Revisiting old favourites - Adventures of Tintin (1991-1992)
Well, I finally finished my watch-through of the '90s cartoon adaptation of The Adventures of Tintin. I've been watching it on and off for a few months now, for the first time since I was a kid, and it's been interesting. I loved this series when I was younger, and... it holds up pretty well. For the most part, anyway. Though it helps if you know what you're getting into.
Though - I wish I'd opted for the Canadian release rather than the US release. It would have been nice to brush up on my (frankly terrible) French; the US release only has English and Spanish tracks.
... Anyway. In some ways, the cartoon improves on the original comics. Well, I mean - the comics are great adventure stories, but they're pretty racist at times. The adaptation usually tries to minimize that. The cartoon version of Tintin in America completely removes the racist caricatures of natives, for example - and it's a lot better for it; a nice side-effect is that this story ends up with a much more streamlined, concise, coherent plot. I really appreciated that. Not to say that the cartoon is perfect, mind you; there still are some cringe-worthy things, but it's still a lot better on this front than the comics are.
I was really surprised at some of the adaptation choices in Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon. Namely, that they kept in Jorgen getting shot, and Wolff committing suicide by leaving the spaceship via the airlock. Both events are important to the plot, but considering when the cartoon was made, I'd have thought that the studio would have tried to find a way to change or work around it.
The stories aren't in order on the discs. This isn't usually a problem, but it can make for some strange continuity confusion at times - with the way it's arranged, sometimes secondary characters appear in episodes before the episode where they're actually introduced, so Tintin is acting like he knows so-and-so and I'm sitting there wondering "Who the heck is this? Am I supposed to know who they are?" (I had the biggest problem with Skut, because I couldn't remember him at all from the comics, and since Flight 714 is on vol 2 and Red Sea Sharks is for some reason placed completely out of order on vol3, I was sitting there going "Who the heck is this? I think I would remember this guy. Was the story where they meet him not adapted? And how can he be a pilot if he only has one eye?!!!" ... Ahem. And then I found out who he is later.)
Speaking of Flight 714, sometimes I forget just how cracktastic this series is. And then stories like that one remind me. I mean, the stories in this series are pretty far-fetched to begin with, what with all the madcap adventures and traveling around the world, but then there's... aliens. What. Well, okay.
I have a box set of the comics, but I haven't revisited them in a long time. Maybe it's time for a re-read, though. It'll be interesting to take a closer look at them in comparison to the adaptation - the last time I read them, I didn't have the cartoon on hand, and couldn't remember what kinds of things had been changed or eliminated altogether.
This entry was originally posted at http://yuuago.dreamwidth.org/3387232.html. You can comment here or at the original entry.
Though - I wish I'd opted for the Canadian release rather than the US release. It would have been nice to brush up on my (frankly terrible) French; the US release only has English and Spanish tracks.
... Anyway. In some ways, the cartoon improves on the original comics. Well, I mean - the comics are great adventure stories, but they're pretty racist at times. The adaptation usually tries to minimize that. The cartoon version of Tintin in America completely removes the racist caricatures of natives, for example - and it's a lot better for it; a nice side-effect is that this story ends up with a much more streamlined, concise, coherent plot. I really appreciated that. Not to say that the cartoon is perfect, mind you; there still are some cringe-worthy things, but it's still a lot better on this front than the comics are.
I was really surprised at some of the adaptation choices in Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon. Namely, that they kept in Jorgen getting shot, and Wolff committing suicide by leaving the spaceship via the airlock. Both events are important to the plot, but considering when the cartoon was made, I'd have thought that the studio would have tried to find a way to change or work around it.
The stories aren't in order on the discs. This isn't usually a problem, but it can make for some strange continuity confusion at times - with the way it's arranged, sometimes secondary characters appear in episodes before the episode where they're actually introduced, so Tintin is acting like he knows so-and-so and I'm sitting there wondering "Who the heck is this? Am I supposed to know who they are?" (I had the biggest problem with Skut, because I couldn't remember him at all from the comics, and since Flight 714 is on vol 2 and Red Sea Sharks is for some reason placed completely out of order on vol3, I was sitting there going "Who the heck is this? I think I would remember this guy. Was the story where they meet him not adapted? And how can he be a pilot if he only has one eye?!!!" ... Ahem. And then I found out who he is later.)
Speaking of Flight 714, sometimes I forget just how cracktastic this series is. And then stories like that one remind me. I mean, the stories in this series are pretty far-fetched to begin with, what with all the madcap adventures and traveling around the world, but then there's... aliens. What. Well, okay.
I have a box set of the comics, but I haven't revisited them in a long time. Maybe it's time for a re-read, though. It'll be interesting to take a closer look at them in comparison to the adaptation - the last time I read them, I didn't have the cartoon on hand, and couldn't remember what kinds of things had been changed or eliminated altogether.
This entry was originally posted at http://yuuago.dreamwidth.org/3387232.html. You can comment here or at the original entry.