Tintin and the Cinematic Adventure
Now, to be truthful, I intially went for the Asterix books. They seemed more comical, whilst the Tintin style seemed (to my young eyes) a bit..well...plain! Asterix was filled with wit, japery, and roman soldiers being smacked up into the sky. Tintin was filled with a boy and his dog, some guys in bowler hats, amongst professors and sailors. Thus it, for some reason, didn't seem to be as good as Asterix.
So, for the next few week I rattled through Asterix books at a rapid pace, until I had read them all. Not wanting to really start reading 'serious' books (which, by 'serious' I meant Doctor Who novels, or The Tripods), I hesitantly picked up a TinTin book to take home. Destination Moon was my book of choice, after all it had a big red and white spaceship in it, so would (hopefully) be 'cool' (if, indeed, the term 'cool' was in common parlance at that time). I took it home, began reading, and was lost in a glorious adventure with a myriad of fascinating, and often amusing characters. These seemed much better adventures than Asterix had, and I wanted more.
Wel, obviously it followed that I had to get Explorers On The Moon next - after all, the story followed on. Once that was out the way I looked at the chronological order of release, and backtracked to the first book, ready to work through the tales.
Even since then I have loved TinTin stories.
The early cartoons which were shown on TV at times were primative, but faithful adaptations, and were a joy to watch. As I grew older, I began to put childhood things behind me, and Asterix and Tintin were all but forgotten.
Then, in the early 90s, a new series of cartoons were produced. Telling a fair chunk of the stories over a 21 episode series, they were faithful in look and style to those books I adored as a kid. By this point I was studying at University, and (as any students past or present know) there is something 'cool' about watching cartoons as a student, and it is fine to like 'kids' books. So, I tuned in to watch an episode...
All my love of the characters and adventures came flooding back. The whole series enticed me to, once more, delve into the books. Out came the library card, and without a care to what the librarian thought, I read them again!
But, again, as time passed, passions faded again. Life decided to get in the way of leisure, and almost 20 years later I find myself with young children of my own, and I find Tintin is making a re-appearance in my life.
As a parent, looking at the new Tintin film, I hope for it to capture the minds of my kids as much as those early books captured mine. It will give me an excuse to finally buy all the books, rather than rummage libraries - to hopefully see their joy as they read those adventures I read so long ago.
As a fan of Tintin, the early images of the design made me fall back in time and recall the tales again. The first trailer whetted my appetite, and in the hands of a great writing team, and such a great director and producer, I know I can look forward to falling in love with the adventures of this young reporter and his dog once more.
A Tintin movie has long been mooted, and now it is almost upon us. To think that these stories began almost 3/4 of a century ago, and yet still look set to entice and enchant generations today is a marvel. Timeless classics given a new lease of life through the power of cinema.
