Tintin Forums

Thanks Richard - I like it when we throw a little more confusion on a subject...! :-/ ;-)

Having just spent a half an hour with a screw-driver, a scalpel and a bit of minor effort (they knew how to build things in them olden days!), I've managed to disassemble my old Prisoners/ Crystal Balls VHS tape (©1980 Artel Film & Television Productions Ltd.), splice it back together, and (more importantly) get its bits and bobs back together without all the springs and rollers falling out. Even better, it still plays!

This has exactly the same English voice-cast as the Anchor Bay DVD release;have you got it/ heard it with an American cast too, Richard?

I've only heard Crystal/Prisoners with the British cast; I don't know if there's an American one. The Calculus Case has two different casts, but both are British as far as I can tell (though I'd have to check). I presume one was made at the same time as the Prisoners dub, but I don't know when the other one came about. And of course The Lake of Sharks has a unique US cast...


Whereas now once the disc's scratched, there's not much that can be done! Technological advances...

Having done a quick sweep through the forums, I managed to come up with this post, from 2007:

Hi. I have a video of Tintin, Destination Moon with Explorers On The Moon. It was (I think) made by Artel in 1982.

Unfortunately this message was posted by Irene on behalf of someone else, so I can't contact them to get further details, but it at least establishes that ArTel released another Tintin video, after the Crystal Balls/ Prisoners one I have.

I'm fairly sure my Destination/Explorers VHS is on the Artel label too. It's in storage but I'll check as soon as I can.

Ah, that’s good - all grist to the mill!
I’ve been looking around the web, and came across a site which has images of early covers for Belvision releases, which shows that they came out both in VHS and Betamax, and were on ArTel, Thorn EMI and JVC. I’ve dropped the site a line to see if they would let us use their info, so when I hear back I hope to be able to at least post a link to it.

I remember posting on here in 2006 hoping they would released on to DVD soon 4 years later still not even a glimmer of hope.I suppose when the movie comes out they will be released.

I’d not be holding my breath, if I were you… As mentioned above, the movie may in fact reduce the chances of a release for some time, if things play out like they did when the Ellipse-Nelvana cartoons came out, and the older stories were withdrawn.

Well all the animated Asterix films have come out even the 1960's ones.Im a huge cinema fan and for years I cast doubt for a number of them not to come out.Out of the blue a 10 disc collection of forgotten gems came out.So you never what happens in the world of DVD.

And the plot thickens!

As I said here, I had problems finding the certification for Objective Moon, so I made enquiries of the BBFC about it.

I got the following, interesting, reply from the BBFC today:

Looking through our records, it would appear a video work entitled DESTINATION MOON was submitted for classification by Virgin Video in 1987. This was a Tintin animation and had a running time of approx 43 minutes. However, the work was never formally classified. It would seem the distributor failed to complete the paperwork, and the video was subsequently withdrawn.

It would appear then, on the face of it, that this title was released unclassified. Thence its absence on our database.

So there we go - the word is that, had it been classified, the title would have been Destination Moon, not Objective Moon or Objective Moon Espionage. However, the fact that the tape was then illegally released is possibly even more fascinating - what does that do for our hero's reputation? Does it mean he was (gasp!) a video nasty...?? ;-)

The BBFC do go on to say that they see no reason to pursue the matter with Virgin Video, as they no longer trade.

They also say that the tape later did get a classification, but my suspicion is that as there is nothing on the database other than the Ellipse-Nelvana cartoon, that they are mistaking the two as being the same thing.

It does make for an interesting foot-note to the saga...

I have been collating the information gathered so far, and soon hope to be able to provide a better time-line of releases and labels than this site has had previously.

So does anyone own the rights to this?