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Cigars of the Pharaoh: What happened to the rain?

varun0883
Member
#1 · Posted: 24 Oct 2005 16:41
Hi! While I was watching a Cigars of the Pharaoh vcd I own, I came across a mistake in the events.
Dr.Sarcophagus sets himself free from the coffin, as does Tintin, who rescues Snowy.
It's a fine morning, with clear weather.
Tintin is rescued by a ship the same day. But the Doctor is abducted very next moment when they both wave each other the moment they free from themselves from coffin.
Mistake: After this a heavy rain is pictured, and the doctor is abducted just in front of Tintin! Ironically, they get upon on a fine morning and doctor is abducted on a rainy night?
23duff
Member
#2 · Posted: 21 Nov 2005 00:36
I was actually reading "Cigars of the Pharaoh" and (although I am sure that this has been pointed out a thousand times in these forums) on the first page Snowy says to Tintin "I'd settle for Marlinspike". However Marlinspike does not become a place familiar to Tintin & Snowy until we get to "The Secret of the Unicorn".

Hmmm, a bit suspect that but considering it is a dog speaking, maybe they got the translation wrong!!!!!
olzen
Member
#3 · Posted: 26 Nov 2005 10:00
I read the album recently, and Marlinspike is never mentioned. No doubt a fault of the translator that can't be attributed to Hergé. To me, the only fault of this album is when the "fourth wall" is broken in the scene with the Sheik - I'm a little sick of those "Don't worry, it's just a comic"-jokes!
jock123
Moderator
#4 · Posted: 28 Nov 2005 10:17
olzen:
No doubt a fault of the translator that can't be attributed to Hergé.

As has been said before, the way the books were translated into English – as well as other languages – did not follow the order they were written in by Hergé; as there had been stories featuring Marlinspike translated before Cigars, it was not odd to English speakers to have the manor mentioned.

It follows Hergé's habit of revising older books to feature newer things as he redrew them - the bit where one of the Moon books is shown to demonstrate who Tintin is replaced an older book cover, even though that story had not yet happened, as it were...

olzen:
the only fault of this album is when the "fourth wall" is broken in the scene with the Sheik

It's not really breaking the fourth wall, though; it merely acknowledges that books about Tintin's exploits exist in his "world", not surprising when you know he's a reporter from the beginning, and these are his reports. It doesn't have to be seen as a breach of the wall, because such a scene could have taken place in Tintin's world, even if the viewer weren't there - it doesn't rely on our presence to happen, or make sense: the two characters interact, and don't address us, the readers.

And to get back to the original topic:
varun0883:
they get upon on a fine morning and doctor is abducted on a rainy night?

I'm not sure what happens in the version on your VCD, but my DVD version has a fairly straightforward sequence of events.
The coffins float, and Sarcophagus and Tintin perform the openings.
The weather is clear, but wind from the approaching storm makes communication difficult. The doctor's coffin, driven by the swell of the sea and the wind gets further and further away from Tintin (this is from Tintin's perspective: by the look of the animation of the waves, it is he who is drifting away, but that may be subjective).
Alan's ship, on the edge of the storm, where it is starting to rain, gets the message to recover the prisoners they dumped; his ship-mate points out to sea, and Alan looking through the binoculars, spots Sarcophagus.
It is dark where he is, because of the weather, not because it's night, and it isn't raining because that hasn't reached him yet.

The doctor is shown being rescued first, and Tintin and Snowy at some indeterminate point - maybe at the same time as the doctor, but possibly later (but nevertheless in a different location, because of the currents having separated them).

Does that cover all the queries?

If your VCD shows the scenes in a different order, then it's a different edit, or a manufacturing error; as it is on the DVD makes sense to me.

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