I heard the story in the early to mid 80's. I went to an elder to ask if it was true, because my children loved the smurfs. He said not to worry about it until an article or a talk was given about them. There was no articles or talks.
There are several interesting urban legends I've heard since being here. One is the number of people that weren't allowed to eat Lucky Charms cereal. Cereal..for crying out loud.
I only heard about the smurfs on the forums, but there was the urban legend about the two sisters visiting a serial killer, who left them alone, because he has seen two big and muscular guys behind the sisters - the angels accompanying them in FS. This is doing the rounds here in eastern Europe, and as I read on this forum, in US too.
My husband heard this story as a kid, he was raised as a Baptist (was never a JW) and it was a older chruch Brother that was preaching that this happened to back in the 40's.
lisa