Parents, Children: Watch Tintin Films Online for Free

While film fans and Tintin fans anxiously await Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg's 2011 film, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn (by the way, the Unicorn is a boat), you can get ahead of the crowd by watching for free online a number of older films and television series based on Hergé's classic stories of Tintin, the ageless reporter, and his droll canine buddy Snowy (or Milou, in the original French), including the best films in the most nearly complete Tintin series ever made.

The Tintin films, by the way, are appropriate for children, but the good news is, Tintin films are also fun for adults, reflecting a big chunk of the history of the twentieth century, with carefully documented styles of clothing and cars. Click on IMDB after a title to go to the Internet Movie Database entry for information. I'm using English titles for consistency, but at the IMDB, some titles are in French, although these films are available in both languages.

If the film is available to watch free on veoh.com, you will need to download their free viewer to watch (and even download) the videos. This is simple and, in my experience, safe. These films may be available on other sites as well.

Watch online free: Hergé's Adventures of Tintin - IMDB

Episodes from the earliest Tintin films, the Belvision television series Hergé's Adventures of Tintin (1958 - 1962) can be found by searching at veoh.com, although I have found only a few of them, and they are in French without subtitles, although they have been shown in English in the US. The series includes only seven of Hergé's Tintin stories, which were broken up into 104 very short episodes. The art is very different from (frankly, inferior to) Hergé's original work.

Watch online free: Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece - IMDB

In the early 1960s, two live-action Tintin films were made, neither based on the original Tintin stories by Hergé. The first of these films, Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece (1961), is available online, complete but in French without subtitles as Tintin et la toison d'or (IMDB has Tintin et le mystère de la toison d'or). You can watch it or download it here.

Tintin was played by Jean-Pierre Talbot, born in 1943, so he was in his late teens and early twenties when the films were released; that's a concern because it is very difficult to figure out how old Tintin was supposed to be. Strangely, Talbot never made any more films. According to the Internet Movie Database (here), he is now retired after being a teacher and continues to receive fan mail every month.

Watch online free: Tintin and the Blue Oranges - IMDB

A clip of about two minutes of the second of the live-action Tintin films, Tintin and the Blue Oranges (1964) IMDB is available to view here.

It also is in French without subtitles (both films are available on DVD with English subtitles). Even if you do not understand French (I don't), it is worth watching because, to me, Tintin, Captain Haddock, and Snowy are eerie, they are so similar to the cartoons.

Watch online free: Tintin and the Lake of Sharks - IMDB

Next came two animated Tintin films. One of these animated films, Tintin and the Lake of Sharks (1972) IMDB was not based on one of Hergé's Tintin stories, but you can watch it here. Frankly, I can think of many less irritating ways to spend an hour and thirteen minutes. Don't let this be your first exposure to Tintin, or it might well end up being your last.

Watch online free the best Tintin films: The Adventures of Tintin - IMDB

This 1991 Ellipse (France)/Nelvana (Canada) series is the most nearly complete television series based on the Tintin stories, with twenty-one of the twenty-four books represented. (Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo were omitted because of controversial content, while Tintin and Alph-Art was not completed by Hergé before his death.)

Since these are available at several online video sites, these links are to the search results on Google Video:

1. Tintin in America - Find the video here.
2. Cigars of the Pharaoh - Find the video here.
3. The Blue Lotus - Find the video here.
4. The Broken Ear - Find the video here.
5. The Black Island - Find the video here.
6. King Ottokar's Sceptre - Find the video here.
7. The Crab with the Golden Claws - Find the video here.
8. The Shooting Star - Find the video here.
9. The Secret of the Unicorn - Find the video here.
10. Red Rackham's Treasure - Find the video here.
11. The Seven Crystal Balls - Find the video here.
12. Prisoners of the Sun - Find the video here.
13. Land of Black Gold - Find the video here.
14. Destination Moon - Find the video here.
15. Explorers on the Moon - Find the video here.
16. The Calculus Affair - Find the video here.
17. The Red Sea Sharks - Find the video here.
18. Tintin in Tibet - Find the video here.
19. The Castafiore Emerald - Find the video here.
20. Flight 714 - Find the video here.
21. Tintin and the Picaros - Find the video here.

There are few changes to the plots of the beloved Tintin stories (mainly cutting back on Captain Haddock's drinking), and the artwork is faithful to the originals by Hergé. Three were single episodes, so they run only about twenty-two minutes, while eighteen were filmed as two episodes, but these are now presented as single, uninterrupted films of about forty-four minutes each.

The series was originally filmed in English (although some signs and other texts are in French). In the United States, it aired first on HBO with reruns on Nickelodeon. So, it is mainstream, and it appeals to children and fussy old Tintin fans such as one who is writing this article.

Wait for: The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn - IMDB

Hergé must have had a premonition of this gazillion-dollar extravaganza, slated to open in 2011, because in his third Tintin story, Tintin in America (1932), a Hollywood mogul assures Tintin, "Paranoid Productions are starring you in their new billion-dollar movie spectacular."

Tintin films not available online

The earliest of the Tintin films, The Crab with the Golden Claws (1947) IMDB was filmed in both French and English, but only the English version has survived. It is not available online, although you can find the episode with that title from The Adventures of Tintin.

Of the two animated features that followed, the first was Tintin and the Temple of the Sun (1969) IMDB which is not available online. It is based on two of the Tintin stories by Hergé, unlike its companion, Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece.

Tintin et la SGM (1970) was an animated promotional short film which neither is included in the Internet Movie Database nor is available online.

Keep up with my articles on Tintin and other Tintin resources here, check my other writing on film here, and visit my Tintin blog here.