Yeah, Right, Whatever

UNICEF, in its efforts to raise money to help the former child soldiers in Burundi, have a new commercial (well, a 25 second "film") in Belgium.

The people of Belgium have been left reeling by the first adult-only episode of the Smurfs, in which the blue-skinned cartoon characters' village is annihilated by warplanes.

The short but chilling film is the work of Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, and is to be broadcast on national television next week as a campaign advertisement.

BOMB the Smurfs? I'm not fan of the happy blue gang, but... bomb them? nah...

The short film pulls no punches. It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around their familiar village of mushroom- shaped houses until, without warning, bombs begin to rain from the sky.

Tiny Smurfs scatter and run in vain from the whistling bombs, before being felled by blast waves and fiery explosions. The final scene shows a scorched and tattered Baby Smurf sobbing inconsolably, surrounded by prone Smurfs.

They claim this is for "adults only", but you know kids are going to see it. And it's going to be very upsetting. I know it's just for the shock value, which they got. There had to be a better way to raise money for those kids than this. Messing with children's cartoon friends is just... well, it's just wrong.