic game.

During a meal with a Belgian friend André Franquin, Peyo briefly forgot the French word for salt - he asked Franquin to pass the "schtroumpf". Smurf-lore has it that Franquin replied, "Here's the schtroumpf - when you are done schtroumpfing, schtroumpf it back." The duo spent the weekend speaking their new language and the world of the Schtroumps was born. "Smurf" is the Dutch rendering and the one English speakers preferred.

Generation Smurf writer Plum Sykes once memorably described the diet of New York socialites as "less food than you'd give a Smurf". Comedians David Walliams and Matt Lucas have a Lou and Andy sketch in which Andy insists on wearing his Smurf outfit to a Chinese restaurant, and writer Jez Butterworth incorporated Smurfs into his hit play Jerusalem.

June 25, when the film is released, has been designated Global Smurfs Day. Costumes and paint will be provided at London's O2 arena. Meanwhile, in Spain, the tiny Andalucian pueblo blanco Júzcar is becoming a pueblo azul. The village is the venue for the world premier and is being transformed with 4,000 litres of blue paint.
The striking shade of Smurf blue is also having a fashion moment. Actresses Jessica Alba and Blake Lively have worn it on the red carpet and socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson was bold enough to turn up at the royal wedding clad from head to toe in the difficult shade of Smurf, an intense cobalt blue, from shoes to dress, hat and gloves.

There's just one cloud in the Smurf blue sky: Le Petit Livre Bleu by Antoine Bueno, who teaches at Paris's prestigious Institute for Political Studies. His recently published deconstruction of Smurf society has inspired a barrage of headlines around the world, accusing the Smurfs of being racist, communist or both. Bueno tells me he has been misunderstood: "I am not for a moment saying that Peyo was racist. I don't think he was political at all. I'm saying that if we look closely, the cartoons remind of us of ideology."

He marvels, "This is not my first book, it's my sixth. I've written about very serious subjects: about immortality, about gender and I've never had interest like this."