Faithful but toned down adaptation of Herges masterpiece

cameron-burn

First things first, I am an avid fan of the Adventures of Tintin by Herge. What makes them so great is the intriguing world that resolves around Tintin the intrepid reporter and the Brilliant characters that portray different types of people, the hero, the drunkard, the mad scientist, opera singers, detectives and even insurers! The stories appeal to everyone as they can include humour, excitement, detective, sci-fi and just downright fun. The books are exhilarating stuff to say the least, but this is a review about the show, not the books.

The adventures of Tintin could never disappoint as long as it kept to the original stories, which thankfully it did. However, there are still some unnecessary changes to characters and plots including the complete eradication of the international settlement in "the blue lotus". But what stops what is an exciting and interesting show from being a cult phenomenon is the child-friendliness of it all. I could go on for ages about all the changes they make to tone down the darkness of some of the books, but I'll narrow it down to the necessaries.

Firstly, the fact that They've toned down Captain Haddocks drinking obsession is intolerable. And they've also taken out anything which might for a moment seem the slightest bit prejudiced. Another major disappointment is the toning down of using guns and fistfights. But now on to the portrayal of the characters themselves. Tintin being Canadian is rather annoying and Haddock sounds peculiar as well. Calculus is probably the only amusing portrayal out there but does sound too squeaky at points. The Thomson twins are fine but not perfect and Bianca Castafiore sounds more like a Scottish man than an Milanese nightingale. Because the animation was timed to the English soundtrack if you watch it in French the voices are way to rushed.

Overall a great few seasons none the less with no bad episodes due mainly to Herge's craft but could have been perfect had they not intended it to be watched just by kids.

score 7/10

cameron-burn 7 August 2008

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1925725/