Tintin Forums

Over on the excellent DVD Times website I came across an article on future Anchor Bay releases (the company that bought us the Tintin series)

Full article here (Link now removed, as no longer working)

If you cannot be bothered to read it the premise is that AB are launching a new label aimed at Kids DVD's, to quote the site...
"Future releases on the label will include the acclaimed TV animated series Xcalibur (currently airing on Channel 5) and two feature length Tintin movies. "

Two feature length Tintin movies, could it be the live actions coming to UK DVD?

Can't think what else they could be.

Rik

It could be “Lake of Sharks” and “Prisoners of the Sun”… or “The Calculus Catastrophe” (or whatever it was called…).

But let’s hope they are the live-action ones…!

I thought that might be the case as well Jock! But Lake of Sharks is already available in R2 and I would have thought that they wouldn't want to directly compete with themselves with POS and Calculus Affair with the Eclipse series.

Also the CA was one of the Belvision ones, so surely they would do the set. But everything else in the article has come out already on Anchor Bay UK except for the Tintin ones, so who knows

Here's hoping for the live actions!

Rik

One of the Tintinologists, Oliver Battrick, has reviewed one of the live action films on this site, comprehensively and favorably, and with all due deference to him and his highly literate report ... mine is a less happy appraisal.

A friend sent me both live Tintins a year ago summer, and they're pretty dreadful. The character makeup looks phony and the slapstick is out of proportion to Herge's tone. Ironically, the Nelvana cartoons have more verisimilitude.

I suppose if you're a completist, having the live films is worth it ... but just to watch them as a lover of Tintin ... the experience doesn't come near the anticipation.

By the way, if you can live without subtitles, and have a DVD player that can handle region 2, both these films are available through Amazon.fr.

I really like “Golden Fleece” – the settings are good, the cinematography (especially on location) is wonderful, and the casting works a treat; the adventure is fun too, and the motor-cycle sequence is pure Hergé, as is the “reveal” of the treasure hunt’s true nature. Add to that the brilliantly catchy theme-tune, and I reckon it stands up well.

“Blue Oranges” is another matter, right enough...

To echo what jock123 said, I really enjoyed "Golden Fleece" as well, despite the negative reviews of it I'd read beforehand. I was expecting it to be absolutely appalling, with only a passing similarity to Hergé's work. I was (very) pleasantly surprised ! In my view, it's an excellent representation of the characters and style of story.

Choosing to write an original story instead of adapting another meant the producers were able to avoid having to overcome technical problems imposed on them by budget limitations, but conversely meant the resulting story could have been a travesty, almost a pastiche of the originals. Thankfully, it didn't, and I for one found the story well-paced, entertaining and interesting. I also loved the location shooting and the motorcycle chase - that was great. And to cap the theme tune, Isabelle Aubret's song "Tintin et le mystère de la toison d'or" released a couple of years after the film, is catchy to an unsettling extent !

And as you say, jock, "Blue Oranges" is indeed another matter. One best left shut in a box and buried, in my opinion. Jean-Pierre Talbot (Tintin) looks like he's in his late 30s, and the story doesn't seem to be all that interesting. It had potential, but unfortunately spoilt by all those infernal children running around and getting in the way.

One thing that bugs me about both of these films, though ... Haddock's beard. What animals were harmed so they could have something like that to stick (unconvincingly) to his face ?

So...they're putting the movies on DVD now? Is Europe region 2?
I'm region 1... anyone knows of a player that'll play any region?

If they release La Toison d'Or, I'd like to have it (again); wouldn't call it 'brilliant', though. I watched it about 5 times, but only cos I thought Talbot's resemblance was uncanny...

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[Note from Admin: for information on region-free DVD players, please refer to Pelaphus' post.]

There is nothing on the release schedule for AB for any new Tintin releases at present and all the other stuff listed in the article has already been released or there are plans to. No idea if these are shelved indefinitely or not

Rik

In the "Screenings of Tintin films" thread, marsbar wrote: P.S. I've both movies on DVD - in Swedish!

My stepbrother is learning Swedish right now---it would be great if he could have access to a DVD like that (I'd have to convert it of course, but that's no big deal.) Is the Swedish language track available on the Region 1 DVD, if it's out yet? I know that Lake of Sharks just came out in Region 1 recently, but it only has two language tracks, French and English.
Courtney

Since I live in Sweden I have both Golden Fleece and Blue Oranges on dvd and they have french sound and swedish subtitles only but they are very inexpensive and cost about 4 pounds (49 SEK) but I haven't found any Internetstore that delivers outside Europe I'm afraid. The two dvd films are both region 2.

The Prisoners of the sun dvd with swedish speach was recently released. That edition does not have the two songs though and it is also a region 2 disc.

Of course is the complete Nelvana series available with swedish speach as well.

Lake of sharks has been available for a couple of years on dvd in Sweden and has a swedish language track.

The old Belvision versions are the most rare in Sweden and is only sold as vhs ex-rental copies and usually gets quite expensive.

Danagasta, if you really want to have them maybe I can help you obtain them from Sweden.