The Adventures of Tintin (Comics, Movies and TV-series)

Tintin and friends.

As of writing it's inbetween my two summer vaccations in 2021 and used the first week to pretty much read all Tintin comics I had bought right before Midsummer. So I got 22 of 24 (or 25 if you count the comic based on Tintin in Shark Lake). Rather fun since it's been years since I read them last and some of them I've never even read. So for the first time I read the very first Tintin-album, Tintin in Soviet and... I can't really say it was worth it. In black and white and not updated to the later style and clearly well before the realism mind-set was put into place so it's rather convenient to just find a diving suit in a soviet prison so that Tintin can escape for example, or how he survives being frozen into an ice statue. Most things are rather absurd and the end is just abrupt since he's on his way to Moscow in a race car he got and crashes into the train back to Brussel so he just goes home to fanfares. 

Couldn't get my hand on Congo and America, but it seems like Congo might be released again during autumn 2021 (a small update, I got it and has the same feel of things just happen without any real end goal just like Soviet). I've read them as a child back home and most people does't value them as highly since they suffer a bit like Soviet since it more things just happens, and not to mention the racism in Congo. No, most people agree that you start with Pharoes Cigars since it's beginning of the classic Tintin template. And it also introduces Dupont and Dupond... (Thomson and Thompson I guess in the english version... and this is way I got the Swedish translations) as well as Rastapopulus. The most fun of the classic albums to read was The Broken Ear since I've never read it before either, but saw it in the Nelvana series and boy does it change a lot. The bomber in San Theodores is gone from Nelvana, more time is spent in the Amazon with a rival tribe and witchdoctor and the bad guys are dragged to hell. Also, people dies like flies in this story and Tintin is in blackface. 

My personal favorites of all the albums is one of the double albums, The Secret of the Unicorn/Treasure of Red Rackham or To the Moon and Back I and II. Depends if I'm more for a pirate story or a sci-fi one with a lot of cool gadgets. Although, one things bother me with these versions, and that is I could have sworn that there was a picture of the Unicorn as a schematic in the album I read as a kid, the same with Carreidas plane in Plane 714 to Sydney, but it isn't in this release. I know the plane exists at least since they show it on the wikipedia page for the album and it seems to be a picture created for a magazine so maybe it's a bit unofficial (although made by Hergés studio). 

Look at those lines!

The last album was the unfinished Alpha Art, and it's hard to judge as well since it is not even halfway done and no notes on completion. I got the unofficial finished version just to see it in colour and the potential ending and it's a bit definite in this version since Rastapopulus finally meets his end and suddenly Tintin has a potential girlfriend in the end. So the series just ends here.

Of course there's a lot of adaptations, like the Belvision series from the 50's and 60's that was dubbed in Swedish mostly in the 70's. We had the Shooting Star and the first part of the Black Island recorded on VHS and was my first introduction to Tintin. I quite like the Shooting Star better in this version actually, first you have the dooms day vibe and chaos in the beginning before the meteor lands in the ocean, then the bad guys of the Perry expedition is really ruthless in this version. In the album they don't shoot at Tintin as he lands on the meteor, but here Tintin and Professor Calculus are saved by the rocks instead (and yes Calculus is part of this episode even though he wasn't introduced until the album afterwards, even the Dupont's have a lot of screen time here even though they don't show up in this album). And the spider is more creepy here, could be the two eyes and how it moves. It feels a bit more action oriented overall. Black Island have the same vibe from at least the episode I watched, and Haddock is crammed in from the start.

Belvisions most important contribution though is probably the film Tintin and Lake of Sharks. Didn't watch it until my family found it in a cheap bargain bin for DVD's and just had to get it. We had the album version of the film as well as an LP with the story. Although I guess those things are better than watching the movie. Although it had the return of the shark submarine, but it doesn't help a rather slow paced movie. Which makes the shorter audio and a more quick paced album the better version. Decent music though. Overall, the Belvisions aren't that great (with exception of the Mysterious Star, but it can be nostalgia). Otherwise watch the Nelvana-series instead, which looks more like the album art, have a better soundtrack, the voices are great and they follow the stories a bit better. The only complaint would be a bit of censoring when it comes to alcohol, and even though the voices are great the Swedish dub has a tendency to use the same voice actors for more roles so when Haddock is the same as Rastapopulos and other side characters, and many of the gags have disappeared in the adaptation (which is rather fair, but still) but they still keeps certain punchlines. For example in the Calcalus Affair where the sales man in the original brings his family and Calcalus mishears Haddock and tells the sales man he has scarlet fever driving him away. Why keep the scarlet fever joke if the punchline of driving the family away isn't there? Other things is much better story wise, for example the japanese agent in the Crab with the Golden Claw that is captured and Tintin find in Carabodjan's hold, making it more personal when the ship is said to have sunk.

Lastly we have the Spielberg and Jackson Hollywood movie... don't like it much. Might have been nice watching in 3D on the big screen, but cutting together several albums like that and make an innocent victim the bad guy is rather irritating. And the 3D-models, they move a bit weird and slow at times. And where is the sequel? It's been 10 years, where's the sequel?

Phantom 2040

The Ghost Who Walks!

Been on a bit of memory trip and remembered I watched this show as a kid. I don't think I realised it was based on the Phantom comics I've read (even though the names the same). And the whole show was on youtube so I relived the memories. Or more correctly filled the gap for the two memories of the show I had. It takes place in the year 2040 in Metropolis, a futuristic New York where the world are on the brink of destruction due to natural collapse and climate change. Mankind have built satellites around the earth where humans live and are born that terrorise people for independence. Mega Corporations rule the planet and the rich and influential tries to save themselves. Worst is the Maximum Industries headed by Rebecca Madison, her son Maxwell Jr. and chief of security Graft. As they try to start the Maximum Era where the rich have taken shelter in Cyberville, a city complex cut of from the world for 10 years while the rest of the world dies and are reborn and the people of Cyberville can return as leaders of the world. 16 years earlier Maxwell Madison Sr. died in a train crash that contaminated half of Metropolis, caused by the Phantom according to stories that haven't been seen since then. And that is the setup.

The character models looks a bit weird

Kit Walker is drawn into this when Guran, a friend of his father tries to tell him about his heritage, but are attacked by Maximum who have waited for him to return. Kits great-aunt Heloise gets hurt in the fight and Kit discovers that he is the last in line of the Phantom-family, the 24 to be exact. From here he picks up the skull ring and fights injustice in search for answers like what happened that day 16 years ago that killed his father. The first season was amazing with interesting stories and characters. For example the backstory of Graft that was a soldier in the resource wars of 2015 (ha) where he become a hero for saving children, gets promoted by Maxwell Sr. and then defects to save an amazonian village, but the battle leaves him just an upper-torso for Rebecca Madison to use as an enforcer. Also it gets really dark. Maxwell Sr. mind was saved by Rebecca by being downloaded into a computer so she tries to resurect him by putting him in a robot body. One episode it succeeds, but he is confused and sees that he has lost his sons childhood and kidnapps him and take him to the central station to try to remember what happened. The Phantom interupts him, and during the fight he realises he is dead, and as his son pleads with him to stay since he misses his father, the robot rips open his torso and jumps into a water pool, electrocuting him. Real dark stuff.

Maxwell Jr., Baudelaire the cat and Graft

Second season first half was good. The last part was not as good, It was rather noticeable as well. The ending of the first half where they had build up the story for was the Phantom traveling to Africa to visit his ancestral home in Bengala while Rebecca brought Maxwell Sr to life again and prepared to start the Maximum Era, they get trapped after the Phantom tries to blow up their HQ and they escape to Cyberville. Meanwhile it is revealed that the 23rd Phantom survived the accident and was able to put himself into cryonetic sleep, but was awakened for some reason, and the episode ends with him sitting at a monitor realising he have been awakend to early as the poison drips around him. After this studio meddling forced them to speed up to get an ending that was decent, and I think forced certain characters to act out of character to just tell their story since they couldn't build them more. Also, certain characters just disappeared or was pushed to the side, Graft for example. The ending is really noticeable since they wrap up the death of the 23rd Phantom, the truth behind the accident and the termination of Maxwell Sr. and then last 30 seconds tell that the other bad guys went to prison. A bit rushed. Another reason it felt worse is that it strained a bit of reality. One episode had the bad guys injecting the kid side-kick with nano-machines and could spy on the Phantom, but they saw it in 3rd-person where the more correct way would be 1st-person. Easier to animate. And then there was a virtual reality episode where all phantom chronicles are digitised and to find out about who was given a good mark medallion Kit 24 enters a digital adventure of the 21 Phantom (the one everyone knows) and he walks around in Morocco interacting with people until the Phantom arrives and captures the bad guys, gives the mark to a kid that helped them and is on his way.. while Kit 24 watches a pickpocket steal the mark and say it will be an heirloom for his family. HOW does he know that? How is it supposed to work? Talk about a very well written chronicle for each adventure if they are able to put that in.

Since I'm Swedish, I prefer this colour scheme

A pity it ended as it did, but it at least didn't overstay its welcome. The two memories I had was the backstory for Graft and the survival of the 23rd Phantom. I gotta say the voice acting phenomenal with Mark Hamill, Margot Kidder, Ron Pearlman and the guy doing the Puingin from Batman the animated series, Grace from Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers and the others do a decent job as well. The music was good and as mentioned the animation was ok, but it could look a bit freaky at times. Apparently the same guy who did Aeon Flux and worked on Fire and Ice and Transformers G1. Sad thing is, that there isn't a full release of the series. There's supposedly a season 1 box set in Australia, but for season 2 you gotta watch taped version from their original release. Apparently before Captain Planet, and besides environmental message, I have a hard time seeing why I would like that show if I like the Phantom as the presenter says.