Peyo personally drew all 1232 pictures that made up the storyboards from the entire picture (154 boards each featuring 8 different images), even though he claimed never to have heard of the term 'storyboard' before he started on this feature film adaptation of his comic book album first published in 1958.
"La flûte à six schtroumpfs" is not the first adaptation of Peyo's "Smurfs" comics, theatrical or otherwise. In the early 1960s, T.V.A. Dupuis produced several black & white animated shorts, adapted faithfully from the comics, for Belgian television. In 1965, 5 of these shorts were collected into a theatrical compilation film titled Les aventures des Schtroumpfs (1965). While the film itself has been scarcely seen since its original release, some of the original TV shorts can be seen on display at the Belgian Comic Strip Center in Brussels.
The original poster art (not the collage of movie images seen on VHS releases) was drawn and colored by Peyo's friend and colleague André Franquin, creator of famous Belgian comic book characters such as Gaston and the Marsupilami.
A few years before the US English dub of this film, another English dub was done in the UK. In both dubs, (Sir) Johan was called "(Sir) John" (the Anglicized version of Johan). In the UK dub, Peewit ("Pirlouit" in Belgium; his English name is pronounced "Pee-Wee") was renamed "William," possibly for localization reasons. The villain Torchesac (called Oilycreep" in the translated English version of the comics) is called "Matthew Oily-Creep" in the UK, and "Matthew McCreep" in the US. His associate, Mortaille, whose name in the English-translated comics is "Lord Mumford," retains this name in the UK dub, and is renamed "Earl Flatbroke" in the US dub. The wizard Homnibus is mentioned by name in the UK dub, but remains nameless in the US dub, being called simply "the wizard."
Faithful adaptation of Peyo's 9th comic album (graphic novel) starring Johan & Pirlouit: "La Flûte à Six Trous" ("The Flute with Six Holes," later retitled "La Flûte à Six Schtroumpfs"/"The Flute with Six Smurfs," upon the huge success of the Smurfs themselves), featuring some background 'cameos' from characters used in two other albums. The traveling performers at the start of the movie are from book 12: "Le Pays Maudit", while the dog howling in the rain and the two people coming out of the jewelers shop appeared in book 13: "Le Sortilège de Maltrochu".