The Adventures of Tintin is a series of comic albums created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi (1907-1983), who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. By the time of the centenary of Hergé birth in 2007, Tintin had been published in more than 70 languages with sales of more than 200 million copies.
The main characters of The Adventures of Tintin
The series is set during a largely realistic 20th century. Its hero is Tintin, a young Belgian reporter and adventurer. He is aided by his faithful fox terrier dog Snowy. Later, popular additions to the cast included the brash and cynical Captain Haddock, the highly intelligent but hearing impaired Professor Calculus and other supporting characters such as the incompetent detectives Thomson and Thompson and opera diva Bianca Castafiore.
The series has been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in Hergé signature style. It's well researched plots straddle a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy, mysteries, political thrillers and science fiction. The stories feature slapstick humor, offset by dashes of sophisticated satire and political or cultural commentary.
Main Characters Profiles:
Tintin - is a young Belgian reporter who becomes involved in dangerous cases in which he take heroic action to save the day. The Adventures may feature Tintin hard at work in his investigative journalism, but seldom is seen actually turning in a story. He is a boy of neutral attitudes with whom the audience can identify; in this respect, he represent everyman.
Snowy - a white fox terrier dog, is Tintin's loyal, four-legged companion. The bond between Snowy and Tintin is very deep, as they have saved each other from perilous situations many times. Snowy frequently 'speaks' to the reader through his thoughts, which are not heard by the human characters in the story. Snowy has nearly let Tintin down on occasion, particularly when distracted by a bone. Like Captain Haddock, he is fond of Loch Lomond brand Scotch whisky and his occasional bouts of drinking tend to get him into trouble. When not distracted, Snowy is generally fearless.
Captain Haddock - Captain Archibald Haddock (Capitaine Haddock in Hergé's original
version), a Merchant Marine sea captain of disputed ancestry (he may be of
Belgian, French, English, or Scottish origin), is Tintin's best friend.
Introduced in The Crab with the Golden Claws, Haddock is initially depicted as a weak and alcoholic character,
but later evolves to become genuinely heroic and even a socialite after he finds
a treasure from his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock. The Captain's coarse
humanity and sarcasm act as a counterpoint to Tintin's often-implausible
heroism; he is always quick with a dry comment whenever the boy reporter seems
too idealistic. After he and Tintin find Red Rackham's treasure, Captain Haddock
lives in the luxurious mansion Marlinspike Hall.
The hot-tempered Haddock uses a range of colourful insults and curses to express his feelings, such as "billions of blue blistering barnacles" or "ten thousand thundering typhoons", "bashi-bazouk", "visigoths", "kleptomaniac", or "sea gherkin", but nothing actually considered a swear word. He is a hard drinker, particularly fond of rum and of Scotch whisky, especially Loch Lomond; his bouts of drunkenness are often used for comic effect, but sometimes get him into serious trouble.
Professor Calculus - Professor Cuthbert Calculus, an absent-minded and half-deaf physicist, is a regular character alongside Tintin,
Snowy, and Captain Haddock. He was introduced in Red
Rackham's Treasure. His presence is initially not welcomed by the leading characters, but through
his generous nature and his scientific ability, he develops a lasting bond with
them. Eventually, by the end of Land of Black Gold, he becomes a
resident of Marlinspike Hall. Normally mild-mannered and dignified, Calculus
occasionally loses his temper and acts in a spectacularly aggressive manner in
response to actual or perceived insults, such as when Captain Haddock belittles
his work or accuses him of "acting the goat". He is a fervent believer in dowsing, and carries a pendulum for that purpose. Calculus's deafness is a
frequent source of humour, as he repeats back what he thinks he has heard,
usually in the most unlikely words possible. He does not admit to being
near-deaf and insists he is only "a little hard of hearing in one ear."
Thomson & Thompson - two incompetent detectives who look like identical twins, their only discernible
difference being the shape of their mustaches. First introduced in Cigars of the Pharaoh, they provide
much of the comic relief
throughout the series, being afflicted with chronic spoonerisms, extremely clumsy, thoroughly
incompetent, and usually bent on arresting the wrong character, in spite of all
of which they somehow get entrusted with delicate missions. The detectives
usually wear bowler hats and carry walking sticks, except when abroad; during
those missions they insist on wearing the stereotypical costume of the
locality they are visiting in order to blend into the local population, but
instead manage to dress in folkloric attire that actually makes them stand out.
The detectives were in part based on Hergé's father Alexis and uncle Léon,
identical twins who often took walks together wearing matching bowler hats while
carrying matching walking sticks.
Bianca
Castafiore - is an opera singer whom Haddock absolutely despises. She was
first introduced in King Ottokar's Sceptre and seems
to be popping up wherever Haddock goes, along with her maid Irma and pianist Igor Wagner.
She is comically foolish, whimsical, absent-minded, and talkative, and seems
unaware that her voice is shrill and appallingly loud. Her speciality is the
Jewel Song (Ah! Je ris de me voir si belle en ce
miroir) from Gounod's opera, Faust, which she sings
at the least provocation, much to Haddock's dismay. She tends to be melodramatic
in an exaggerated fashion and is often maternal toward Haddock, of whose dislike
she remains ignorant. She often confuses words, especially names, with other
words that rhyme with them or of which they remind her; "Haddock" is frequently
replaced by malapropisms such
as "Paddock", "Stopcock", or "Hopscotch", while Nestor, Haddock's butler, is
confused with "Chestor" and "Hector." Her own name means "white and chaste
flower," a meaning to which Professor Calculus refers when he breeds a white
rose and names it for the singer in The Castafiore Emerald. She was based
upon opera divas in general.
In 2011, a computer-animated adventure film based on The Adventures of Tintin is released. Directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Peter Jackson and written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, the film is based on three
of Hergé's albums: The Crab with the Golden
Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn
and Red Rackham's Treasure. The cast
includes Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg.
The Plot
Young journalist Tintin and his dog Snowy are browsing
in an outdoor market in Brussels, Belgium. Tintin buys a miniature model of
a ship, the Unicorn, but is then accosted by Barnaby and Ivan
Ivanovitch Sakharine, who both unsuccessfully try to buy the model from
Tintin. Tintin takes the ship home, but it is accidentally broken, resulting in
a parchment scroll slipping out of the model and rolling under a piece of
furniture. Meanwhile, detectives Thomson and Thompson are on the trail of a
pickpocket, Aristides Silk. Tintin, later finds the
"Unicorn" model is stolen, and his apartment ransacked. He visits Sakharine in
Marlinspike Hall
and accuses him of the theft when he sees a miniature model of the "Unicorn",
but when he notices that Sakharine's model is not broken, he realizes that there
are two "Unicorn" models. Once Tintin returns home, Snowy shows him the scroll.
After reading an old message written on it, he is interrupted by the arrival of
Barnaby, but is fatally shot and killed unquestionably. Tintin places the scroll
in his wallet, but is stolen by Silk the next morning.Later, Tintin is abducted by accomplices of Sakharine and imprisoned on the SS "Karaboudjan". He learns that Sakharine formed an alliance with the ship's staff and led a mutiny to take over control. On board, Tintin meets Captain Haddock, the ship's nominal captain. Haddock is permanently drunk and thus unaware of the happenings on board his ship. Tintin, Haddock, and Snowy eventually escape from the "Karaboudjan" in a lifeboat but the ship's crew tries to ram it. Presuming them to have survived, Sakharine sends a seaplane to find them, which the trio seize and use to fly towards the fictitious Moroccan port of Bagghar. The seaplane soon, crashes into the desert due to low fuel.
While trekking through the desert, Haddock hallucinates and remembers facts about an ancestor of his, Sir Francis Haddock, who was a 17th-century captain of the "Unicorn". Sir Francis' treasure-laden ship was attacked by the crew of a pirate ship, led by Red Rackham. After defeating Red Rackham, Sir Francis sank the "Unicorn" and most of the treasure to prevent it from falling into Rackham's hands. Sir Francis prepares three "Unicorn" models, each containing a scroll; together, the scrolls can reveal coordinates to the location of the sunken Unicorn and its treasure.
The third model is in Bagghar, possessed by Omar ben Salaad. In a concert by opera diva Bianca Castafiore, Sakharine causes a distraction allowing him to successfully steal the third scroll. Tintin gives chase, but Sakharine gains all the scrolls by ordering his gang to toss Captain Haddock and Snowy into the water, forcing Tintin to rescue them instead of saving the scrolls. Sakharine escapes, and Tintin is ready to give up but is persuaded by Haddock to continue. With help from officers Thomson and Thompson, Tintin and Haddock track Sakharine down, who is revealed to be a descendant of Red Rackham. They head back to their starting point and set up a trap, but Sakharine uses his pistol to resist arrest. His gang fails to save him, so Sakharine challenges Haddock to a final showdown. Sakharine and Haddock sword-duel with cranes and swords, but Sakharine is defeated and pushed overboard by Haddock. When climbing ashore, Sakharine is arrested by Thomson and Thompson. Tintin gathers the three scrolls and uncovers the solution to their riddle, leading him back to Marlinspike Hall. There, Tintin and Haddock find Red Rackham's treasure and a clue to the Unicorn 's location in a walled-off room in the cellar. The film ends with both agreeing to continue their search for the shipwreck.
I have the whole collection of the comics back at home. Besides that, I went to watch the movie with my family on its premier day. It was a good movie as the writers blend in the story very well where three comics is integrated into a 2 hours movie. Moreover it is Peter Jackson as well as Steven Spielberg movie. It is a must watch movie of all time. Every now and then, when i go home, i will read those comic books for humour. I learned from the story is that Captain Haddock might be hot-tempered sailor but he helps those who in needs. Professor Calculus willing to buy back Captain Haddock ancestor Malinspike Hall after Captain Haddock allowed Professor Calculus to try out his new submarine prototype. In return, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus lived in the same house. The bond of stranger to become partner in solving crime and the generosity in helping friend in need is portray very well in the comic books. In the end of the day, this is only a fictional story and can never be found in real life.
