Tintin-Et le Lac Aux Requins (The Mystery at Shark Lake) (1972)

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General		Extras
Category	Action Adventure	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1972
Running Time	73:15
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Raymond Leblanc
Studio Distributor	Belvision Madman Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$19.95	Music	François Rauber Jean-Pierre Cereghetti Paulette Melloul

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This is the third of three Tintin animated feature films which have been released to local DVD by Madman. The first one I reviewed was Le Temple Du Soleil from 1969 and the second was L'affaire Tournesol from 1964 (which was not really a feature film) and this is the third, Et Le Lac Aux Requins or Mystery of Shark Lake from 1972. One of the interesting things about this particular film is that unlike the others the story was not originally one of the books and was written for the movie by a number of writers none of whom was Herge (the author of the graphic novels). Later it was published as a book. The film was a French/Belgian production and was originally made in French.

    The story certainly has many of the traits of a Tintin story but seems a little too formulaic, reusing one of Tintin's old adversaries, Rastapopulous, and one of his old friends, Castafiore. The plot is similar to a number of the Tintin books and involves Professor Calculus working on a new invention, this time a machine which makes exact copies of three dimensional objects. Tintin & Captain Haddock are heading to Syldavia to have a holiday with him but get dragged into a plot to steal his invention. Firstly their plane crashes suspiciously and they are rescued by two children, Niko and Nouchska, who proceed to sing one of the worst songs I have ever heard in a film, I Love My Donkey. Once they find their way to Calculus' house mysterious things start to happen and then the children are kidnapped. It soon becomes clear that something is going on under the surface of the lake (which doesn't seem to have any actual sharks) and Tintin & Haddock must save the day.

    The animation here is significantly better than the other two films I mentioned above, although still of its time. Despite its issues, this is an enjoyable animated film and certainly worthwhile for fans of Tintin.

Video

    The feature is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is 16x9 enhanced widescreen. It is my impression that this has been cropped from 1.33:1 which seems to be the original aspect ratio and is certainly the aspect ratio on other versions available on DVD.

    The picture was quite clear and sharp throughout with only some minor MPEG artefacts.

    The colour was surprisingly good for animation of this age.

    There were no obvious artefacts.

    There are subtitles in English for the hearing impaired. They are yellow, clear and easy to read.

    There is no layer change.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio is quite good although annoyingly only available in an English dub.

    This DVD contains one audio track, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 224Kb/s. Overall, the sound is quite clear and very listenable, better than the other two. It is disappointing that only the dubbed English track is available rather than the original French (at least as an option). The soundtrack is a little quieter than most.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand. The music is a little over the top at times.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There is a Region 2 version of this film which includes five soundtrack options including English and the original French plus English subtitles. It is in 1.33:1 which seems to be the OAR. This seems to be the best version available although I have a suspicion that the local version has better video quality. If the local version had a French soundtrack as an option it would probably be a better choice.

    The video quality is very good but seems to have been cropped.

    The audio is quite good.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall