Tintin Forums

Watching the DVD, when Tintin gets off the train in The Seven Crystal Balls in the Ellipse-Nelvana cartoon, there is a sign on the side of the train station that reads Moulinsart. Why is this?

This would presumably be the station closest to Marlinspike Hall... and because the animators of the series originally made it in French, it bears Marlinspike's French name.

Just out of interest, tintinmob, and because you have asked before about the DVDs, which language do you watch them in? Is it English or French, or perhaps something else?

English. Why?

I don't think any of the signs or street names are written in English.

tintinmob
English. Why?

I was just wondering if you were used to other names for the places/ characters in the stories. I couldn’t work out if you a) didn’t know that “Moulinsart” was the French name for Haddock’s place, b) were wondering why the name wasn’t changed on-screen from language to language.

Keeping the place-names in French is part of the setting. It helps to remind the viewer that Tintin is in a French-speaking area of a predominantly French-speaking country. From what I know, Château de Moulinsart is supposed to be somewhere in the Ardennes, near Ghent (check it out in The Castafiore Emerald, I don't know if that's just given in the French version or not.)
Courtney

Until last year I thought the Hall was always called Marlinspike (that's how it translates in English), but Moulinsart is its name in French.
How does it translate in other languages?

In French moulin means mill, and I looked up sart and it means a clearing (of trees). So the English name is actually completely different, just sounds similar.

I guess the English translators looked at Millclearing(of trees) and decided it pretty hopeless!

mat

Plus of course Marlinspike not only sounds a bit like Moulinsart, but it also has a nautical connection, being a tool used by sailors to unpick rope. And I know the fish over the door to the Hall is most probably a haddock (and not a marlin), but it all fits very nicely.

Going back to the original point... I can't remember if there are other instances where things are written in French or English in the Nelvana cartoons (admittedly I haven't watched them much).

It has been mentioned that the cartoons were originally made in English, and then dubbed into French. I think this was worked out by people that had watched them in English and French and noticed the timing and 'lip-synching' worked better in English.

But I'm guessing the makers decided that original French names would be better to use for anything written.

And there is the case in the 1960s cartoons produced by American Larry Harmon where Moulinsart is actually written as Hudson Manor, which is the original name for the Hall in the short-lived US edition by Golden Press.

That must have confused a few French speaking fans!