Clear lines

January 1, 2012 1:33 PM

On the afterlife of Tintin. Via 3 AM.
posted by latkes (20 comments total)

I got a couple of the 3-in-1 collections of Tintin for Xmas, and I am enjoying going through them again, more or less in order. They stand up surprisingly well for comics that are the better part of a century old. If anyone who likes comics hasn't given them a look, i heartify recommend it.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:48 PM on January 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

On March 3rd, 1983, the French daily Libération... replaced every illustration, including those for political news, TV listings, weather reports, and even ads, with drawings from Hergé’s canon.

I'd love to see this edition. Has anyone found a copy viewable online?
posted by rh at 2:03 PM on January 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

The 2003 documentary Tintin and I, about Hergé and the origins of Tintin, is online. Here's Part One.
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:30 PM on January 1, 2012 [4 favorites]

I couldn't go see the movie for fear of destroying my childhood. I have pretty much every Tintin comic in the English translation. So funny. So good. They are timeless; check them out.
posted by zeek321 at 3:10 PM on January 1, 2012

Hommage à Hergé : La dernière aventure de Tintin (1983)

You can buy the back issue.
posted by Ideefixe at 3:33 PM on January 1, 2012

Almost all episodes of the 1991 - 1992 animated series The Adventures of Tintin are currently online. Here they are, including the ones I couldn't find. (All are on YouTube unless otherwise noted.)

The Crab with the Golden Claws
The Secret of the Unicorn
Red Rackham's Treasure
Cigars of the Pharaoh (Google Video)
The Blue Lotus
The Black Island (Veoh)
The Calculus Affair
The Shooting Star
The Broken Ear (Veoh)
King Ottokar's Sceptre (Veoh)
Tintin in Tibet
Tintin and the Picaros (Veoh)
Land of Black Gold
Flight 714 (Bad quality)
The Red Sea Sharks (Cool3net)
Prisoners of the Sun
The Castafiore Emerald (Google Video)
Destination Moon
Explorers on the Moon (There a Belvision version: Objective Moon)
Tintin in America

Bonus: many Belvision and French live action movies
posted by twoleftfeet at 3:51 PM on January 1, 2012 [18 favorites]

Almost all episodes of the 1991 - 1992 animated series The Adventures of Tintin are currently online. Here they are, including the ones I couldn't find. (All are on YouTube unless otherwise noted.)

I had strongly considered doing a FPP on the wonderful animated show, which was my introduction to Tintin. Hadn't gotten around to finding links to the program though.
posted by JHarris at 4:14 PM on January 1, 2012

Hadn't gotten around to finding links to the program though.

Feel free to use the links in an FPP. I confess that I made the list because I wanted to have a handy list I could access later. Tintin deserves another FPP, I think, though I'm biased because I'm a big fan. There are other angles... for example:

Tintin in the Congo was almost banned in Belgium recently because of this kind of content. But what would happen if Hergé had made Tintin in the Congo in the Nude?
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:22 PM on January 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

The new movie is a lot of fun.
posted by KokuRyu at 4:31 PM on January 1, 2012

The new movie is a lot of fun.

I'm really tossing up whether to take my eldest, She's just discovered Tintin, and part of me doesn't want Spielberg voicing the characters for her, but it does look like a lot of fun. I might sneak off to watch it though.
posted by the noob at 4:37 PM on January 1, 2012

I took my two kids to see the movie and it was a lot of fun and fairly true to the original while amping up the action to the required excessive hollywood standard. There aee a lot ofbfun nods to thw other adventures along the way - watch out for the cans of "crab meat".
posted by GuyZero at 5:04 PM on January 1, 2012

The new movie is a lot of fun. It's the only movie which for me simultaneously combined edge-of-your-seat action and warm nostalgia for my childhood.

I don't think the movie would lessen the value of the books for kids; the Harry Potter movies didn't seem to keep kids from reading the books.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:08 PM on January 1, 2012

I just got back from seeing the movie, and it really is a lot of fun. It's a lot more fun if you grew up reading the Tintin books and could appreciate the many references scattered throughout the movie.

My girlfriend, who had no prior familiarity with Tintin, didn't get the references, but suspected that there was more going with the high level of detail. Like the Raiders of the Lost Ark post from yesterday, Spielberg did his homework on this movie.
posted by oozy rat in a sanitary zoo at 5:26 PM on January 1, 2012

I was introduced to Tintin when I read him in French class in high school. I didn't get all the references but I spotted a number. I really enjoyed the film as far as an "updated" version goes, and thought that Spielberg and Moffat managed to shore up each other's weaknesses. I was also pleasantly surprised that the 3D made the motion capture animation, which I generally find really creepy, work.

twoleftfeet, until about a month ago I had no idea that series even existed, so thanks for the pointer.

(Speaking of Tintin and colonialism, here's a mashup of Tintin in the Congo with parts of Newt Gingrich's dissertation. Ouch.)
posted by immlass at 5:36 PM on January 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

From a Tintin comic of 1943. The characters are speaking in the stereotypical quasi-Germanic accent attributed to Jews among Francophone anti-Semites:

Salomon: "Did you hear, Isaac? The end of the world! What if it was for real?"
Isaac: "It would be a good little bargain, Salomon!... I owe 50,000 francs to my creditors... In that case I wouldn't have to pay..."
posted by dhens at 5:44 PM on January 1, 2012 [2 favorites]

there was more going with the high level of detail

The artist at the very beginning is a pretty good likeness of Hergé, which the continues the tradition of him appearing, Hitchcock-like, somewhere in each of the stories. I also liked Spielberg's homage to himself when Tintin's cowlick looked like the fin of a shark.
posted by twoleftfeet at 6:06 PM on January 1, 2012

The movie is a lot of fun, though parts take some getting used to. It's a blend of 3 different stories, and takes some characters on different arcs to be more straightforward.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:23 PM on January 1, 2012

Also, as a supplement to twoleftfeets post, there's a Cartoon Brew article comparing the Spielberg version to prior major versions, most of which are probably linked above.
posted by ZeusHumms at 6:24 PM on January 1, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I think it's the fact that I saw the Tintin stuff like the one dhens quoted above before anything else, but Tintin has always seemed awkward and painful for me. It's really odd, because I understand that he's an important part of the childhood of many people, but I can't help but see unvarnished collaboration with the Nazis, colonialism, sexism, and the whole European nostalgia for an imperial past when I read Tintin. I think maybe I should read some of the last issues from the 70s to get a better idea of their breadth.

Anyway, great article. Thanks.
posted by koeselitz at 9:09 AM on January 2, 2012

I understand that he's an important part of the childhood of many people, but I can't help but see unvarnished collaboration with the Nazis, colonialism, sexism, and the whole European nostalgia for an imperial past when I read Tintin.

Bear in mind that much of the problem isn't Tintin, but childhood. Any childhood of the 70s (and 80s) is going to be awash in children's classics from the 60's (and 50's, etc), and those times had assumptions that you see as pretty shocking today but were not just ok back then, they were simply the way the world obviously was - at least in the understanding of the societies of the time.

So what's a good thing that could be done with this problem of childhood spanning the ages and reaching into times with social mores that we'd prefer to sweep under the rug?

Update the classics to no-longer carry that baggage. That doesn't mean banning the old classics, it means making great new ones. For example, making a new Tintin story for a modern medium and which reflects modern mores :-)
posted by -harlequin- at 11:58 AM on January 2, 2012 [1 favorite]