The Adventures of Tintin began as a comic strip by Belgian artist Georges Remi under the pen name Hergé. The tale of a young reporter and his faithful dog Snowy grew from a beloved comic strip to its own magazine and from there to radio, television, film, and even theater. The success and fascination with Tintin has continued with the release of a Hollywood film from Steven Spielberg due to hit theaters December 21st. If your itching to see Tintin before then your in luck as Shout! Factory has released The Adventures of Tintin Season One.

Spoiler alert for fans that want to see the upcoming film and are considering watching Season One of the animated television series found here, the first disc in the collection is where Spielberg and company have grabbed their material (The Crab With the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn, and Red Rackham’s Treasure). Of course chances are the film will have some change ups and will be polished up with the slew of great voice talent behind the characters and 3D Motion Capture to make it look, possibly, even better. The choice is up to you.

Season One of The Adventures of Tintin is a real gem, but like all older material it does have its set backs. The series is formatted from its original television presentation so you will have bars on the sides of your picture which, fortunately, seem to be no match for the adventures found in the set. As I watched, the bars became less and a less noticeable, and I often wondered if Tintin had not been the inspiration for Spielberg’s Indiana Jones character. Tintin may look like just a boy but he has some pretty amazing adventures that stretch across the globe from the deserts of Egypt to the streets of Shanghai and he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty punching out the bad guys and putting himself at risk to save his friends. There’s just to much to see in-between those two bars to give them much attention. Of course, that might bother some people.

The animation is of course dated and at times even more so. The introduction to the show is probably the most notable and at times I often thought that the animation, color, and dimensions of Tintin’s world looked a bit like that of the animated series Babar. Of course not exactly but some instances stood out more then others. Then you have the voice acting which is fine but there are occasional stand outs. Snowy for example is a bit of a headache at times. Occasionally Snowy will do things like laugh in an anthropomorphic way that detracts a bit from the more serious element of the show. Captain Haddock as well. Haddock is a character that is pretty much nuts. He goes on insane rants, sometimes reaching an almost incoherent level, and the voice over work here seems as if it reaches its limits from time to time. Again, this is due to a limitation in technology at the time.

All in all though I loved this season set and my kids loved it. I like the fact that it’s a kids cartoon but at the same time they never downplay the situations in which Tintin finds himself, from discovering an opium ring, almost getting killed in drive by’s, being kidnapped, poisoned, or even some of the characters being killed off. Its simply an amazing show that, even aged, finds very little competition in present day cartoons. Well worth checking out. Enjoy.