Tintin in the Congo | the m0vie blog

The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America (Review)

Posted on December 1, 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 remember catching a few of the animated Adventure of Tintin when I was smaller, and really enjoying them. They were a series produced to adapt Hergé’s stories into easy-to-digest half-hour instalments for kids. Naturally, the early adventures (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo) weren’t deemed suitable for this form of adaptation, so the series jumped right in with the third entry in Hergé’s long-running saga. Which is grand, because I started reading The Adventures of Tintin with Tintin in America.

Tintin gets animated!

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Colin O'Meara, Hergé, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America, tintin, tintin in america, Tintin in the Congo, United States | 2 Comments »

Tintin: The Red Sea Sharks (Review)

Posted on October 19, 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.

The Red Sea Sharks is, I suppose, a fine adventure tale, even if it’s not an entry in Hergé’s canon that I’m particularly fond of. The nineteenth instalment in the series, the author uses the opportunity to tie a whole slew of open story threads together and anchor the long-term continuity of the series, but he also decides to deal with the issue of modern slavery – a controversial and topical issue, to be sure. However, while I have no doubt the author’s intentions were true, the story reads more than a little awkwardly in dealing with the topic.

Calculus gets his skates on...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: adventures of tintin: red sea sharks, Captain Haddock, Castafiore Emerald, Flight 714, Hergé, List of The Adventures of Tintin characters, red sea sharks, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the red sea sharks, the red sea sharks, tintin and the red sea sharks, Tintin in the Congo, tintin: the red sea sharks | Leave a comment »

Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun (Review)

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Darren

I have to admit to really liking the two-part Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun adventure, to the extent that I’m actually eagerly anticipating Peter Jackson’s adaptation that may never materialise. The two-parter really just takes the best aspects of Hergé’s Tintin mythos, brewing up a pop culture stew that can be served as a mystery story or an adventure into a mystical and unknown world. The idea of discovering a long-lost tribe of ancient Inca is certainly an appealing one, and would make for a gripping turn-of-the-century adventure. Using that premise as a starting point, Hergé leads us and Tintin in the heart of Amazon, filled with excitement and danger and mystery.

Tintin, why don't you come Inca?

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Captain Haddock, edgar wright, Hergé, indiana jones, Jamie Bell, peter jackson, Prisoner of the Sun, prisoners of the sun, Red Rackham's Treasure, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin: prisoners of the sun, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the prisoners of the sun, the prisoners of the sun, tintin and the prisoners of the sun, Tintin in the Congo | Leave a comment »

Tintin: Red Rackham’s Treasure (Review)

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Darren

I have to admit to being just a little bit lukewarm to The Secret of the Unicorn as an entry in The Adventures of Tintin. However, the second part in the adventure, Red Rackham’s Treasure, is a much stronger instalment, standing on its own two feet. Part of me has always liked the more exotic Tintin adventures, but I reckon a large part of the appeal of this instalment is seeing Hergé resurrect a genre that has been left fallow for quite a few decades: the good old-fashioned treasure hunt.

Are Tintin and Haddock LOST?

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, blue lotus, Captain Haddock, Hergé, King Ottokar's Sceptre, Red Rackham's Treasure, review, Secret of the Unicorn, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin, the adventures of tintin: red rackham's treasure, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin and red rackham's treasure, Tintin in the Congo | Leave a comment »

Tintin: The Blue Lotus (Review)

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Darren

The Blue Lotus is regarded as something of a turning point for Hergé’s boy reporter. The cartoonist, apparently urged by those close to him, decided that – rather than basing his depiction of China on a collection of pop culture stereotypes (as he had done in Tintin in America) – he would undertake a considerable amount of research in order to ensure that the story was as respectful and faithful to Chinese culture as might have been possible. Indeed, the Chinese boy who Tintin befriends, Chang Chong-Chen, is named in honour of one of the students who helped him in coming to understand the Far East.

East of Eden...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, blue locust, blue lotus, Chang Chong-Chen, China, Far East, Hergé, japan, opium, peter jackson, political correctness, racism, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the blue locust, the adventures of tintin: the blue lotus, the blue locust, the blue lotus, tintin and the blue locust, tintin and the blue lotus, Tintin in the Congo, tintin in the far east, tintin: the blue locust, tintin: the blue lotus | 2 Comments »

Tintin: Cigars of the Pharaoh (Review)

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Darren

This is more like it. I think Cigars of the Pharaoh is the first quintessential Tintin story. It really feels like Hergé has figured out the kind of stories he wants to tell, with a weird blend of various pulp genres from crime to mystery to horror, all mixed with a healthy dose of comedy. It’s also the first adventure in the series (and I’m including Tintin in the Congo) that feels truly exotic as our hero travels the world to unearth the central mystery.

Tintin's first glimpse of a Red Sea Shark...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Captain Haddock, cigars of the pharaoh, Hergé, indiana jones, jack kirby, peter jackson, snowy, stan lee, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin: cigars of the pharaoh, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin and the cigars of the pharaoh, Tintin in the Congo, tintin: cigars of the pharaoh | 4 Comments »

Tintin: Tintin in America (Review)

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Darren

Tintin in America was the earliest Adventures of Tintin book I read as a child, and I owned the entire collection from this point on (for obvious reasons, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo were not recommended childhood reading). That said, I’ve always regarded Tintin in America as one of the weaker entries in the series, perhaps because my childhood imagination yearned for something relatively more exotic than a trip to North America, or perhaps because the saturation of American pop culture made all the elements Hergé was spoofing seem like old hat. I’m not entirely sure, but I have to admit that the story hasn’t improved too much on re-reading.

America, %&#! Yeah!

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Al Capone, comic books, gangsters, Hergé, history, native americans, peter jackson, racism, review, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin, tintin in america, Tintin in the Congo, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, United States | Leave a comment »

Tintin: Tintin in the Congo (Review)

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Darren

“Unfortunate,” is probably a word that gets tossed around quite frequently about Tintin in the Congo. The second adventure in the series, it was omitted from the list of books on the back of my old Tintin collection, for reasons that aren’t too hard to fathom. Apparently, like Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, the book was driven by editorial edict – to encourage Belgians to move to the colonies in the Congo, rather than to drum up fear and mistrust of communist Russia – though, to be frank, I really can’t see much here stirring a desire to emigrate. Tintin in the Congo is very mush a product of its time, filled with casual racism and awkward portrayals. That doesn’t make it any better, and it’s genuinely quite difficult to look past that fact.