The Adventures of Tintin (TV series)

The television series was directed by French director Stephen Bernasconi, with Peter Hudecki as the Canadian unit director. Hudecki was the primary director, but could not be credited as such due to co-production restrictions. It was produced by Ellipse (France) and Nelvana (Canada) on behalf of the Hergé Foundation.[2] It was the first television adaptation of Hergé's books since the Belgian animation company Belvision was responsible for Hergé's Adventures of Tintin twenty years earlier. Philippe Goddin, an expert on Hergé and Tintin, acted as a consultant to the producers. The series' writers included: Toby Mullally, Eric Rondeaux, Martin Brossolet, Amelie Aubert, Dennise Fordham, and Alex Boon.

The series used traditional animation techniques[3] and adhered closely to the original books, going so far as to transpose some frames from the original books directly to screen.[4] In the episodes "Destination Moon" and "Explorers on the Moon", 3D animation was used for the moon rocket—an unusual step in 1989. Each frame of the animation was then printed and recopied onto celluloid, hand painted in gouache, and then laid onto a painted background. The rocket seen in the title sequence is animated using the same 3D techniques.

Artistically, the series chose a constant style, unlike in the books. In the books, the images had been drawn over the course of 47 years, during which Hergé's style developed considerably. However, later televised episodes, such as the "Moon Story" and "Tintin in America", clearly demonstrated the artists' development during the course of the production of the television series. The series' original production language was English, but all visuals (road signs, posters, and settings) remained in French.

Certain aspects of the stories posed difficulties for the producers, who had to adapt features of the books for a younger audience. Nevertheless, this series was far more faithful to the books than the earlier Hergé's Adventures of Tintin, which was made from 1959 to 1963.

Some examples of these changes included toning down the high amount of violence, death, and the use of firearms in many adventures. Tintin's role was slightly downplayed and he scolded his dog Snowy less often than he did in the books. Twice in the series, Tintin is portrayed as knowing various characters already (Thomson and Thompson and Allan in "Cigars of the Pharaoh" and Piotr Skut in "The Red Sea Sharks"), when it was the first time they had met in the book version. On these occasions Tintin had already interacted with these characters in the TV series, as stories were shown in a sequence different from the books.

Haddock's penchant for whiskey posed a problem for audience sensitivities. While the original books did not promote alcohol, they featured it heavily, with much humor based around it and the results of drinking. In many countries where the producers hoped to sell the series, alcoholism was a sensitive issue. Therefore, international versions of the series had some alterations. Specifically, Haddock is often seen drinking, but not as heavily as in the books. "The Crab with the Golden Claws" is the only adventure where Haddock's drunken state is not downplayed. In "Tintin in Tibet", Haddock is seen taking a sip from a whiskey flask in order to set up a scene in which Snowy is tempted to lap up some spilled whiskey and subsequently falls over a cliff. In "Tintin and the Picaros", Haddock is the only person taking wine with dinner, foreshadowing the use of Calculus' tablets to cure the drunken Picaros. Haddock is also seen drinking in "The Calculus Affair" and in "Explorers on the Moon", setting up the scene where he leaves the rocket in a drunken state. Despite of this, he keeps the bottle in the refrigerator (instead of hiding it in an astronomy book, like he did in the book), making it less obvious for young viewers that it is alcohol.

Tintin in America, The Shooting Star and Red Rackham's Treasure are the only stories to be told in one part instead of two. In the second part of the stories, Tintin narrates some of the events of the first part at the beginning.

Throughout the books, Snowy is frequently seen to be "talking". It is understood that his voice is only heard through the "fourth wall", but this verbal commentary is completely absent in the television series.

The underscore music and the main title theme for the series were written by composers Ray Parker and Tom Szczesniak. The music was recorded by engineer James Morgan. Excerpts from the score were released by Lé Studio Ellipse on CD and cassette in conjunction with Universal Music Group, on the StudioCanal label. It is now out of print in both formats.

Hergé, the creator of Tintin, makes a number of Hitchcock-like cameo appearances in the cartoon series—as he often did in the original books. Most of the time he is just a passing figure in the street, such as when he is checking his watch in The Blue Lotus or a reporter (The Broken Ear) or a technician (Explorers on the Moon). These brief appearances, however, are not sporadic as he is featured in all of the TV episodes. His letter box can even be seen next to Tintin's in The Crab with the Golden Claws. Other cameos are less flattering: he is a gangster in Tintin in America and an inmate at the lunatic asylum in Cigars of the Pharaoh, along with his fellow artist and collaborator Edgar P. Jacobs.[5]

Running order of the TV series as per original broadcast schedule.

Along with fans, critics have praised the series for being "generally faithful" to the originals, with compositions having been actually taken directly from the panels in the original comic books.[6]

• In Canada, the series originally aired on Family Channel and Global Television Network.
• In the United States, the series originally aired on HBO.
• In the United Kingdom, the series originally aired on Channel Four on terrestrial television, and Family Channel, a channel based on CBN's Family Channel, available through the original Sky system. It was later broadcast on Sky One until the show was purchased by Five.
• In Brazil, the series originally aired in 1992 on the defunct channel TVA Filmes, as part of the TVA Kids Saturday morning show. Each story had their two parts edited and shown together. In 1994, it premiered on public broadcasting channel TV Cultura. In 1996, it aired on Cartoon Network and the series was on HBO Family for most of the 2000s. In 2012, it premiered on educational channel Futura and it will again be aired by TV Cultura starting in April. It was dubbed to Portuguese by Herbert Richers.
• In Sri Lanka, the series was dubbed in Sinhala and broadcast by Sirasa TV and Rupavahini, along with Lake of Sharks and Temple of the Sun.
• In Israel, the series was dubbed into Hebrew by Elrom Studios, and broadcast on the Israeli Channel 2, and later on Israel Broadcasting Authority (Channel 1). Children and Teenagers devoted shows. Tintin became very popular among kids and adults in Israel. The show was aired for several years, rerunning many times.
• In Italy, Rai 1 Italia 1 broadcast the series.
• In Australia, the series was broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as part of their ABC Kids programming block as well as on the ABC2 digital channel. It has been shown in its complete run at least twice, leading to screenings of the Belvision Tintin films. As of October 2010, it is currently being aired on Boomerang.
• In New Zealand, the series was originally aired on TV2 of Television New Zealand. It continued to re-run on TV2 for a few years afterwards. It then featured on Cartoon Network.
• In South Africa, the series was broadcast by KTV, a daily children's programme, on M-Net.
• In India, the series was broadcast by Cartoon Network in the summer of 2000. The original run was followed by many reruns. Doordarshan and Zee Alpha Bangla also showed the series with dubbing. Gemini TV aired the series in Telugu around the same time as Sabash Tintin.
• It has also aired in Arabic in several networks broadcast from Arabic speaking regions. Although the Arabic dubbing was performed in Lebanon, they dubbed it using standard 1 narrative, and was then syndicated. This is a usual treatment of most Arabic dubs of children's productions.
• In Bulgaria, it premiered on 18 July 2005 on Kanal 1 and aired every Monday to Friday at 16:20. Reruns started on 24 December 2005 every Saturday and Sunday at 08:10 and ending on 30 April 2006 and later once more during the summer of 2006.
• In Indonesia, it was broadcast by SCTV starting in 1996, and is aired in B Channel (now became RTV) starting from 2010 until 2014
• In Japan, the series was broadcast By NHK in the spring 1994, and is aired again in 2001–2002 on Japanese speak in broadcast Fuji Television.
• In the Philippines, it was aired in GMA-7 in the mid-1990s as part of the afternoon cartoon schedule.
• In Southeast Asia, the series was aired in Cartoon Network up to about 2004.
• In Portugal, the series was aired in Canal Panda until late 2003.
• In Denmark, the series was aired in the 1990s on the Danish channel, DR1 and again by DR Ramasjang from 2009 and on.
• In Saudi Arabia, during the 1990s the series was broadcast by the State TV, in English, on channel 2. Later it was broadcast in Arabic on state TV, channel 1.
• In Germany, it was dubbed to German in the 1990s by ATLAS Film. The series was first aired on public channel ZDF betweet October 1993 and June 1994.
• In Sweden, the series was first aired (dubbed in Swedish) on Swedish Channel 1 (Kanal 1; now SVT1) between September 1994 and April 1995. It was then broadcast in the original series episode order. When it was later published in a Scandinavian DVD box (with Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish dubbings), the episodes were arranged in the original album order (for instance, putting the episode "Tintin in America" as the first episode, even though it was the last one in the series).
• In Colombia, the series were aired by the local signal of cable network HBO Olé in 1992. A few years later, was part of the Latin Cartoon Network shows in the late '90s.
• The series is currently free on Amazon Prime for those paying for it.

• List of French animated television series
• The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
• Blake and Mortimer

• Lofficier, Jean-Marc & Randy (2002) The Pocket Essential Tintin ISBN 1-904048-17-X

• Les Aventures de Tintin en DVD (2003) : issues 1,2,5,6
• The Adventures of Tintin – 5-disc DVD set (2003)
• Citel Video
• The Adventures of Tintin at IMDb
• The Adventures of Tintin at TV.com
• Guide to screen adaptions of "Tintin" at Tintinologist.org