Long before Spielberg's "Tintin," or the fun but low production value TV series, came the Tintin movies of the 60s and 70s, like "Le laq au requins" (The Lake of the Sharks), "Les oranges bleues" (The Blue Oranges) and "Le temple du soleil" (The Temple of the Sun). Of these films, "Temple" most reflects the difficult transition Georges Remi (Herge to fans) made as an artist from the 1930s to the 1950s. His "Tintin au Congo" or "Tintin en Russie" are jingoist tales of Belgian colonists and adventurers. Herge even had to redact dialog bubbles in "Congo" later on. But converts to a cause often become its strongest proponents. By the time he wrote "Le lotus bleu" or "Temple," he has strong young characters representing their societies (Chang for China, Zorrino for Peru). Indeed, when "Temple" first came out as a weekly strip in a magazine, it was accompanied by detailed articles on Peru, the culture of the Incas, and the fauna and flora of the region. A few years later, when penning "Tintin au Tibet," Herge had become post-modern.
Herge always retained a keen eye for racism and stereotyping, and Capitaine Haddock was his medium for it. He bumbles and stumbles around foreign locales as a comedic character, mis-appreciating everything in a storm of swearwords while Tintin, the straight man, befriends the locals and gets down to business. However, Herge never fell for political correctness, and the locals are as likely to be bad as good, and the ones in "Temple" are no exception to the rule.
The film chronicles Tintin's voyage to rescue his friend Professeur Tournesol (Calculus), abducted by an Inca cult when he desecrates a hallowed bracelet. On their way, Tintin and Haddock get to know Peru, are chased by bumbling detectives, are befriended by some Indios and are hunted by others, with Condors, alligators and spitting llamas thrown in along the way. The voyage ends in success when Tintin, captured by the Incas, uses his knowledge of a solar eclipse to awe his captors. Here the film (and Herge) grossly underestimated the Incas, who had very sophisticated astronomical knowledge. But much of this would not have been known to Herge when he wrote the story in the 1940s (while SS occupied his house!).
The film follows the two comic books fairly faithfully, with extras from the magazine strip thrown in (the magazine version was more extensive than the comic books, which were always cut back to 62 pages). I saw it in French, and it had a great soundtrack with original songs. Many designs were faithfully taken from archaeological material to add realism to the story. The animation occasionally suffered from amateurish drawing, Belvision just was not Disney Studios, where Disney never tolerated imagery imperfection in any of his films.
Despite the not always perfect animation, the story moves along with good doses of humor and adventure, stalling only occasionally, and it does something that will be hard to replicate by any Spielberg Tintin sequel: it takes itself and its young viewers seriously. The humor is never self-deprecating, rather it showcases the difference between Haddock's and Tintin's views of the world.
Herge always retained a keen eye for racism and stereotyping, and Capitaine Haddock was his medium for it. He bumbles and stumbles around foreign locales as a comedic character, mis-appreciating everything in a storm of swearwords while Tintin, the straight man, befriends the locals and gets down to business. However, Herge never fell for political correctness, and the locals are as likely to be bad as good, and the ones in "Temple" are no exception to the rule.
The film chronicles Tintin's voyage to rescue his friend Professeur Tournesol (Calculus), abducted by an Inca cult when he desecrates a hallowed bracelet. On their way, Tintin and Haddock get to know Peru, are chased by bumbling detectives, are befriended by some Indios and are hunted by others, with Condors, alligators and spitting llamas thrown in along the way. The voyage ends in success when Tintin, captured by the Incas, uses his knowledge of a solar eclipse to awe his captors. Here the film (and Herge) grossly underestimated the Incas, who had very sophisticated astronomical knowledge. But much of this would not have been known to Herge when he wrote the story in the 1940s (while SS occupied his house!).
The film follows the two comic books fairly faithfully, with extras from the magazine strip thrown in (the magazine version was more extensive than the comic books, which were always cut back to 62 pages). I saw it in French, and it had a great soundtrack with original songs. Many designs were faithfully taken from archaeological material to add realism to the story. The animation occasionally suffered from amateurish drawing, Belvision just was not Disney Studios, where Disney never tolerated imagery imperfection in any of his films.
Despite the not always perfect animation, the story moves along with good doses of humor and adventure, stalling only occasionally, and it does something that will be hard to replicate by any Spielberg Tintin sequel: it takes itself and its young viewers seriously. The humor is never self-deprecating, rather it showcases the difference between Haddock's and Tintin's views of the world.