Tintin DVDs: any official Asian edition?

Aside to the administrator ... I understand totally if you decide to nuke this post. I don't mean to "push the envelope." But the box set I have (I won't cite the point of sale) displays none of the indicia described in the informed responses about bootlegs. (I assumed mine was Chinese owing to the vendor's location, but for all I can tell it's Japanese, or otherwise Asian.) A cover side bar shows well-organized and clear iconography for the languages featured (making a distinction between soundtracks and subtitles); the box properly displays a proper-seeming bar code, the official DVD-label logos of Citel Video and PFC Video, and -- on the back of the box -- small print in French about the auspices under which the series was produced, citing the ownership of the contents by Ellipse-Nelvana. The Western text is, in fact, all in French (no English), and limited to small-print notices; no broken translations or misspellings or faulty attributions. As an American, I didn't know PFC or Citel Video as familiar names, but a Google search of Citel Video led me to a number of online French DVD shops, where I saw artwork and layout that seemed a precise duplicate for the set I have (notwithstanding the Asian lettering which, not to go into detail, seems proper and proportional); and a search of PFC Video led to associations with Canal +, who I know were involved with Tintin at least insofar as the Netherlands broadcast of the KUIFJE musical.

I do own a few DVD sets of other TV shows that I now recognize as bootleg releases ... but this particular set seems straight ahead. Are we sure that Citel Video did not create a package for the Asian market?

I found this official set on amazon.jp, is it this one Pel?

http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005V2JA/qid=1096963717/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/249-01408 19-6605136

Rik

Nope. The one I have is modeled on the layout of the French release you can see here:

http://www.medias-soustitres.com/rubrique-detaildvd.php3?id_rubrique=22&dvd=1811

But as a late-breaking realization, I've seen small discrepancies in the packaging that may well indicate bootlegging. My box says "2 adventures intergrales" -- as if it were a single disk release -- when it should say "21" ... The Ellipse logo, though expertly rendered, says "Eilipse" ... and the small print around the bottom circumference of each disk is a not quite sensible English language reference to "USA Home Entertainment" in which the words are broken up oddly.

The box discrepancies made me wonder if the Asian distributor had gotten a few details wrong in making alterations to the template ... but the disk small-print seems inexplicable. Maybe it's a better quality bootleg ... much as I'd still like to believe it's legit...

Hi, Rik
There is another picture of the same set here; the contents are shown, and both the slip-case and disc-covers appear to be the same design as the Anchor Bay set; I think that that is the Japanese version of the standard 75th Anniversary set.

Pelaphus, I think that puts the tin-hat on the matter; no company is likely to allow a logo to be used with a typo like "Eilipse" on it. Typos do creep through (the BBC have released one of their “Scarlet Pimpernel” films boldly proclaiming it to be “The Kidnapped Kig” in large red letters on the cover, which makes me think the person doing the artwork was suffering from a cold in the nose, because it should have been “King”), but logos and such normally get quite a bit of scrutiny.

Having looked at the set Rik found, one of the few things I gleaned from the text (I don’t speak or read Japanese!) is that it is an NTSC release; this shows the iniquity of DVD region encoding, because it would be fine for the US and Canada - except for the fact that Japan is Region 2, not Region 1…

Nice detective work Jock! If it is indeed an NTSC system.

I know in England it's pretty common for players to be multi-region out the box, or via a simple handset hack. Not sure if American ones are the same.

Rik

Or alternately e-mail suggestions@anchorbayent.com to encourage Anchor Bay to release the boxset on R1

Rik

Well, at least you can defeat region encoding with the right DVD player; heaven knows there are enough legit and/or "adjustable" models out there for pretty much the same price you'd pay for a one-region box.

The thing that can be more frustrating -- albeit less now that videotape is slowly, slowly being phased away -- is different VHS formats. A little over a year ago, not quite sure what I'd wind up playing on it, but imagining it might be useful for work, dubbing/exchanging stuff with friends/colleagues from other countries, I splurged on a multi-format VCR with a built in converter.

What makes this relevant is ... THAT's the box on which I was able to view the Tintin musical. The European friend who dubbed it for me sent me tapes recorded in PAL format.

But now we're into another thread, aren't we ... ? ;-)

Well, now I AM confused. Or at least bemused. The other day I was taping Tintin episodes from my DVDs for two children I know ("Get 'em while they're young, Eva, get 'em while they're young") and some of the disks started with an elaborate trademark logo I hadn't remembered for Asmik Entertainment, Inc.

Looked it up on the web, and, lo, Asmik were the former distributors of a now-discontinued JAPANESE dvd box set! (An official release? Assuming, but dunno.)

Our having established that my DVD set is in fact pirated ... this means that I was making a private, "fair use" U.S. copy from my Chinese DVD bootlegs of the Japanese set patterned after the French release that defaults to the original English-language soundtrack performed by Canadians.

Proof once again that Tintin is an international phenomenon.

Pelaphus says:
I was making a private, "fair use" U.S. copy

All issues of the source of the copy being illegitemate aside (which makes any subsequent copies pirates), it wouldn’t be covered by “fair use” even if your set wasn’t pirate, if you are making the copy to give to someone else, even children.

“Fair use” is a copy for personal use to prevent damage to the original, to listen to in your car, etc. Copying to give to someone else is simply bootlegging...

Expect the Canadians to launch a Japanese-backed extradition to China on behalf of the Belgians any day now...

Right you are. And yet ... if just one child's enrichment and innocent joy can come of the effort, if the sparkle of discovery in the eyes were to set off an odyssey of appreciating art and literature to last a lifetime, would not the world be that much more wonderful a place for the human spirit to grow and ...

... nah, I don't even buy that myself. Break out the cuffs, Thom(p)son, and let's get this over with ...