The Adventures of Tintin-Volume 1 (1990)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Audio Production Notes-Comic Book Chronology Biographies-Character-Character Profiles
Rating
Year Of Production	1990
Running Time	162:25 (Case: 160)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (10:33)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Stéphane Bernasconi
Studio Distributor	Madman Madman Entertainment	Starring	Colin O'Meara David Fox Susan Roman Wayne Robson John Stocker Vernon Chapman Dan Hennessey Maureen Forrester
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$14.95	Music	Ray Parker Jr. Tom Szeczseniak Stéphane Bernasconi

    Many years ago when I was a boy, my favourite books were Tintin and Asterix, both comics (or if you prefer, graphic novels) written in Europe. I would scour the local library looking for ones I had not read and then if all else failed borrow one I had already read. The Tintin books were originally written in the 1930s and set at that time. They involve the adventures of a young Belgian journalist called Tintin who travels the world righting wrongs and having adventures with his faithful dog, Snowy. There were 24 books originally written by Herge of which 21 are included in this television series made in 1991. There were also three extra books based on movies. The stories here are Books 3 to 6. The first two books were not included in the series. These episodes do not feature characters like Captain Haddock or Professor Calculus who were introduced later in the series.

    This series has previously been released in Region 4 as a six disc box set and the discs are now being released separately. The series was a Canadian/French co-production and unfortunately features many Canadian accents, most notably Tintin himself. Despite this, most fans consider this the best attempt to bring Tintin to life on the screen.

    The stories included here are:

1. Tintin in America (23:12) - Originally published in 1932. Tintin goes to Chicago to investigate the mob but soon gets himself into trouble. The story presented here is somewhat different to the book especially with regard to the dropping of the native American angle in the original story.
2. The Cigars of the Pharaoh (46:23) - Originally published in 1934. This episode is presented in two parts. Both include opening titles and credits, however they are joined together as one title on the disc. Tintin is on a holiday cruise in the Mediterranean when he meets an eccentric archaeologist, Dr Sarcophagus who offers to take him to a lost Pharaoh's tomb. He discovers that something more sinister is afoot involving smugglers.
3. The Blue Lotus (46:25) - Originally published in 1936. This episode is presented in two parts. Both include opening titles and credits, however they are joined together as one title on the disc. This episode is a continuation of the story in Cigars of the Pharaoh and sees Tintin following the trail of clues from India to Shanghai where he helps a group fighting organised crime and becomes mixed up in the Japanese invasion.
4. Tintin and the Broken Ear (46:25) - Originally published in 1937. This episode is presented in two parts. Both include opening titles and credits, however they are joined together as one title on the disc. A South American idol is stolen from a museum and then replaced shortly afterwards by a fake one. The original had a distinctive broken ear and Tintin decides to investigate, following the trail to South America.

    I thoroughly enjoyed these cartoons of the original comic book stories despite the minor plot changes and Canadian accents. The animation style is very similar to the original books and the music is a great addition. My young son has now become obsessed with Tintin and wants to watch this disc constantly.

    Recommended.

Video

    The video quality is quite good considering the age of the material.

    The feature is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was reasonably clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. Light grain is present throughout.

    The colour was decent although somewhat dull and lacking vibrancy. There was also some occasional chroma noise.

    Artefacts included some small white and black specks and a few hairs plus some jagged edges, mild aliasing and some shimmering on camera pans.

    There are no subtitles.

    The layer change occurs at 10:33 in episode 3 and was quite bad, causing a significant pause on my player.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The music by Ray Parker, Jim Morgan & Tom Szczesniak is excellent adding tension, excitement and atmosphere to the show.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu included music, and the ability to select episodes and the extras.

Comic Book Chronology

    Includes a text synopsis and original publication date for the books upon which the included episodes are based.

Character Profiles

    Includes text profiles for Tintin (5pp) and Snowy (1p).

    This series is available on multi-disc sets in Region 1 and Region 2. There seems to be little between the various editions and there does not seem to be a direct comparison to this individual disc as the Region 1 version has a different configuration of episodes on each disc. There is a planned release of the individual disc in Region 2 in August. Call it a draw.

    The video quality is quite good.

    The audio quality is good.

    The extras are quite minimal.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall