The Adventures of Tintin

Based off of the long running comic book series. Tintin is about a young Belgium reporter and his dog Snowy who both travel and experience adventure together around the world. Tintin is kind hearted & friendly. He feels that it's an act of good to help out in other people's business. Sometimes it's a good thing to get yourself involve even if it'll endanger your life. Throughout the series, Tintin will eventually encounter new reliable friends, as well as making new enemies along the way. Life is an adventure when your with Tintin.

Very few adventure/mystery series are comparable to Tintin. The brilliant idea about Tintin himself is that his background is unknown. His name is neither his surname or first name. And his childhood was never mentioned. Making his character so interesting, where you only know him as a friendly Belgium reporter. I never knew the comics existed. But when this cartoon was still new, I was very fascinated by the stories and characters. I never knew much of it's history till years later.

I do know that this cartoon was made years after the creator Herge past away. And it was made because of Herge's disapproval over a non-truthful 5 minute Tintin series made several years ago. However, "Adventures of Tintin" reflects the original books as it was meant to be. Something Herge would of liked to see.

Became an international success like the books themselves in more than 50 countries. Sadly it's coexisted here in America. But not for long, until the upcoming Tintin Movie comes out to shine it's existence. Those who like action/mystery/comedy related animated series will enjoy this series.

Coming to DVD in 2008.

This animated TV is the adaptation of the famous Hergé's comic books. Generally, it makes a good adaptation. Some episodes do better than others, but the adaptation is reasonable. Even so, the books are clearly better and more complete. In the animated TV series, they usually miss lots of parts that should be included.

I own some of these comic books. I used to watch this TV series as much as I used to read the books I have back then, but I always liked the books better. Anyway, about the TV series, I used to watch it both spoken in french and dubbed in Italian (on Rai Uno, in the case of the Italian dubbed version). Of course that I prefer the french version for the simple fact of being the original version.

The stories of Tintin are (the majority of them, apart one or another) quite entertaining, thrilling, great fun, simple and delightful. They are, without a doubt, good adventures with classic humor. It should satisfy most everyone: children, teenagers and adults.

The characters are interesting: Tintin is a cool and intelligent chap; his dog Milou is really cute and fluffy; Captain Haddock is grumpy, sarcastic and humorous; Professor Tournesol is the eternal distracted who doesn't listen and understand a word of what the others are saying and, as such, always understands everything very badly. There are also the two police detective twins (Dupond and Dupont), who are absolutely stupid, silly and hilarious.

The song that plays during the opening credits and the final credits is great.

Firstly, let me affirm most of this series IS very faithful to the source. There are times you can follow the show and the book together for pages in a row with every scene and the dialog faithful captured to screen. But for such a faithful adaptation it's astonishing how little of the depth and variety of the comics is retained.

At the most basic level, the Tintin comics are adventure tales with some charming whimsy (sidetracks and double takes) and slapstick comedy... enough to appeal to an 11 year old. But there's intrigue, suspense, irony, politics, and (speaking only for the English translations) wonderful verbal humour also... material that unfolds well through one's teens and continues to appeal to an adult.

So as a repeat Tintin reader for decades I was delighted to find a complete box set of DVDs of the TV series. And subsequently most disappointed with the adaptation.

I've recovered from my initial disappointment to enjoy them as offered. Over the last couple of weeks I've re-watched the series from start to fin, with the books in hand as reference material, and I realise the flavour of the (usually but not always subtle) changes is consistent and intentional, with a presumption of a younger audience.

A BRIEF CATALOG of adjustments in style should serve to highlight what to expect...

• Plot lines, sense of adventure, danger, and escape are generally well presented.

• Ironic humour is in general removed entirely or at least dumbed down.

• Any sarcastic dialog is also removed.

• Much of the dialog is subtly adjusted to be more straight forward.

• Suspense and intrigue are significantly diminished. In the comics there is often a slow unfolding as to who the major villain may be and with what motivations, but on screen they've chosen to lay details out for us as early as fit within each story. And sometimes sledgehammer the points home in case we miss them.

• In a couple of cases, whole major players (individuals or nations) are removed, presumably for simplification... eg in "The Calculus Affair" only the Bordurians appear. The Syldavian's are not mentioned.

• Political and economic backdrops are left out. eg in the Blue Lotus there's only the briefest mention of Japan occupying China, no mention at all of the "International Settlement", and aspects of the story related to those are simply left out.

• "Here we are, right back where we started". Or... not. While book- Tintin may experience more or less failed attempts escaping a situation (and we get to enjoy the efforts), on screen they generally show us just his successes to keep the plot moving along.

• Similarly, almost all the whimsy is taken out. The sticking plaster that won't give up, the Thompsons investigating wrong lines of enquiry, etc. ... I guess to pack the "real" plot into the screen time they've had to drop most of the tangents.

• Captain Haddock doesn't drink! This significantly alters the character (eg without alcohol he's dependable) and makes for a couple of only semi-successful story adjustments.

• Snowy doesn't talk! He's a clever and communicative dog, just no inner dialog. This is a shame since in the comics he has some superb lines to offer.

• The Thompsons' banter is ... simplified to the point of being plain. You'll hear no "Thompson, with a 'P' as in 'psychology'", and while they say "to be precise" a great deal it's rarely followed by the wit of the comic. This one's a real comedown.

• On a number of occasions, a scene is played out "faithfully" but misses either quite enough setup (due to the above edits) or else adjusts a crucial turn of phrase to be more straightforward ... and thus loses the playfulness or wit that comes out in the comics.

All of the above and more are a consistent editorial style serving what adults perceive would be suitable for the presumed younger audience.

Overall as I say the basic sense of adventure story is preserved, the comic artwork style on screen is a match in almost all detail, and taken as presented the shows are done quite well. On *that* basis these shows are still OK entertainment.

For my own taste though I would have preferred all the sidetracks, irony, charm and wit of the original to be captured even if it meant the two TV episodes per story became three. Oh well.

Let me start by saying I was an adult when I first saw this series and I was thrilled they had FINALLY put out what looked to be a decent Tintin cartoon. Unfortunately, the Tintin characterization here is WAY too bland for today's cartoons and the animation really doesn't capture the vibrant color and brilliance of Herge's "ligne clair" illustrations. In the books Tintin has his quiet moments, yes, but when there's action he's on top of it all the way. The books' dialogue is vibrant and witty and so we flipped the pages eagerly awaiting the next turn of events. In the cartoon they try but they really don't succeed very well in holding our interest in every episode. I found myself growing bored the cartoons and finally just grabbed one of the books instead. So yes, if I had been twenty years younger I might have appreciated this effort more but the fact is we were spoiled by the books and this wasn't as good as they were.

Probably the best screen adaption of Belgium's most famous reporter, Adventures of Tintin stays faithful to the spirit and stories of original comics. The stories themselves make for brilliant adventures whether it's finding buried treasure, going to the Moon or venturing to a far off land.

The animation is also of very good quality and considering that it was made on a TV budget back in 1991 is actually quite ahead of it's time, for example 'Explorers on the Moon' has one of the earliest of 3D cartoon animation. These shows will appeal to all ages and everyone is bound to have a favourite out of the various crazy characters, whether it's old sea dog Captain Haddock, the brilliant but hard of hearing Professor Calculus or even Tintin himself (not forgetting Snowy).