Le avventure di Tintin

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).

The previous television adaptation of the cub reporter with the Hugh Grant-type fringe and the twisted taste in legwear was in serialised five-minute form (all together now - "HERRRGEEEE'S ADVENNNNTURRRRES OF TINTIN!!!") way back in the 1960s; this newer version was less bite-sized in its presentation, and was much better animated as well as remarkably faithful for the most part to its source material. (Unlike virtually all other famous fictional creations, Tintin's adventures on film, TV and radio have all come from Herge's work - in accordance with his wishes, no one's allowed to concoct new stories now that the original creator is dead.)

Of course, there were a few tweaks made to bring Tintin, Captain Haddock, the Thompson Twins, Professor Calculus, Signora Bianca Castafiore and the rest to television this time, but nothing story-wrecking (in the adaptation of "The Broken Ear," the two villains of the piece are brought to justice alive - in the book they drown and go to Hell). The writers, animators and voice cast preserve the spirit of the tales wonderfully; Tintin may speak with a Canadian voice, but so what? It's not like the series has been thoroughly butchered. Far better than "Tintin and the Lake of Sharks," and one of Nelvana's best.

"PRODUCED BY TELE-HACHETTE AND BELVISION!!!!" (The '60s one, that is. Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

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.

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.

Unpretentious, exciting and fun, "The Adventures of Tintin" was great viewing despite the blandness of the title role. Being the only dull character in the team, Tintin and his smart dog Milou were a great contrast to the insane people that surrounded them: the foul-mouthed sea captain with a great vocabulary, Captain Haddock, the somewhat confused but brilliant Professor Calculus, and the always-ready French detectives Dupond and Dupondt.

Throughout his adventures Tintin visited the moon, fought giant spiders, stopped wars, investigated meteorites and huge mushrooms, and unraveled mystery after mystery. And it never got boring, not once! Absolutely amazing show that can be watched again, and whose plot won't insult the intelligence of adults, either!