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Don Messick explained the evolution of Papa Smurf's voice
Papa Smurf didn't always sound so Smurfy.
Don Messick was the voice behind many of your favorite Hanna-Barbera characters like Scooby-Doo, Ranger Smith, Boo-Boo Bear, and Bamm-Bamm Rubble, but one of his favorite cartoons might surprise you. In an interview with Brian Lowry, Messick revealed his love of The Smurfs: "I find Smurfs genuinely funny. It's well-written, and it usually has a moral without berating the issue."
Unlike his frequent collaborator Daws Butler, most of Messick's voices were not usually impressions, but original creations developed around the character. For his role as Papa Smurf, Messick explained his approach to the voice, "My concept was more of a pixie-ish kind of guy...After two episodes were recorded, we decided to change it a bit."
Looking back on the first episode, "The Smurfette", many characters sound different from the way they would sound throughout the rest of the show. Hefty's voice is much higher, Clumsy is deeper, and Brainy sounds even more nasally, if that's even possible. The cast was finding their voices individually but also as a group; what do the Smurfs sound like together, as a species?
They figured it out together as they produced the show, but Messick's character was still an outlier. "So many of the characters had these whimsical, fey little voices," Messick recalled, "And Papa Smurf had to be the strength that would hold them all together. He should be more mature because the rest of them are all scatterbrains."
Even as all the other Smurfs had squeaky little high-pitched voices, Papa Smurf had to sound deeper, more solid to stand out and round up the squeaky little Smurfs. The deep, authoritative Papa Smurf voice we know so well is unique to Papa Smurf, but also reminiscent of another authoritative Messick character: Ranger Smith. It's a similarity you only notice in the brief moments where Ranger Smith feels sympathetic to Yogi Bear, that he sounds almost exactly like Papa Smurf. Messick was able to create a voice that represented all the things Papa Smurf is: strong and authoritative, but also kind, compassionate, and curious.
Doing an impression of Papa Smurf, Messick ended the interview by saying, "So now, Papa Smurf is much more in charge, in control of things - a sort of Santa Claus, all year round."
