Imps are humanoid beings of various sizes and appearances, some of which possess magical powers that they use for their own purposes. They are often associated with goblins because they have a reputation for being mischievous. They resemble short humans with pointy ears, although a few rare imps may have rounded ears like a human. The most common skin color amongst imps is green, although some may share the same skin colors as humans. Imps have very varied sizes compared to other races seen, with some being the same size as Smurfs, while others the size of short humans (but seeming like giants when compared to the more common smaller imps). There is also a different variety of imp known as Miniature Imps which are even smaller than regular imps. These imps are known to grab on to certain people they like to the point where they might not ever let go, and it is almost impossible to remove them due to their impressive strength.
Mainstream Smurfs Media[]
| Mainstream Smurfs Media |
The Smurfs first encountered a nameless imp in "Smurfette's Dancing Shoes" when he sought to marry a fair maiden in order to get his hands on the ancient Treasure of the Trolls. He forced Smurfette to make her marry him by using the magical dancing shoes he had given her that she could never take off. Papa Smurf, however, saved her by using magic words he found to remove the shoes from Smurfette's feet and placed them on the imp's feet and those of his guardians.
Another imp by the name of Dr. Charlatan paid the Smurfs a visit when he was chased out of a human village for selling a worthless "miracle tonic". The Smurfs were duped into believing the fake doctor's promises of the tonic, almost to the point where he had captured them and planned to use them to make up an actual miracle cure for every known illness. Papa Smurf had stopped him from doing so by tricking Dr. Charlatan into believing that he had contracted an illness from the Smurfs that required a "miracle cure" from Papa Smurf. The said "miracle cure" that the village leader provided, however, had ended up curing the imp of his lying.
A third imp character is Dismal Boggs, an adventurer whom Grouchy comes across in his attempt to escape celebrating his birthday party in "The Secret Of Shadow Swamp". Dismal was searching for the Enchanted Falls where there is a hidden secret paradise, and so the two join together in the search as Papa Smurf and a team of his little Smurfs also go into the swamp to search for Grouchy.
In "Smurf A Mile In My Shoes", an imp simply known as The Cursed Imp (because he was not given a name of any kind during the time of his appearance) was once a handsome round-eared imp who had been transformed by the Sea Witch into an ugly cursed form due to his mischievous ways. Before he was cursed, he would play pranks on anyone, including other imps, but he changed his ways after being cursed and would devote his life to making friends after being freed.
In Papa Smurf's flashback story in "Papa's Family Album", an imp named Hotap used goblins to kidnap all of Papa Smurf's little Smurfs when they were Smurflings, with the exception of Brainy who managed to escape. He was intending to turn the captured Smurfs into gold when Brainy temporarily stopped the imp's machine with his book, giving Papa Smurf enough time to appear with his magic powder to duel with the imp and cause his machine to go backwards, destroying itself in the process.
The Game Master is an imp who challenges various people he comes across to a game where the loser ends up becoming one of his game pieces. In his encounter with the Smurfs, though, his final challenger Grouchy used one of the Game Master's rules, "wizard takes all", against him by using Papa Smurf, who was both a Smurf and a wizard, to remove all of his opponent's pieces from the board, thus freeing all the people from their imprisonment and sending the defeated Game Master home crying to his parents about losing.
In "Papa's Last Spell", Papa Smurf performed his magic before an audience of esteemed imp and elf wizards.
In "Vanity's Closest Friend", a miniature imp (that was about half the size of a Smurf) named Winky appeared. He was Vanity's quickly accepted and even sooner rejected best friend. He did not leave Vanity's side until the end of the episode where he switched over to Gargamel.
In the "Smurfs Monsters" comic story "Motro, the Forest Monster", an imp that was working for some human bandits aided them in destroying Mother Nature's Smurf park garden and when the Smurfs proved troublesome, the imp summoned his forest monster, Motro to capture them in order to sell them to Gargamel.
Empath Stories[]
| Empath Stories |
In the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf story "Flowerbell's Love Triangle," the nameless imp from "Smurfette's Dancing Shoes" is identified as Avarice and appears again to go after Papa Smurf's former love interest Flowerbell in order to marry someone so he could get his hands on the Ancient Treasure of the Trolls.
Hotap himself reappears in the alternate timeline story "Hefty, The Luckiest Smurf" for a second try at turning the now grown-up Smurfs into gold, but was this time foiled by Smurfette as well as Papa Smurf, Hefty, Tuffy, and Duncan.
Hero: The Guardian Smurf stories[]
 Azrin | |
| Hero Stories |
So far, the only known Imp to appear is Azrin, who was the Imp that Smurfette encountered during the time that Hero and Wonder were on their two-month honeymoon. He tricked her into marrying him by granting her a pair of magic shoes so that she would be a graceful dancer. She was saved by her fellow Smurfs when they thwarted Azrin of his wicked plans, and so he fled.
Azrin returns in the story "Return of the Treasure Hunter Imp" to again marry Smurfette, but instead, he set his sights on Wonder. He put her under a spell, which made her fall deeply in love with him; she even agreed to start a family with him. This failed to happen when Hero managed to get through to Wonder's mind in order to make her willpower strong enough to break his control over her.
Smurf Me Up[]
| Smurf Me Up |
Imps are usually portrayed as trouble makers and are villains. The term "imp" is used by many characters as an insult as well.
In the Smurf me Up series, Avarice is the imp referenced by Smurfette who wanted to force marriage onto her with the use of enchanted dancing shoes and his Gargoyle army in Smurfette's Dancing Shoes. He returns again with the help of Nemesis to claim back Smurfette for himself in hopes of getting his treasure from the spirit of the ancient trolls. His plans are foiled by the newcomer, Glovey Smurf in The Treasure Hunter Imp story.
Avarice returns again with his army of Gargoyles to the Smurfs' village to attack once again to take Smurfette in the Defying The Gods story. Glovey once again challenges him since he is married to Smurfette by this point already. He is successful with the use of his wishing star abilities and orders the imp to never return to the forest. In the end, the imp and the gargoyles make a truce with the Smurfs after Glovey requests help from Avarice in order to defeat the galactic convicts from Belial. In the aftermath, Avarice claims that this however would not change anything and would fight the haired Smurf the next time he catches a glimpse of him.
In The Red Mist story, Eddy Cougar is an evil imp who was brought from Hell by Lord Balthazar in a blood ritual. The imp caused trouble for the Smurfs by altering reality with the use of the Smurfs' dreams. He is finally pulled out from the dream realm with the teamwork of the Smurfs and is finally beaten and sent back to the underworld with Glovey's Enchanted form.
In the Smurf Criminal story, Mr. Big was an evil imp who wanted to take over the world with his army of mobsters. His goal was to drug every child, starting with the Smurflings. He kidnaps Sassette, leaving Glovey no choice but to cancel his concert and save her and the world yet again.
LD Stories[]
| LD Stories |
Within The Light and Dark Series, there are several Imp characters.
The first is a deceased female introduced in "Beyond the Mirror's Reflection," who appears in a dream-based flashback when Ripple begins to experience resurfacing memories from his past life. Maeve the Imp is his past life's love interest, but her gypsy lifestyle is miserable thanks to her master as he holds impending debt over her. Once she is saved and the episode concludes, she is not seen again.
In Smurfing Over Troubled Water Special of Season 2, the Game Master makes a reappearance from the cartoon show. He introduces a new game to the Good King's castle and challenges the Royal Court to play. When they refuse, he traps Princess Savina within the game, which forces Falla and Peewit to accept the challenge.