Le avventure di Tintin

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!

I can't imagine Tintin or any other characters from the Tintin books played by actors, I just think it would botch up the characters. I can only imagine them either as comic book characters or cartoon characters. This Tintin cartoon series is as close as you could possibly get to the Tintin comic books. The characters all look and sound exactly as they do in the comic books. Each episode of the Tintin cartoon (either one or two part episodes) has basically the same story as in each of the Tintin books. Not just the same story, the same characters the same settings even some of the same quotes. I've enjoyed the Tintin cartoon

series as well as the Tintin books ever since I was a child. Tintin is basically meant for children but a number of adults like Tintin as well. Some episodes of the Tintin cartoon have been available on video but I wish all the entire series was available on DVD.

For those who aren't familiar with Tintin, the main characters in the Tintin saga isn't just Tintin the intrepid reporter and adventurer and his clever little dog Snowy. Tintin has friends who are often with him on his adventures. They

include Captain Haddock the grumpy sailor, Professor Cusburt Calculous a

genius scientist but at the same time a rather stupid person, and Thompson and Thomson the clumsy detective twins.

Captain Haddock is a rather bad tempered seaman, most likely because he

drinks too much whiskey. He often uses exclamations like "Blistering

Barnacles!" or "Thundering Typhoons!" or if he was really outraged or amazed

he would say "Billions of blistering blue barnacles!" or "Ten thousand

thundering typhoons!"

Professor Calculous is an amazing inventor. He's invented some amazing

things for example a "shark-proof submarine", a drug which makes alcoholic

drinks taste disgusting to cure alcoholic addicted people and a rocket ship to travel to the moon. But he's also rather stupid because he's deaf and always

miss hears what people say. He also ignores non-verbal communication and

pretends that he doesn't understand how angry Captain Haddock is which really drives him mad.

Thompson and Thomson or "the Thompson's" as they're usually called are both

rather stupid detectives and often have clumsy accidents. One of the

Thompson's is often saying "to be precise" correcting the other Thompson and

since they're identical twins and always wear the same clothing you've no idea which Thompson it is. They think they're the worlds best detectives but Tintin always proves to be a much better detective then they'll ever be.

So the the Tintin saga is more than just great adventure and detective stories for children but also a combination of rather humorous characters which will delight audiences of all ages.

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).

I used to love watching this when I was young. I noticed that with some children/family shows, I hated them when I view them now because I sometimes see them as rip-offs or a way of making kids dumb (some of the playhouse Disney shows for example, and even some of the Asterix films). However, in this case, watching it again after a long time made me like it even more.

Tintin and the Lake of Sharks was a total screw-up!!! An absolute disgrace to the comics. The voices (Captain Haddock sounding like Popeye), the ridiculous music (especially when there is one part when the two kids sing an annoying song, making it a musical), the cheap animation and a number of Tintin-related factual errors like Calculus hearing badly and hearing well most of the time, the inaccurate characters ...all of it made it horrible a movie. The series has none of these flaws.

The visuals remain true to Herge's fantastic drawing style and the animation fits really well with it. The music in the series is perfect for Tintin. The humour remains the same(just as good), with a couple of clever add-ons for the Thompsons. The characters remain the same as in the comic books. The voice-cast is perfect and the voice-acting by everybody makes the characters portrayed exactly like they were in the books. The Thompsons are really hilarious and their voices were a joy to listen to, making the two detectives in the comics really come to life. My congrats to them, the voices of Tintin and Captain Haddock and the rest of the cast.

The stories remain true to the books even though any fans of the books will easily spot a few differences. I am pleased to say that they actually fit really well with the episodes, because picturing some of the edited parts being identical to these parts in the book instead of being altered, just wouldn't work. And hearing me say that the stories are reasonably true to the books clearly means that they are fantastic, matching the clever imaginations and twists that Herge came up with in his books.

A flawless adaptation is perhaps the best way to describe the series. Forget about that movie which rips off the books. If you want an enjoyable, loyal series, then pick this one as soon as you can.