Captain Haddock | the m0vie blog

The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin And The Picaros (Review)

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Darren

To celebrate the release of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn in the United States later this month, I’ll be taking a look at some of nineties animated television show. Check back daily!

Note: This is our review of the animated episode, check out our review of the book here.

I have to admit, I quite like Tintin and the Picaros as the final completed entry in Hergé’s saga. I know he was, of course, working on Tintin and the Alph-Art when he passed, but I think that Hergé’s Tintin and the Picaros is a frank and honest reflection on the franchise, one that perhaps concedes that all good things must come to an end, and that the world around Tintin is not the same as it once was. So, there’s some great potential for a strong finale to the series here. However, the animated adaptation lacks a lot of the subtlety and nuance that Hergé’s original story had, leaving it feeling like a rather generic entry in the series, rather than a fitting conclusion.

Dressed for the occasion...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Captain Haddock, Crab With the Golden Claws, Hergé, Picaros, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin and the Picaros, tintin, Tintin and the Picaros, Tintin: Tintin and the Picaros, United States | Leave a comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in Tibet (Review)

Posted on December 18, 2011 by Darren

Note: This is our review of the animated episode, check out our review of the book here.

Tintin in Tibet is a wonderful book. It’s probably, despite coming towards the end of the series, the perfect book to give somebody who wants to try to read The Adventures of Tintin. It’s a perfect encapsulation of all the heart and warmth that makes Hergé’s series so fascinating, and an illustration of how appealing and endearing his two leads are. More than that, though, Hergé’s story is one of hope and faith, and it’s hard not feel a little bit warm inside after reading it. So the animated adaptation has quite a lot to work with. While they don’t surpass the original book – which would be quite a considerable accomplishment – they do it proud.

It's Snowy out there...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Captain Haddock, Colin O'Meara, Haddock, Hergé, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in Tibet, tintin, Tintin in Tibet, Tintin: Tintin in Tibet, United States | Leave a comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: The Red Sea Sharks (Review)

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Darren

Note: This is our review of the animated episode, check out our review of the book here.

In many ways, The Red Sea Sharks feels like a conclusion to The Adventures of Tintin. Drawing together countless plot threads and supporting characters into one massive confrontation between Tintin and Rastapopoulos, providing some nice set pieces and a tour of the globe, the adventure feels like it’s really wrapping up all the left over bits and pieces the series has accumulated since Cigars of the Pharaoh. The four adventures that followed would have a markedly different tone, to the point where they almost felt like an epilogue, examining what happened after Tintin’s globe-trotting adventures had concluded. The animated adaptation of the episode seems to treat it as an adventure relatively epic in scope, and again makes a surprising case for an unconventional candidate for a potential movie adaptation.

Just plane trouble...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies, Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Calculus Affair, Captain Haddock, Castafiore Emerald, Dawson, Haddock, Hergé, red sea sharks, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the red sea sharks, the red sea sharks, tintin, tintin: the red sea sharks, United States | 1 Comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: Destination Moon (Review)

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Darren

Note: This is our review of the animated episode, check out our review of the book here.

I think that Destination: Moon represents perhaps the most significant challenge to the producers of the animated series so far. While they managed to harvest a plot from the disjointed collection of scenes Hergé knitted together to form Tintin in America, this is the perhaps the least standard instalment of the series they’ve tried to adapt until this point. I’m a big fan of Destination: Moon, reading it as a wonderful optimistic and enthusiastic reflection on mankind’s potential, coming from Hergé after the Second World War. However, it’s also a bit unstructured and episodic, almost a collection of short stories tied together by the plan to send a manned mission to the moon. The animated adaptation doesn’t have the luxury of cutting the adventure down to a single episode, and so it’s a standard two-parter. It seems that there was a bit of difficulty structuring the story for that format.

Blast off!

Continue reading →

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Captain Haddock, Castafiore Emerald, Destination Moon, Hergé, moon, the adventures of tintin: destination moon, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin in america, tintin: destination moon, United States | Leave a comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: Land of Black Gold (Review)

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Darren

To celebrate the release of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn in the United States later this month, I’ll be taking a look at some of the nineties animated television show. Check back daily!

Note: This is our review of the animated episode, check out our review of the book here.

Land of Black Gold feels like a rather conscious throwback to the earlier adventures in the series, stories like King Ottokar’s Sceptre or The Black Island or Cigars of the Pharaoh, dealing with relatively grounded political concepts and economic realities, rather than hidden treasure or lost civilisation or trips to the moon itself. Of course, there’s a very good reason – Land of Black Goldwas started before the outbreak of the Second World War, and Hergé put it on hold to write about more abstract and less political concerns. That’s why Haddock only appears in this episode five minutes from the end, because he hadn’t been created when the original story was told. I don’t dislike the adventure, but it does feel rather strange, situated where it is in the Tintin canon.

Petrol was always an explosive topic...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Black Island, Captain Haddock, Hergé, Land of Blakc Gold, Shooting Star, the adventures of tintin: land of black gold, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin, tintin in america, tintin: land of black gold | Leave a comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: Red Rackham’s Treasure (Review)

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Darren

Note: This is our review of the animated episode, check out our review of the book here.

It’s quite strange, given how lukewarm I was to The Secret of the Unicorn, that I am undeniably fond of Red Rackham’s Treasure. At a time when Hergé seemed to be aiming for fantastic escapism, perhaps to avoid dealing with wartime reality, I think that Red Rackham’s Treasure perfectly encapsulates a lot of what was fun about Tintin, at least for my inner child. There’s hidden treasure, untouched tropic islands, walks along the ocean floor, submarines and even a shark attack! It’s all very light and whimsical, but it’s pure adventure all the way through, with a giddy enthusiasm sustaining the narrative.

Pushing the boat out...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Captain Haddock, Hergé, Red Rackham's Treasure, Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: red rackham's treasure, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin, Tintin: Red Rackham's Treasure, Unicorn, United States | Leave a comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: The Crab With The Golden Claws (Review)

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Darren

Note: This is our review of the animated episode, check out our review of the book here.

Though the blu ray box set of the animated series includes the episodes in the order of the stories Hergé published, the studio actually produced the adventures in a different order, spread across three seasons. In fact, the first episode we reviewed, Tintin in America, was the last produced. So The Crab With the Golden Claws was actually the first animated adaptation in this particular series. And it makes sense to use this adventure as a good place to start any adaptation of Tintin – indeed, it appears Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson would agree, as this is the first of three stories adapted in The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. It has everything you need from a Tintin adventure – a mystery, an exotic locale, international criminals.

Oh, and it also introduces Captain Haddock.

Haddock can't hold his liquor...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Television | Tagged: animated, Captain Haddock, review, the adventures of tintin, the adventures of tintin: the crab with the goldn claws, The Crab with the Golden Claws, tintin, tintin: the crab with the golden claws | Leave a comment »

Is Captain Haddock the Ultimate Hero of Hergé’s Tintin?

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Darren

I think it’s safe to agree that Captain Archibald Haddock was the breakout character of Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin. Introduced in The Crab With the Golden Claws, one of three adventures to form the basis of Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, Haddock has rarely been absent from the series in the time that followed. Indeed, Hergé even went back and wrote him into the end of a story (The Land of Black Gold) that he began before Haddock was even created. Haddock’s appeal seems to be incredible, with the blue-turtleneck-wearing sea-captain almost as iconic as Tintin and Snowy. Returning to the series for the first time in years, as the release of the new movie approaches, I couldn’t help but wonder if Haddock was the real hero of the series.

He'll never desert Tintin...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Comics, Movies | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Captain Archibald Haddock, Captain Haddock, Comics, Crab With the Golden Claws, Haddock, Hergé, Shooting Star, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: The Adventures of Tintin – The Secret of the Unicorn

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Darren

It’s Indiana Jones, but for kids! It’s fascinating that the collaboration of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson should produce something that feels much more like the earlier Indiana Jones films than Spielberg’s most recent collaboration with George Lucas. Adapting Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin was always going to be a challenging proposition, and it’s to the credit of everybody involved that it turned out so well. While it’s not quite perfect, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is undoubtedly Spielberg’s most entertaining family film since Jurassic Park.

Franchise launcher?

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, andy serkis, Captain Archibald Haddock, captain archibold haddock, Captain Haddock, Crab With the Golden Claws, daniel craig, Hergé, peter jackson, Secret of the Unicorn, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the secret of the unicorn, tintin, tintin and red rackham's treasure, tintin and the secret of the unicorn | 7 Comments »

Tintin: Tintin and the Picaros (Review)

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Darren

In the lead-up to the release of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, I’m going to be taking a look at Hergé’s celebrated comic book character, from his humble beginnings through to the incomplete post-modern finale. I hope you enjoy the ride.

So, here we are. Hergé’s last completed Tintin story. The month flew by reading and (in most cases) re-reading the stories that I grew up with. It’s interesting to return to the stories you read as a child, discovering new depth and complexity in what had previously been entertaining little diversions. Since The Red Sea Sharks, Hergé seems to have been toying with the popular franchise he has created, playing with and subverting a formula established over twenty-odd adventures. The Castafiore Emerald reads almost like a deconstruction of a typical Tintin adventure, with the a variety of threads that refuse to add up to a mystery. Flight 714 was almost a parody, relying on contrivance to the point of ridiculousness. And so, with his last complete story, Tintin and the Picaros reads as a criticism of the hero himself, poor and innocent Tintin, who proves to be quite an impotent little character.