As Papa Smurf and friends re-enter the cultural atmosphere, there's no dodging the question: Are the Smurfs now, or they have ever been ... communist?
"The workers own all the capital equally, and there is no upper class of owners/capitalists to oppress them," wrote Mr. Schmidt, author of the book "Secrets of Pop Culture," in an email. "Unlike real-life Marxist countries, the Smurfs managed this feat without resorting to totalitarianism or repressing personal freedom, so it is a utopia."
"[Gargamel] desired to exploit the 'workers' (i.e., the Smurfs) and get rich for his own selfish reasons, without any regard for their well-being," Mr. Schmidt wrote.
