Line #4 WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin1991


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tintin1991.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Cue [[{{Fanfare}} the]] [[https://youtu.be/pUOrmdmgcqw fanfare]]]]
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4	''The Adventures of Tintin'' (''Les Aventures de Tintin'') is a French-Canadian-Belgian AnimatedAdaptation of Creator/{{Herge}}'s [[Franchise/{{Tintin}} famous comic books]] in a TV series format. It was coproduced by Creator/EllipseAnimation and Creator/{{Nelvana}}.
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6	It debuted in 1991. 39 episodes were produced over the course of its three seasons, dividing some album adaptations in [[MultiPartEpisode two parts]]. It first aired on France 3 in France, La Deux in Belgium, Creator/{{HBO}} and Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} in the USA, Creator/GlobalTelevisionNetwork and Creator/FamilyChannel in Canada and Creator/Channel4 in UK.
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8	Not to be confused with ''WesternAnimation/{{The Adventures of Tintin\|2011}}'', the 2011 motion capture film directed by Creator/StevenSpielberg.
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10	For the recap, see [[Recap/{{Tintin}} here]].
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12	----
13	!!''The Adventures of Tintin'' provides examples of:
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15	* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: ''Tintin in America'' ends with Tintin finishing his report, before [[AndTheAdventureContinues getting a phone call about an unknown situation and leaving to solve it]]. In the book, he simply leaves America and returns home.
16	* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: Allan Thompson shows up in the ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' episode whereas he appeared a few albums later in the comic books for the first time, namely in ''The Crab with the Golden Claws''. This is due to the episodes not being produced in the same order as the comic books.
17	* AdaptationalExplanation: In the ''Cigars of the Pharaoh'' comic book, Tintin coincidentally crash-landed outside the Indian town where the gang's headquarters are located, without even knowing it was in India. In the adaptation, he already knows their hideout is in India because he read a letter in the colonel's office.
18	* AdaptationPersonalityChange: Haddock's alcoholism is greatly downplayed compared to the comic books due to the constraints of a cartoon for children, and he stops drinking after his debut episode.
19	* AdaptationalHeroism:
20	** The series turned Mitsuhirato's manservant into a Son of the Dragon who [[TheMole infiltrated]] the drug trafficking gang and saves Tintin from being injected with the Rajaijah (poison of madness). In the comic book, the agent who does so is unrelated to Mitsuhirato (he simply snuck in and out)
21	** Due to AdaptationDistillation, the captain of the ship who saves Tintin at sea isn't revealed to be an arms dealer.
22	* AdaptationalMundanity: In the original comic of ''The Broken Ear'', just when Alonzo is about to shoot a tied up Tintin, the house they're in is struck by lightning, and it sends Tintin flying out of the house! In the animated series, the situation is resolved by Snowy coming in and biting the ropes to free Tintin, and then both escape the house by the window.
23	* AdaptationalVillainy: In the comic, the Fakir steals Tintin's letter from the doctor to the asylum staff and replaces it with orders to lock Tintin up. In the animated version, he doesn't need to because the doctor himself is a member of the gang.
24	* AdaptationalWimp: Emir Ben Kalish Ezab suffered from this. The comic book version of the Emir did sometimes get emotional about things regarding his son, but was otherwise a guy who you definitely wouldn't want to mess with. The animated version on the other hand is such a simpering crybaby that it is frankly amazing that Bab El Ehr hadn't managed to overthrow him already.
25	* AdaptationDeviation: The series is notable for largely [[AvertedTrope averting this]], more closely following the comic books' plots than the 1960s Belvision adaptations, although there are still some occasional changes.
26	** For instance, in ''Tintin in America'', Bobby Smiles becomes Al Capone's [[TheDragon main henchman]] -- in the comic book, he is Capone's enemy in the MobWar.
27	** In the same episode, Al Capone's HQ is not a castle in a city outskirt countryside but a building in downtown Chicago. And it still has medieval-looking rooms and corridors, and medieval armors as decorations.
28	** ''The Blue Lotus'': Chang lost his parents in the flood in the comic book. He is an orphan whose orphanage was destroyed by the flood in the episode.
29	* AdaptationDistillation: Three albums were not adapted in the series for various reasons. [[CompressedAdaptation A number of subplots, minor characters and situations also don't appear]] in the episodes that were adapted from the other albums, likely a case of PragmaticAdaptation to fit the half-hour / twenty minutes formats. For more details, see [[AdaptationDistillation/{{The Adventures of Tintin\|1991}} here]].
30	* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: In ''The Red Sea Shark'', Tintin recognizes Dawson from the time he met him in ''The Blue Lotus''. The problem is that, Tintin did ''not'' meet Dawson in the cartoon adaptation of ''The Blue Lotus'' unlike in the comic, meaning that Tintin shouldn't recognize him.
31	* AdaptationNameChange: In ''King Ottokar's Sceptre'', the Syldavian king's name was changed from King Muskar XII to King Ottokar XII.
32	* AnachronicOrder: This series didn't follow Herge's timeline. They started out with "The Crab With the Golden Claws", "The Secret of the Unicorn", and "Red Rhackham's Treasure" introducing Tintin's main supporting players like the Thompsons, Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus. However this meant that Tintin would randomly have adventures (the ones set before "Crab With the Golden Claws") without Haddock and Calculus that seems oddly jarring. Notably the last episode aired, "Tintin in America", was one of these.
33	** "Tintin and the Picaros" was adapted before the "Seven Crystal Balls" so Alcazar shows up having been kicked out of power.
34	** Flight 714" which marked Rastapopoulos becoming a joke villain, appeared a season before "The Red Sea Sharks".
35	* AndIMustScream: In ''The Seven Crystal Balls'', the seven archeologists who found the mummy of Rascar Capac go comatose just like in the comic book. But when they wake up, they are not just merely writhing about like they do in the comic book. In the series, their skin has turned blueish-grey and they [[TheScream scream]] in terror and pain.
36	* AscendedExtra:
37	** Al Capone has a more prominent role in ''Tintin in America'' compared to the comic book where Tintin fights various gangs which are in a MobWar (everybody who's hostile to Tintin works for Al Capone in the episode), ascending to BigBad.
38	** Mitsuhirato's manservant being adapted into a DoubleAgent in ''The Blue Lotus''.
39	** Bunji Kuraki in ''The Crab with the Golden Claws''. Whereas in the comic he only shows up for a couple of panels on one page and again on the penultimate page, the episode starts with a scene of his meeting with Herbert Dawes, and Tintin later encounters him while he's imprisoned onboard the Karaboudjan.
40	* CompositeCharacter: ''The Broken Ear'' combines the characters of Rodrigo Tortilla and Lopez. Rodrigo Lopez not only steals the Heart of the Jungle and hides it in the idol, but he is also the one to steal it from the museum.
41	* CompressedAdaptation: The size of the AdaptationDistillation page speaks for itself. Some episodes last 40 minutes while others last 20 minutes. Those belonging to the latter case are the most compressed.
42	* CreatorCameo: A posthumous version occurs with Hergé himself, who passed away eight years prior to the series. An animated version of him appears as a background character in multiple episodes, just like he did in the comic books. Fittingly, he's often showing drawing on a sketchpad.
43	* CulturallySensitiveAdaptation: Implemented in some areas, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools but it's done enough so that it doesn't hamper the plots too much.]]
44	** In the English dub of ''Tintin and the Broken Ear'', the fetish is referred to as an idol, [[HaveAGayOldTime due to the term "fetish" having a VERY different meaning nowadays]]. There is one exception though.
45	** A jostled case for the English dub of ''The Red Sea Sharks''. The backstory of the ship full of people being sold into slavery, in order to avoid {{Blackface}}, were changed to Middle Eastern and North African looking people who were refugees instead of Muslims being tricked on their pilgrimage. In some ways it lightens it a bit, but in many other ways, it makes it even ''darker''.
46	** [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CwHp9hgW8AEjFLu.jpg:large Tintin disguises himself as a black cabin boy]] in the album ''The Broken Ear''. Since it's a rather embarrassing case of {{Blackface}}, the series turned his disguise into WigDressAccent. It becomes something of an AdaptationInducedPlotHole because both the comic and the episode had the antagonists being ProperlyParanoid about Tintin following them and so they target two people who look like Tintin in disguise (an old, short man and a short fat man wearing a wig) but due to his very obvious disguise in the episode (similar facial features, voice and height with just a wig, glasses and a moustache), it becomes baffling that Alonso and Ramón didn't think of this guy as Tintin in disguise. Perhaps they [[BeneathSuspicion disregard the staff]], as those they suspected were passengers.
47	* DividedForAdaptation: The show splits the stories into two-part episodes, excluding ''Red Rackham's Treasure'', ''The Shooting Star'', and ''Tintin In America'', which were adapted as a single episode.
48	* HellIsThatNoise: The ''Tintin in Tibet'' comic book doesn't quite convey how spine-chilling the [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Yeti]]'s growls in the dark of the night are. [[invoked]][[NightmareFuel The animated version does]].
49	* ExplosiveCigar: Seen in "Land of Black Gold," with bratty prankster prince Abdullah pulling this on others, even on Captain Haddock!
50	* TheGhost: Averted with Lopez in ''The Broken Ear'', who does not appear on-panel in the book but appears during a flashback in the adaptation.
51	* LateArrivalSpoiler: By the time the Ellipse-Nelvana adaptation was made, everybody knew Rastapopoulos was the recurring BigBad, so this version makes little secret that he's the one sending the written orders. He even gets a TraitorShot!
52	* {{Leitmotif}}: Several characters have their own recognizable leitmotif in the soundtrack composed by Ray Parker, Jim Morgan and Tom Szczesniak, such as Professor Calculus or Thomson & Thompson. There are also specific musics that fit the action scenes, mystery scenes and exotic settings.
53	* LighterAndSofter: There's much less gun violence, alcohol and smoking in the series than in the comic books.
54	* PragmaticAdaptation: As said above, some subplots, situations and characters that felt random, unnecessary or offensive were AdaptedOut to fit the 20-minutes format.
55	* RaceLift: The black African slaves from ''Coke en Stock'' (''The Red Sea Sharks'') became Middle Eastern slaves in the namesake episode.
56	* SecondPersonAttack: The series is fond of this when someone gets punched or knocked out with a bludgeon, usually in a surprise attack.
57	* SecretMessageWink: In "The Blue Lotus (Part One)", Tintin is captured by BigBad Mitsuhirato, who injects him with the Madness Poison. When Tintin is released, he stands stunned for a few seconds, before noticing Mitsuhirato's servant, who delivered the poison, winking at him. Tintin then proceeds to feign insanity until he gets a chance to punch Mitsuhirato out. As it turns out, the servant was one of Wang Chen-Yee's moles who switched out the poison for something harmless, which was why Tintin was stunned at noticing himself ''not'' turning crazy.
58	* SettingUpdate: Averted in the case of ''The Black Island''; while the comic's 1966 edition had elements of the setting updated to have a contemporary appearance, the animated version remained set in a 1930s-1950s setting (for example, the train that Tintin and Snowy jump onto in the comic is hauled by a diesel engine, but it's hauled by a steam engine in the animated version; similarly, cars have a 1930s rather than 1960s appearance).
59	* ShoutOut: In the English dub of ''The Red Sea Sharks'', Bianca Castafiore mispronounces Captain Haddock's name as "Anime/CaptainHarlock".
60	* SparedByTheAdaptation:
61	** There is no mention of Mitsuhirato committing {{Seppuku}} in the animated version of ''The Blue Lotus''.
62	** Villains Alonso Pérez and Ramón Bada drown and go to {{Hell}} at the end of the album ''The Broken Ear''. In the namesake episode, Tintin [[SaveTheVillain saves them from drowning]] and they get arrested.
63	* TruerToTheText:
64	** While it's very much a CompressedAdaptation and three albums were not adapted for various reasons, the series is considerably more faithful to the comic books than the 1950s-1960s Belvision episodes and animated films, which all provided much AdaptationExpansion and significant plot and character alterations.
65	** It's also closer to the comic books than the [[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin2011 2011 Steven Spielberg film]], which is an AdaptationAmalgamation.

Context WesternAnimation / TheAdventuresOfTintin1991