THE ADVENTURES OF TIN-TIN: SEASON 1
(not rated)
MOVIE: **** (out of 5)
DVD EXPERIENCE: * (out of 5)
BY KEVIN CARR
With Steven Spielberg’s big budget, mo-cap blockbuster “The Adventures of Tintin” coming out in a few weeks, Shout Factory has dropped the first season of the 1991 animated series “The Adventures of Tintin” into the marketplace. Based on the Belgian comic, this series follows a young reporter and his dog who get into a variety of adventures and scrapes.
Thirteen episodes of this series are available on two discs, most of them comprising multi-part episodes. Some of the more famous stories, including “The Secret of the Unicorn” and “The Blue Lotus,” are included in this first season.
The hand-drawn animation style of these shows is charming and nostalgic. Made at a time when most television cartoons saw a low-rent style, “The Adventures of Tintin” retain the charm and simplicity of the original Belgian look. The closest American counterpart might be the style of E.C. Segar, who drew the original Popeye cartoons. Such a style is a welcome change from the overused Flash animation of today and the cheap assembly line look of many cartoons from the 80s and 90s.
Even though these cartoons are only 20 years old, they feel much older, which goes back to the flavor of the original “Tintin” series. I had not seen many of these source materials, but I fell in love with it upon watching these episodes of the show.
At the very least, “The Adventures of Tintin: Season One” has whetted my appetite for the upcoming Spielberg film, which is based on the second serial on the first DVD. These are stories of pure adventure that capture the flavor of pre-WWII filmmaking. They’re simple, yet very satisfying.