Tintin Forums

Before I thought Tintin and the Lake of Sharks was the only Belvision film on DVD, maybe because it's the most famous out of them. But yesterday I saw all three movies in a box: The Calculus Case, Tintin and the Prisoners of the Sun, and Tintin and the Lake of Sharks as well.

It really got me wondering, especially since The Calculus Case was originally episodes from the series. Why haven't the other episodes been released to DVD? They could cut the episodes like they did with Calculus Case and then release them as movies in a box along with Lake of Sharks, Prisoners of the Sun and The Calculus Case.

Quote:
It really got me wondering, especially since The Calculus Case was originally episodes from the series. Why haven't the other episodes been released to DVD?

Hi,

I can think of several reasons, but I'm not 100% sure of any of them:
- Maybe 'they' (Studio Hergé / Moulinsart) don't want us to watch these because of the dubious quality and Hergé's own dislike of them. They rather have us watching the more recent Nelvana-Ellipse episodes (and perhaps that's part of the deal with that studio?);
- Maybe they haven't got the rights on the TV-series as they were a Belgo-French co-production by Raymond Leblanc;
- I also read somewhere that the originals are lost, so there just might not be good enough material to make DVD's of...

The BBC most still have the prints of these.I still feel my collection isnt complete without these episodes.They are on you tube but there in German.Maybe noone owns the rights to these thats why they have never come out on DVD.

I think that Belvision’s archive is actually quite good - they had a lot of early/ rare material in the documentary about them, including the semi-animated b&w stuff. That Larry Harmon’s studios were in the U.S. also would help, as they too would probably have copies.

The BBC don’t have the Belvision series in their archive, as they never “owned” it, and presumably episodes went back to the distributor at some point, or were destroyed when their rights expired (a not uncommon event). This is a pity, as the semi-animated stuff was dubbed by the BBC themselves, and therefore would have been unique.
It was wholly by (fortunate) accident that the BBC did retain a copy of the Golden Fleece/ Treasure dubbed into English; this then made its way to the screening at the NFT.
I think that the biggest problem about getting the Belvision cartoons on DVD is that there may not be enough of an audience. The Nelvana cartoons cause enough disputes on here amongst fans as to whether or not they are any good; the films in the boxed set even more so, and they apparently haven’t been a commercial success. If we, the core of fans can’t agree about them, you’d be taking on a pretty risky property to throw them out into the market and hope that they’d sell.
I would love them to, as I like them and they were my gateway to the books, but I’m not holding my breath…

You are more than likely right about that, Max Bird. Hergé certainly thought the TV series was adequate, and I've seen evidence he approved of the films more.


Somebody must own the rights to them as they have been released on DVD in Iceland.

Agian, I don't want to be appearing to rain on your parade, as goodness knows I'd love to have these available once again, but as was discussed again recently, there is only one unsubstantiated assertion that the DVD release ever existed in Iceland or anywhere: we've no catalogue numbers, publisher or even pictures of the disks in question to show that they ever came out. Nobody has managed to obtain copies, nor have they appeared second-hand on places like eBay.
They could have come out, but they could have been bootlegs from the VHS releases, for example, or it could have been some sort of hoax.

This is what I meant when I replied to your other post about stories growing on the internet without anything to back them up; one person makes an assertion which over time becomes "fact", without the evidence to back it up...

The BBC do not have the 35mm prints of any Belvision TT episodes. I have checked with the BBC archive. These prints last saw 'live' telecine screening in the UK in late 1984, never been seen since.

I made an extensive post about the Belvision episodes and UK screenings on a previous thread if anyone wants to look it up.

I can add that the BBC prints of Belvision TT episodes had ENGLISH titles, not the French ones. They are now presumed lost, and no English titled versions on film are known to exist...anywhere. Quite what happened to the prints is not known, but they are not in the BBC archive in episodic format any more with the English titles. It's a mystery what happened as despite much communication with the BBC archive some years ago, they are simply....er.. missing.

I myself possess possibly the only versions of the English titled episodes, as off-air VHS recordings in 1984. Never seen any others unfortunately.

Not all of them are lost!
https://www.tintinologist.org/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=9&t opic=3571&page=7