Tintin et le lac aux requins

I really enjoyed this movie. I saw it when I was a kid and had a chance to see it again with my daughter. The story is quite nice. There is a lot of action and humor. The pace is good and setting is nicely done. The story is original with a lot of references to the books.

I don't know about the voices in English, but the French voices are excellent.

Even if the story is a little more "simple" than what you will find in the books you have to remember that in the 70's, cartoons were made mostly for children. There was rarely 2 levels to a story, one for children and one for adults as it is so common (and fun) today. Still the story here is sufficiently well done to be entertaining for adults.

Finally, Hergé himself worked on the movie. So I guess he must have found this close enough to the world of Tintin to be made.

This time our friends go to Sildavia where takes place several adventures . The picture will appeal to the fans of the popular animated hero named Tintin and his faithful sidekicks as well as the comic-books nostalgics. As Tintin and captain Haddock along with the Dupont brothers travel in a Balkan country to find professor Tornasol who has invented a machine that can duplicate anything .The professor is residing in a location near a lake plenty of sharks and next the border of Syldavia( Tintin and the scepter of Ottokar) and Bodouria but a criminal master mind named Rastapopoulous (Cigarrettes of pharaoh) attempts to force professor Tornasol to give up the machine by abducting two local children who live nearby , in order to get by all means the magical artifact .

This is a nice adventure with hilarious moments here and there, and has Tintin and his inseparable friends captain Haddock , absent-minded professor Tornasol , the botcher Dupont brothers taking on , as always, against stupid enemies , this time Rastapopoulos ,the ruthless and infamous international delinquent . This cartoon movie of the popular "Tintin" comic-book magazine brilliantly captures the outrageous adventures, tongue in cheek, satire, comedy ,taking the characters and some elements from original stories , such as the shark-submarine (Treasure of Rackam the Red) and the Rastapopoulos's underwater amphibious. Although contains a primitive drawing , however being better developed than former entry ¨Tintin and the temple of the sun¨ , both of them produced by Raymond Leblanc . This amusing movie is accompanied by lively musical score with a catching leitmotif on the start and the ending. Full of humor , it's a funny entertaining for kids and grown-ups . The entertaining screenplay isn't based on the known comics by Herge but originally written by Michel Greg author of Achille Talon (1977 ,TV series and comics ) , 1981 L'Agence Labricole (TV series (screenplay) and 1970 Tintín in the temple del sol (dialogue). This cartoon movie is professionally directed by Raymond Leblanc . He was a Belgian publisher who started the weekly magazine in 1946 with the participation of Georges Rémi ("Hergé") . Under Leblanc's guidance, the boy reporter became the hero of a weekly children's magazine, with Hergé as the artistic director and magnificent creator of the immortal personage . Later on ,Leblanc produced the following films: Iznogoud ,1978 Gulliver's Travels ,1972 Lucky Luke el intrepid ,1970 Tintín in the temple of the sun ,1968 Astérix y Cleopatra and 1967 Astérix the Gaul. The picture will appeal to Tintin comic-books buffs. An agreeable , funny adaptation from a great comic book.

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.

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.

'Tintin et le rac aux requins' is not based on one of the books of Herge. Greg (also a maker of comics) wrote the story for this film. He didn't do a really bad job, but there are no surprises or (very) funny scenes in the scenario. It is a simple film about Tintin going on adventure with his dog Bobbie and Haddock, the captain. On the way to the prof. (called Tournesol in the original French version) they meet the two stupid detectives (called Dupont et Dupond in the original French version). The prof. has invented something and Tintin and Haddock (this is their real French name) have to protect it from Rastapopoulos, a bad villain who is never scary or something that would make him a real villain.

There are no surprises, jokes or something else this film could and should be remembered for. And the worst of all: Greg came up with two annoying kids who are trying to help Tintin in his 'quest' to beat Rastapopoulos.

If you really want to enjoy yourself: read the books of Tintin made by Herge, because they ARE funny, full of surprises and they DO have things one could and should remember!!!