Hergé's Adventures of Tintin () is the first animated television series based on Hergé's popular comic book series, The Adventures of Tintin. The series was produced by Belvision Studios and first aired in 1957. After two books were adapted in black and white, eight books were then adapted in colour, each serialised into a set of five-minute episodes, with 103 episodes produced (twelve in black and white and ninety-one in colour).
Development Background: Creation of Belvision and the first two adventures Raymond Leblanc, editor of the Tintin magazine, viewed the emergence of television as a promising medium for his paper characters, so on 15 October 1954, he created the Belvision Studios. It was specified that the purpose of the company was to produce filmed programs. The key player of the company was Karel Van Milleghem, editor of Kuifje (the Dutch-speaking version of the Tintin magazine).
The first real animations were carried out by Belvision from 1955 to 1958 for Belgian Television, with basic means. First, there were several animation adaptations of Flemish artist Willy Vandersteen's comics Suske en Wiske which Karel Van Milleghem liked.
In 1956, Belvision secured rights to adapt stories from The Adventures of Tintin from Hergé and signed a contract with the French Radio-Television, for two stories of Tintin cartoons. This was a series of animations produced in 1957 by Belvision for the French Radio-Television (RTF because there was only one channel in France at that time). They were made in 16 mm black and white film, from the books King Ottokar's Sceptre and The Broken Ear.
This black and white animated series can therefore be considered as the very first adaptation of Tintin's adventures in cartoons. Hergé, who had just completed the publication of The Calculus Affair and who was immersed in The Red Sea Sharks project, did not intend to be mobilized by this parallel project for two years. This is why he asked his collaborator Bob De Moor to follow him closely. De Moor would ensure and supervise the layout of the characters and the sets.
King Ottokar’s Sceptre had 8 episodes of thirteen minutes, while The Broken Ear had 7 episodes. They were broadcast on RTF. ‘King Ottokar’s Sceptre’ aired from 28 November 1957 to 15 January 1958 on each Thursday. ‘The Broken Ear’ aired from 4 July 1959 to 15 August 1959 on each Saturday. In these two series, everything is done in semi-animation mode with a majority of still images and a few rare character movements. Only the episodes of The Broken Ear have a little more animation. Hergé finally got more involved than expected in the scripts and the drawings. Some of the boxes of the comics had undergone some small alterations as well as totally new images, notably in The Broken Ear. Likewise, the script has sometimes been changed. For example, at the beginning of ‘King Ottokar's Sceptre’ (episode 1), in the Syldavian restaurant "Klow", Tintin does not ask to go to the toilet but asks to phone. These visual and oral changes were deemed necessary to make the whole thing more captivating for viewers.
Jean Nohain narrated the episodes and voiced all the characters. The BBC created UK dubs of King Ottokar's Sceptre with Gerald Campion voicing Tintin, and The Broken Ear, where Peter Hawkins voiced all the characters.Search results for Tintin at the BBC Programme Index
On the advice of R.T.F., the production was entrusted to Anne-Marie Ullmann, who was prohibited from retouching the drawings provided by Studios Hergé. This refusal resulted in laborious animation and frozen characters. The result disappointed RTF, which terminated its association with Belvision, along with Van Milleghem.
Hiatus and new adventures Leblanc then hired Ray Goossens, a professional from cartoon advertising, recommended to him by Van Milleghem.
Under the leadership of Goossens, Belvision renounced 16 mm in black and white, and equipped itself for 35 mm in color. They went from semi-animation to "full animation" thanks to the studio of Larry Harmon; using the system of layers with pins and the tracing of images on cels.
In 1960, Leblanc managed to involve Télé-Hachette, the subsidiary of the French publisher, in his film projects about Tintin. The goal was to produce five useful minutes per week, which is how Belvision attracted from 20 to 120 people in a few weeks.
Hergé participated more in the development process, and supervised a lot of meetings between his collaborators (Bob De Moor and Jacques Martin) and those of Belvision.
The French version starred Georges Poujouly as Tintin and Jean Clarieux as Captain Haddock. In the US dubbed version, Harmon and Dallas McKennon both voiced Tintin, with Paul Frees as Captain Haddock.
Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin, which was directed by Ray Goossens and produced by Belvision and Télé-Hachette between 1959 and 1964, can be considered as the first real cartoon adaptation of the Adventures of Tintin.
It brings together eight stories of Tintin.
Destination Moon Explorers on the Moon The Crab with the Golden Claws The Secret of the Unicorn Red Rackham's Treasure The Shooting Star The Black Island The Calculus Affair
"Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin" were the opening words to each episode. Each adventure was divided into small episodes of about 5 minutes preceded by a summary and followed by the announcement of the following episode. Each one ended with a teaser that encouraged the viewer not to miss the next episode.
The Calculus Case Several liberties were taken in the adaptation and the script quality was sometimes poor. After 89 five-minute episodes, Télé-Hachette was dissatisfied with the result and decided, in 1963, not to renew the contract with Belvision. Nevertheless, Raymond Leblanc decided to produce a new adaptation despite everything, alone with Belvision. It was The Calculus Affair, on a screenplay by Greg and Bernard Fredisch, in thirteen five-minute episodes. Not coproduced by Télé-Hachette, The Calculus Affair has always had a special status and is considered a feature film (like Tintin and the Temple of the Sun or Tintin and the Lake of Sharks). After being released on VHS in the 1980s, it was released on DVD in France on 14 May 2008, in a remastered edition, in the Tintin animated feature set at Citel Vidéo. ‘The Calculus Affair’ DVD was reissued in 2011 in the 23rd volume of the Tintin collection by Hachette editions.
Changes from the books Most stories in the television series varied widely from the original books, thus changing whole plots.
Objective Moon
Unlike in the comic where two other saboteurs are parachuted in and shoot Tintin, Colonel Boris Jorgen (nameless in the adaptation) is the only enemy to break into the base. Additionally, while examining the experimental rocket, Jorgen is attacked by Snowy and pushes him into the rocket before launching take-off. Tintin and his companions build a second rocket and go to the Moon not to explore it but to save Snowy, locked in the small rocket and having only a few days of oxygen available. The lunar rocket is called "XM2 Rocket" whereas it is simply called "Lunar Rocket" in the comic. Captain Haddock's whiskey is replaced by coffee and flies into space, not out of drunkenness, but because he takes off his shoes which hurt him (when the lack of pressure should seriously affect his feet). The Thom(p)sons do not have the hair or the beard that grows although a scene from 'Land of Black Gold' has been adapted. The characters faced a meteor shower on the Moon, and found themselves trapped in a cave from which they escaped using dynamite. Instead of a moon tank, Professor Calculus has a sort of transparent-roofed flying mini-ship named ‘the moon mobile’. The rocket, while returning to Earth, smashes into rocks and falls to the side, causing a fire (creating a death-hazard). Tintin never knew Jorgen, whereas in the comic, they met in King Ottokar’s Sceptre when he is the colonel in the service of his majesty. Jorgen and Frank Wolff remain alive and are brought back to Earth as prisoners, unlike the comic where Jorgen is accidentally killed by Wolff who subsequently commits suicide by jumping into space. The heroes thank Wolff for saving their lives as Jorgen attempted to take them down. Jorgen talks about Wolff in this version while in the comic, he talks to him. Jorgen is dressed in a brown aviator jacket, sweater, pants and black shoes while in the comic he has the aviator jacket in the same colour, but wears a yellow turtleneck sweater, grey pants and brown shoes. It makes reference to other earlier stories through Tintin reminiscing. It makes mention of Tintin in the Congo, Land of Black Gold and The Red Sea Sharks. The first season has 22 episodes, each with a length of 4 minutes, totaling 1:27:14 when in movie format.
The Crab with the Golden Claws
The story begins in a port where Tintin sees men throwing a body into the sea. It is there that he decides to investigate. In this version, the crab cans are used to conceal diamonds and not opium. First mate Allan, to be the master on board, drugs Captain Haddock, not with whiskey, but with drugs. Tintin already knows Captain Haddock, although this is his first appearance in the comic strip. After their plane crash, Tintin and Haddock, who wander in the desert, are captured by a looter named "Ahmed the Terrible". After their escape, Ahmed tracks them down but dies falling off a cliff. The pilot of the plane also pursues Tintin and Haddock in the desert before being shot down by Ahmed. Bunji Kuraki was absent and the Karaboudjan was renamed not ‘Djebel Amilah’ but ‘Tangiers’. In this version, Allan is arrested in Captain Haddock's boat and Allan’s entire men die when Tintin throws a bomb at them accidentally (only Allan survives) while in the comic they are all arrested.
The Secret of the Unicorn
At the beginning, bandits try to steal the boat bought by Tintin, but give up because of the presence of a police officer. While chasing a mouse, Snowy breaks the boat, and a parchment appears. While Tintin walks through it, the light in his home goes out, and then he gets knocked out. The bandits finally leave with the boat. While walking, Tintin sees the boat in a store window. The seller tells him that he has owned it for a long time, and that he cannot sell it. Tintin buys it from him, but a man steals the package. The Thom(p)sons intervene and return the package to Tintin. On returning home, Tintin discovers another parchment in the boat, and decides to go to Captain Haddock. The Bird brothers kidnap Tintin after having knocked him out during the night before sequestering him at their home in the cellar. In the comic, in the cellar, one of the Bird brothers has a weapon while, in the series, the Bird brothers have two weapons. Tintin and his friends chased Max Bird by car. They fight in a pumpkin farmer’s truck and pursued him by a plane. After this pursuit, they succeed in gathering the three parchments and set out in search of Red Rackham's treasure. Barnaby and Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine are completely missing from the storyline. Marlinspike Hall and Aristides Silk have been renamed ‘Hudson Manor’ and ‘Herbert Knill’ respectively.
Red Rackham's Treasure