Thanks to a successful feature film, Tintin appears to be a strong media property once again. If you’re a parent who took children to see the film, you can probably remember poring over the books when you were young. Those of us in the US only got a small slice of the fever for Tintin and other characters like Lucky Luke or Asterix and Obelix, who were huge in their native Europe. Watching this DVD collection, The Adventures of Tintin: Season Three, one can see artist Herge’s talent transferred to moving pictures, very literally. Unlike the Spielberg/Jackson vision of Tintin, the animated Tintin looks as if he were pulled directly from the original books. His surrounding cast, including Captain Haddock, Snowy, and Cuthbert Calculus, all make appearances during this series of episodes. Best of all, these episodes cover some of the most ambitious storytelling from the comic series.

The only self-contained episodes here are "The Castafiore Emerald" and "Tintin in America." Technically, "The Red Sea Sharks" is a one-off, but only if you discount all the cameos from characters featured in previous Tintin stories. The remaining episodes are really just two big story arcs, told in eight distinct segments. "The Seven Crystal Balls" and "Prisoners of the Sun" explore themes of dark magic and superstition, set in the kind of jungle that might make Indiana Jones hesitate. The Adventures of Tintin: Season Three contains the ambitious story of Tintin’s trip to the moon, which shows some especially well developed imagination for a story conceived in the early 1950s! "Destination Moon" and "Explorers on the Moon" were two of my favorite books, possibly because it seemed so outlandish that Tintin, Snowy, and Haddock could ever be considered astronauts. That, and the campy ‘50s moon gear.

There’s plenty of entertainment across the two DVDs that make up The Adventures of Tintin: Season Three. With only 24 books produced, there’s a limited amount of Herge material to plumb, but collectors and fans of the series should be happy with this release. If we had to make a wish list, we’d like to see more special features and related media on these DVDs. As it stands, you really only have the shows, with very minimal production values. There are some iffy cultural and racial depictions in shows like "Tintin in America" and "The Red Sea Sharks." These books are no more than a reflection of some entrenched stereotypes and prevalent attitudes from that period. As much as we like the idea of Herge rising above these conventions, he was no more than a product of his time.

What is transcendent about Tintin is the way he represents a perfect heroic figure for young boys. We never question his youth or inexperience, or how he gets to travel all over the world on a reporter’s salary... The villains in The Adventures of Tintin: Season Three are some of the worst on record, but we know that Tintin and his retinue will triumph in the end. Along the way are plenty of swashbuckling moments, chills and thrills, and absolutely no damsels in need of saving. At the tender age that most of us came to adore Tintin, we were more comfortable with the idea that Tintin would fight for his loyal dog than chase after some doe-eyed beauty.