The Adventures of Tintin: Complete Collection [Region B]

This 5-disc set represents the most faithfully-rendered and probably best presentation of Tintin on film or television. The French and Canadian co-production was shot and first transmitted in 1991-1992, and comprised 21 of Hergé's 23 completed books. The blu-ray discs are nicely-packaged in three, translucent blue, hard-shell DVD boxes, which come in a cardboard slipcase that includes a hologram of the television series' trademark of Tintin and Snowy running, captured in a spotlight. This Anchor Bay UK set can only be played on blu-ray machines capable of reading discs encoded for Region B, which is most of Europe (the United States is Region A).The traditional, 2-D cel animation strives to reproduce Hergé's "ligne claire" drawing style and the cartoon's strong colours, and the episodes appear to be the actual still frames of the cartoon in motion. Many of the individual episodes are close to the albums of the same title, but a few (like "Tintin in America") have been rewritten whereas others may have been edited in order to fit into commercial television's need to include advertisements. The voice casting is quite good and the tracks are well mixed so the dialogue is easily understood. Colin O'Meara's Tintin is believable if most definitely Canadian, and David Fox and Wayne Robinson are good as Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus respectively, although I always think of Haddock as being a Scot.This box set does have some drawbacks. The blu-ray discs appear to have been transferred from a positive print (or a poorly maintained negative) so there is a fair amount of "dirt" visible throughout the series. There also are no extras whatsoever, not even title cards with a short, illustrated biography of Hergé, or a history of Tintin, although such documentaries do exist. There are no subtitles for the hearing impaired. There isn't even a booklet or a "one sheet" indicating which episodes are on which disc.For all that, this is clearly Tintin, if sometimes politically correct, who looks like the character one has grown up seeing and not, like in the dreadful Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson film, looking as though they had been dipped in parafin, were being observed through gauze, or brought back from the dead. This is an entertaining collection that will delight the series older (or elder) fans, and even beguile a younger audience accustomed to more visual sophistication and finesse.

I was very pleased to find this set of Tin Tin in a box set, myself and my kids enjoyed it