The Adventures Of Tintin - 75th Anniversary Collection

Just what is Belgium famous for? Well, there are chocolates, there is 1980s pop-singer Plastic Bertrand, there's Simenon, creator of the famous French detective Maigret, and there is Agatha Christie's famous detective, Hercule Poirot.

And then there's Tintin, arguably Belgium's most famous creation. The boyish reporter, adventurer, traveller. The comic-strip creation of cartoonist/writer Herge, who will, as Bob Dylan wished upon as all, stay forever young.

This 1992 television series brings us 21 episodes of Tintin's adventures, drawn faithfully from Herge's original comic-strip books dating from 1932 to 1976.

Those viewers unfamiliar with Tintin might find them a tad archaic, even stilted or slightly boring as Tintin fights pirates, confronts Red Indians, penetrates the secret monasteries and faces the Yeti of Tibet, and even travels to the Moon. But anyone with even a passing knowledge of the phenomenon of Tintin will find much to admire here, in the faithful transference from comic-strip page to video, with all the original period flavour and style intact.

There's only one flaw -- this French/Canadian production presents us with a Tintin, his friend the Captain, the eccentric Professor Calculus and all the other inhabitants of Herge's universe, as speaking in English with a decidedly American accent. Very off-putting indeed. Herge would not have been amused.

There is an optional French soundtrack (and a Spanish one as well) which would sound less objectionable. But skilled linguists only need apply -- no subtitles are provided. So the grating Yank accent is what you get, and what you have to put up with.

This is a standard television animated production, with slightly muted colours in keeping with its period appeal, but with crisp definition and good tonal values throughout.

This is a full-screen (Academy) presentation so it lacks the extra clarity an anamorphic widescreen presentation would bring, but is nevertheless fine throughout all episodes.

The two-channel mono soundtrack lacks any real resonance - it gives decent clarity for dialogue, and doesn't present any problems in distortion or other nasty artefacts. It's serviceable, but not outstanding in any way.

Each of the six discs brings us a synopsis of the original comic-strip from which the particular episode is derived, along with a thumbnail sketch of a couple of characters from the series.

The final disc also brings us full-screen teaser-trailers from other Madman animated DVD offerings -- Rocky and his Friends, Roger Ramjet, The Irresponsible Captain Tyler, Voltron, Defender of the Universe and Dragon Ball - The Lost Episodes.

Most interesting is the preview for Roger Ramjet, which turns out to be a complete episode of that irrepressibly banal animated series. One episode would surely be enough for anyone!

Congratulations to Madman for their fantastic packaging. This is a fold-out digipak holding six discs, all cleverly crafted with original Herge designs. It is a work of art; a wondrous thing of beauty unto itself regardless of its contents.

Tintin fans will love it. Others will find it a tad stilted in comparison to today's animated offerings. This offering doesn't change my opinion that the master cartoons ever offered on DVD are the first colour episodes of Astro Boy (not the pathetic modern remakes) and the very interesting, even engrossing, Japanese girl-hero offering, La Blue Girl. Find them if you can.....