Tintín en el lago de los tiburones

As an avid fan of Tintin's adventures, I remember my original response to "Lake of Sharks" wasn't as enthusiastic as for "The Temple of Sun". I didn't dislike the film but I can't recall being overwhelmed either. Who would have thought that discovering a movie at 4 or 8 would make a difference? in a child's mind, it did, and rightfully so.

To be objective, "Tintin and the Temple of Sun" wasn't better animated, nor more spectacular, but it had imagery, it had thrills and exotic settings, it had the words 'adventure' and 'escapism' transcended by a unique local color, it also had a simple plot line, easier to follow for a child : Tintin, Haddock and Zorrino were looking for Professor Calculus. And much more than this, it had a beautiful music and two great songs composed by the Belgian icon Jacques Brel. Hearing the score and the songs of "Temple of the Sun" always provoke shivers down my spine, it's like my own childhood resurrecting in one magical instant.

"Tintin and the Lake of Sharks", also belongs to my childhood memories, but since I discovered the film at a later time, it inevitably suffered in comparison. I thought the plot was too complicated, what was with all this spying and secret agents, with this opening sequence, with the whole 3D copy issue? I understand now, that the film's plot line is inspired by many James Bond's movie with Rastapopoulos as a Blofeld-like villain. But then again, as accessible to adult minds as the film is, it's ruined by the corniness of some cheap visual gags.

In "Temple of the Sun", the Thompsons carried the slapstick, in "Lake of Sharks", it's the villain, Rastapopulos, but how to take him seriously when he plays the bad-guy card? There was a 'Tintin' marathon on TV yesterday, and no matter how cheap the animation looked, I was pleasantly surprised by the mature content of "Herge's adventures of Tintin" made in 1964. The dialog sounded adult, the film also featured some disturbing parts, it really had the thrills of a James Bond film. The problem with "Lake of Sharks" is that it didn't make a clear choice whether it was intended for adults of kiddies.

That lead to some over-the-top unforgivable moments: one scene that I always found to be unbelievably creepy when Calculus' servant was receiving her phone call from the 'well', and while hearing her instructions, started nodding in a very devilish way. Not only did that scene freaked me out as a kid, (what were all the animators thinking?) but as an adult, I don't get the necessity of overdoing it, we know she's with the bad guys. The same goes for the little villains who cuts wire with a sort of manic laugh. Too over-the-top, like the whole suspense built up, until the villain's revelation.

And the film spares no cliché, with the obligatory use of children, Zorrino was a solid protagonist in "Temple of the Sun", both the guide and the friend, he already touched our hearts, and continued through two beautiful songs already. In "Lake of Sharks", Tintin is saved by Nico and Nouchka, two little Syldavians. Naturally, the kid is brave, the girl is wimpy and their drawing is too awkward at a first stance, as if it didn't belong to the same film. In the following musical part, you realize that the Syldavian men are drawn like common Herge characters, but the girls have stranger features, almost like Disney characters, and some children look very weird, one is basically Nico with blonde hair.

The whole awkward feeling is redeemed by characters behaving like their usual personality, in the scenes that involves Tintin, Haddock, the Thompsons, we know it's a Tintin movie, Bianca Castafiore also makes a respectable cameo, but the rest is like a weird mix between James Bond, Walt Disney and Hanna Barbera. And I'm only speaking of the original version, if you see the English one without being distraught by Haddock's voice, I salute your patience.

I didn't dislike the film either; but the animators didn't make an effort to create an impact. There are some tacit rules in animated film-making, one of them is at least to feature a few songs, in "Lake of Sharks", it betrays some laziness from the director, since the same Syldavian theme is used over and over again, from catchy at first, it gets too repetitive, especially since it doesn't have that 'epic' feeling on it. And don't get me started on the villain theme.

It ends with an obligatory 'all laughing' gag typical of the 70's corniness, and the theme that is nothing compared to the epic fanfare of "Temple of the Sun". I wish "Lake of Sharks" left a better impression on me, but the more I see it, the better I appreciate "Temple of the Sun", maybe they should have adapted a real Tintin's adventure after all.

If you are a Tintin fan then do not watch this. The only artwork that does credit to Herges' method and style is any illustrations that they can take from existing Herge material - if I could bear to watch this trashy attempt again I'd go through and pick out where they used existing Herge illustrations without modification from the Herge albums. This is not based on a Herge album at all.

It is peppered with godawful sing-a-long songs and does not have the seriousness of a Herge plot ( being a rip off of a James Bond film ).

To give you an example of how this film is a mismatch, compare any character that there does not exist a Herge template for with the Herge characters:

1. The local children that "save" them at the start in an unrealistic fashion are drawn in a disney style, the dog is drawn in a hanna-barbera style and the gags are Tom and Jerry.

2. Captain Haddocks voice is that of Popeye the Sailor man. I keep expecting him to break out the spinach.

3. The character that cuts the telephone wires uses actual Muttley sniggering from Wacky Races.

4. Any non Herge character is drawn in harsh primary colours, did they pay him any respect in this film?

Other things that may annoy:

1. Tintin fails to call the police even though they nearly die in a plane crash at the start ( shades of Ottokars Sceptre ).

2. Calculus goes between not being able to hear clearly ( as his Herge character does ) to having precise hearing randomly throughout.

3. Herge prided himself on drawing realistic vehicles from the period and making as much "real" as possible, Rastapopolous's spider craft? Calculus's laboratory?

4. The jokes about Captain Haddock in Tintin revolve around his drinking, aggressiveness and comedy timing, apart from an incident with golf clubs on an elevator his character is out of character.

This is an appalling sin against Herges' characters, if you value Tintin beyond being a "boy's own" style of story then just give up now and watch infomercials instead. If you are new to Tintin, this is the worst place to get your introduction. Appalling, how some could give it a 10 is beyond me, save those for the French-Canadian TV series which did Herge some justice.

I defy anyone to watch the English dubbed version and not want to sing out "Im popeye the sailor man toot-toot" everytime Haddock opens his mouth.

Herge could draw, the animators obviously couldn't. Herge had his own style, the animators clearly wanted to work for Disney.

the story is great and the animation is good but if i was to edit it i'd do the following things #1 get better child actors for nika and nouchka (at least as far as the English actors go) #2 i'd write some new music for certain parts and #3 i'd get some better sound effects. other than that the movie is great i would give it a 10 out of ten but the editing in some parts is horrendous here are some of the upsides #1 tintin is a good actor and pretty much everyone else except the kids although some of the voices aren't very well recorded #2 it has a great score (although the villain theme is hokey)and #3 it has good animation and an excellent story my conclusion is it's good but could be better 8 out of 10

This new Tintin's adventure (which isn't an adaptation of one of Hergé's albums) is quite successful although it brings nothing to Tintin's glory. It restores the atmosphere and the subjects that made the Tintin's success. We find a spy (here, it happens to be Mms Vlek), a highly-coveted Calculus' invention by Rastapopoulos' crew and a murder attempt.

Of course, , the action, the humor (that mostly comes from the eccentric Thompsons detectives) and the justice's victory are always on appointment. Let's add a correct animation, some beautiful sceneries, always entertaining characters (Tintin, the captain Haddock, professor Calculus, the Thompsons detectives) and we get a honourable success.

I agree with most posters, true fans will notice everything that is so wrong with this film. I was excited at having found this DVD as it is one of the only ones i haven't seen. seen and i am so disappointed.. i have it playing right now and it has failed to capture and keep my attention. Every time i do look up there is something awful.. the voices are all wrong, especially tin tin and haddock. there was one scene where tintin is wearing a tank top singlet) and he has all these muscles.. I don't know the whole image of him is just wrong. The series was so much better, i think i may just watch a few of those to compensate! I would not recommend this to anyone but maybe very young kids that may appreciate the bright colors. If this is your first introduction to tintin and it turns you off, don't despair, watch some of the series first to make up your mind. Herge was a legend and when i first saw 'greg' i thought it was a nickname for Herge, but as they have not paid any respect to Herge with this film it obviously didn't have anything to do with him.