Tintin Forums

Well I am extremely delight that my original neophytesque post has sparked so many recollections by seasoned board members - and what appears to be some new-ish info such as the BBFC data - a very useful line of enquiry. Perhaps there might be some useful info on the BFI website?

Meanwhile - another thought. Obviously there were no home video recorders around in the late 60s. But the fact that some Belvision shows were aired on ITV in the 1987 and 1990 means that some fans may well have taped those stories off-air. Which would be an alternative home-copied source.

BTW - I started looking on YouTube - but to my untrained eye and ear - most of what has been posted seems to be Nelvana rather than Belvision.

If and when Speilberg's film finally gets completed, I'm guessing that there will be a massive surge of interest in the earlier incarnations of TinTin at that point...

Hi Sgt Halibut, you are free to search YouTube and the net for episodes, but be careful not to ask for (or post) links on this site. As I'm sure you already know, that would break this site's rules.

Oh, sorry, I wasn't doubting you, just eliminating the possibility that it was the BBFC classification certificate which originated that error.

Update!: Having carried out further excavations in the spare room, I have now dug up my Virgin Video Moon tape, and it mystifies as much as it illuminates.
There is no on-screen certificate to clarify things, but the first title card (part of the original cartoon) is in French over an image of the rocket blasting away, and says Les Aventures de Tintin d'apres Hergé, over which a less-impressive-than-normal voice (so possibly not Paul Frees) says with the familiar intonation "Hergé's Adventures of Tintin!".
This card fades to black, and as it does so, an electronic caption (therefore not original) is superimposed, which does indeed say on the first line Objective Moon, and then on a second line in 50% smaller type, Espionage. This is matched by the narrator's voice over, which says exactly that.
Obviously this has arisen from an expedient decision to use the titles from the first episode for the edited version, but it therefore has to be said, that those who suggest that, Objective Moon Espionage, is the title of this release, have got something of a case.

However, I still can't locate the BBFC certification record for the Objective section of the release.
The over-all duration of the story is 87 minutes, which is much longer than the Explorers certificate allows for (twice as long, as it happens), so it hasn't been judged as a whole, even though it is presented as a movie.
Adding to the confusion, the gang are actually on the Moon by 25 minutes in, so a goodly proportion of the supposedly non-Explorers is from Explorers anyway (well in as much as any of the adaptation can be said to be from the books - given it has a wrecked rocket on the Moon, a flying car rather than the tank etc. etc.).
So for some reason an arbitrary decision seems to have been made to divide the length in two, and say the first half is the first book, and the second half the second; however how/ when this was classified I don't know. The search goes on...!
End of update!
Update update: I'd missed finding an actual break in the story because I'd neglected to zero the digit counter on my VCR; I've now found it.
There are no end credits for the Objective section, just a freeze frame on the conspirators, plotting to have their confederates do away with the goodies, and a voice-over asking, "What will happen in the next exciting story of Tintin - Explorers on the Moon!?".
This is followed by a brief fade to black, after which the cartoon restarts with a moonscape superimposed with Explorers on the Moon in electronic letters, and the story gets going again without any further ado.
End of Update Update!


Oh I don't know...
...but at 9 feet long and $30,000 there won't have been many... ;-)
Still, you got a hi-fi and TV thrown in... It does have a certain je ne sais quoi...!

But yes, allowing for schools, colleges and a few enthusiasts, even early cassette systems like U-Matic and Philips N1500 didn't appear until '71/ '72. Still, the broadcasts continued on the BBC during the seventies, and seemed to be a fixture of the school-holiday morning-schedules, so they might have been caught. Whether they were retained is another matter...!

You'll quickly know Belvision if you see it - it's the one that looks less like Hergé! ;-)

I'd suggest if you can, that you try buying the Nelvana series, and the Anchor Bay box of Calculus Case/ Prisoners/ Lake of Sharks - both are readily available (in the U.K. at least) and are often at knock-down prices.

You'll quickly see that the Nelvana series has a uniform, more developed style of animation, more closely modeled on the books (although it is adapted somewhat); the three Belvision entries are not so unified, and the animation is generally and obviously limited (a system developed by Hannah & Barbera, it uses repeated backgrounds and character movements, and reduces the number of frames used to complete actions, than say Disney might use - see here).


I'm not sure that it will lead to a huge take up on the old Belvision stuff - even the Nelvana episodes are greeted with mixed reactions when discussed on here, fewer people seem to go for the cartoon movies (which are available), and fewer still recall the serials, let alone like them. If us fans don't have a generally high opinion of them, then how would the non-fan take them?

An Episode Guide to

"Hergé's Adventures of Tintin"
Produced by Télé-Hachette and Belvision
(except Objective Moon, produced by Larry Harmon Studio)

102 x 5 minutes

Most of these episode titles are guesswork, based on the French titles. If you have better information (such as from TV listings) please me know via this thread.

In production order:

1. Objective Moon (Destination Moon + Explorers on the Moon)
22 episodes

1. Espionage
2. Space Pirates
3. The Big Departure
4. Attention... Meteor!
5. Drifting
6. Man in Orbit
7. Lunar Landing
8. Explorers on the Moon
9. Mystery on the Moon
10. Lost
11. Sabotage
12. Moon Sickness
13. Trapped
14. Operation Rescue
15. Buried
16. Explosion
17. Prisoners
18. Destination Earth
19. Dramatic turn of Events
20. More Control
21. Freefall
22. Crash Landing

2. The Crab with the Golden Claws
17 episodes

1. Suspicions
2. Mystery at Sea
3. Mutiny on the Karaboudjan
4. Escape
5. Adrift at Sea
6. Air Attack
7. Accident
8. Thirst
9. Desert Raiders
10. Prisoners
11. Sandstorm
12. Danger
13. Return of the Karaboudjan
14. Removal
15. Mystery Underground
16. Dynamite
17. Celebrations on Board

3. The Secret of the Unicorn
10 episodes
These are the confirmed English episode titles.

1. Model Mystery
2. Pirate Attack
3. Battle of Red Rackham
4. Kidnap
5. Trapped
6. Ambushed
7. Battle of Hudson Manor
8. The Crash
9. Captured
10. Duel on the Highway

4. Red Rackham's Treasure
17 episodes
These are the confirmed English episode titles.

1. Red Rackham's Treasure
2. Killer Shark
3. Jail Break
4. Stowaway
5. Shipwreck
6. Jungle Jitters
7. Head Hunters
8. Gunfire
9. Operation Rescue
10. Shark Bait
11. Duel in the Deep
12. Demon of the Deep
13. The Eagle's Cross
14. Savage Surprise
15. Vanishing Island
16. Red Rackham's Riddle
17. Treasure Chest

5. Star of Mystery (The Shooting Star)
11 episodes

1. The Observatory
2. A Star in the Night
3. End of the World
4. Alarm on Board
5. Equipment
6. Torpedo
7. Sabotage
8. The Meteorite
9. Exploration
10. A Worrying World
11. The Island Disappears

6. The Black Island
12 episodes

1. [Title unknown]
2. Miscarriage of Justice
3. Escape
4. Intrigue
5. The Enigma
6. Prisoners
7. The Mysterious Doctor Müller
8. Clandestine Terrain
9. The Phantom of the Black Island
10. A Fight in the Night
11. The Animal
12. The Battle of the Black Island

7. The Calculus Case (The Calculus Affair)
13 episodes
These are the confirmed English episode titles.

1. Frightening Lightning
2. Z Rays
3. Kidnapped
4. Midnight Fright
5. Steel Shark
6. Tracked
7. Operation Opera
8. Bordurian Bullets
9. Dead End
10. Doomed
11. The Big Blast
12. Surprise in the Skies
13. Tank Attack

Hi jock123,

Please bear with me, as I'm having difficulties saying clearly what I feel.

Those of us on this forum are very dedicated fans. We can compare and contrast the original stories with the different adaptations (Belvision, Nevada, live action features).

But there's a number of casual fans out there for whom Tintin is something to be enjoyed casually, who might enjoy having different versions, without realizing how it differs from the original. For example, in my previous job, when a few co-workers saw my tattoo (the silhouette of Tintin from the last sketch of Alph-art) and I told them it was Tintin, the reaction was "I used to watch Tintin when I was younger". They either did not realize it was a series of books, or had never read them. One such co-worker even did not realize that we knew Tintin in French, as she grew up in South America and watch the show in Spanish.

I could see casual fans picking up DVD of either Nelvana or Belvision after seeing the Spielberg movies, either because they want their children to have them, or because they want to watch them again, having seen them when they were young.

I'll draw a couple of parallel: The Adam West Batman series and movie became popular again after the first Michael Keaton movie. The old Spiderman cartoons from the '60's are still playing on television, even though there's been 2 series with better production values, and 3 movies.

I could see something similar applying to both Belvision and Nelvana productions when the movie is released.

By all means - I know the feeling...!

I'm with you there; as I have said before, I appear to have a very low threshold for enjoyment, as I like them all. But a lot of members here have been surprisingly (to me at least) dismissive of the adaptations.

That might be a feature of where you live - the case might not be the same elsewhere. I've not seen the first Spider-Man series on TV for many years (although I have watched it on the web (no pun intended - it's available free on the Marvel site)), and the movies didn't drive it back into the public consciousness, in the U.K. at least.

Batman was propelled onto T.V.-screens here in the Nineties, but not by the Keaton/ Burton movie, but by some industrial dispute which lead to it being stripped as a filler in place of something else (breakfast news?).

There were plenty of episodes, and it was cheap. Recent attempts by the B.B.C. to re-screen it on the back of the Nolan movies flopped.

But I know what you mean, and I'd love to think you are right - I'm not running down the Belvision cartoons, as personally I love them, and would be happy if they became available. But Star Trek last year didn't put the TV show back on air, neither did Get Smart, nor the Hulk, etc.

On a practical note, I think that the movies will actually lock down the old stuff for quite a while, rather than giving it exposure.
The Belvision cartoons went out of circulation when the Nelvana series went into production, suggesting that someone somewhere was giving the then-new series some room.
Possibly the rights to animating Tintin being taken on by Nelvana had a contractual provision in them for that to happen: it would seem unfair on Nelvana to produce and market what was an expensive series, only to find themselves having to compete against what went before. As mentioned above, the John Hurt version of Orwell's 1984 coming out, put paid to a release of the Peter Cushing BBC adaptation of the same book.
So sadly it might actually be that we even see the Nelvana series being withdrawn, rather than more old stuff being released.
I would love to be wrong: the Belvision serials need a nice, re-mastered and restored DVD release, in the original 5 minute episodes, with all the cliff-hangers and narration put back in (I can still remember being scarcely able to contain myself to wait and find out who the mysterious shadowy figure on board the rocket was as a hatch swung open! Oh the drama of it!). But I can't see it happening for a few years yet...

I wonder whether it's simply a case of who owns the rights to the Belvision series.

The animated movies were released on DVD, including the Calculus Case, and the 1947 Crabe film is even available. As far as animated adaptations go, it's only the Belvision series (and the earlier black and white cutout films) that aren't on DVD.

If it's a matter of Moulinsart not owning the rights to the Belvision series, then I guess they could veto any proposed release as the copyright holders to the characters, names, stories etc. In which case, they could always wait until the copyright on the episodes expires.

I know that they were originally episodes with cliffhangers, and that at one point they were broadcast as such in Canada (during "Bobino" a French Canadian series that was on for close to 30 years and marked the early years of many of us), I've only ever seen them as movies. I would hope the DVD would offer the choice of "play as episodes" or "play as movies"

It certainly would make good use of the DVD format - here's hoping!

Now a little update: having just listened to part of the Anchor Bay DVD of The Calculus Case, it doesn't have the American voice-cast, nor does the dialogue match the translation given in the reproduced script on the disk, so sorry for any confusion there! The voices do sound British, probably English, and quite clearly aren't the Paul Frees/ Dallas McKinnon/ Larry Harmon combo listed on IMDb. Calculus isn't given a German accent, and the Thom(p)sons possibly have the voices which the Sergeant recalled (although the Captain isn't Scottish).

It has to be said that the production values on this are even more reduced than the earlier serials - for example a lot of character movement takes place entirely off camera (so in one sequence the detectives are shown standing on the left of the screen, and then after a cut to Calculus and back they are standing on the right, then after another close up on Tintin and the Professor they are sitting on a sofa, although in each shot they are entirely un-animated).

There's at least two completely different English dubs for that film. The Anchor Bay DVD features the same cast as the Prisoners of the Sun film, whereas the 1980s Virgin Video release uses both a different cast and script (which I'm guessing corresponds to that included on the Anchor Bay DVD). To add to the confusion, the cast in the Virgin Video release were different to that on all the other Belvision films. The mystery deepens...