The Adventures Of Tintin: 75 Year Anniversary Box (10 Discs)

While the episodes themselves are rather enjoyable, the approach taken in their making, along with the quality of the DVD boxset, is a little disappointing.

Compared to the original Tintin books, these early 90s adaptations are far more politically correct. They're obviously more aimed at kids than adults, because many of the edgier parts of Hergé's classics have been edited out, such as Captain Haddock's obsession with whisky and some of the more non-PC dialogue. Some classic Tintin moments are removed, along with much of the political aspects of Tintin which were presumably removed because they have no relevance to children today, though these aspects really define the periods in which the various Tintin books were written.

Regarding the DVDs themselves, the number of discs in the collection seems excessive. The episodes are released on 10 discs despite the fact that each disc only has around 3GB worth of data on it - the entire collection could have easily been fitted… more »

While the episodes themselves are rather enjoyable, the approach taken in their making, along with the quality of the DVD boxset, is a little disappointing.

Compared to the original Tintin books, these early 90s adaptations are far more politically correct. They're obviously more aimed at kids than adults, because many of the edgier parts of Hergé's classics have been edited out, such as Captain Haddock's obsession with whisky and some of the more non-PC dialogue. Some classic Tintin moments are removed, along with much of the political aspects of Tintin which were presumably removed because they have no relevance to children today, though these aspects really define the periods in which the various Tintin books were written.

Regarding the DVDs themselves, the number of discs in the collection seems excessive. The episodes are released on 10 discs despite the fact that each disc only has around 3GB worth of data on it - the entire collection could have easily been fitted onto 5 discs. Also, the quality of the episodes is quite poor. I can only assume the masters were lost or damaged because the picture is grainy and the amount of hiss can occasionally be unbearable.

The original episodes were broadcasted in two parts to each book, however the episodes in these collections have been redited into one. The editing used is clumsy and amateurish to say the least - it's abrupt, the music is not continuous, the animation clearly differs and characters often start new scenes in the middle of a sentence. Any half-decent editor could have done better than this.

On top of all that, there are absolutely no extras. Considering the episodes can't even fill up all the sapce on each disc, this is rather puzzling. You can't listen to the episodes in their original French, and there are no subtitles.

To summarise, this collection is a mess. The episodes, while devoid of their period charm, are entertaining enough, but these DVDs are poorly made and not a patch on reading the original books.