Tintin and the Lake of Sharks
| Tintin and the Lake of Sharks | |
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French-language film poster
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| Directed by | Raymond Leblanc |
| Produced by | Raymond Leblanc |
| Based on |
Characters by Hergé |
| Starring | |
| Music by | |
| Cinematography | |
| Edited by | Jean-Pierre Cereghetti |
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Production
company |
Dargaud Films
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| Distributed by | Associated Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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1 h. 21 min. |
| Country | France Belgium |
Tintin and the Lake of Sharks (French: Tintin et le lac aux requins) is an animated film based on The Adventures of Tintin, directed by Raymond Leblanc (1972). It was not written by Hergé (who merely supervised), but by the Belgian comics creator Greg (Michel Regnier), a friend of Hergé. It was later adapted into a comic book with still images from the film used as illustrations.
One night, in Brussels, Belgium, a pair of crooks discreetly break into the aquarium and steal a priceless pearl. As soon as the security guards on duty see the empty shell, they rush away to raise the alarm. The crooks take advantage of the guards' absence by putting a fake pearl, the same size as the real one, in the shell. When the guards return with the director and the director sees the fake pearl, he thinks the guards were making it up, but then has second thoughts about the incident as a similar case happened at another museum two weeks before.
Meanwhile, Tintin, Snowy and Captain Haddock arrive in Syldavia, a country in the Balkans. They have come to join their friend professor Cuthbert Calculus who has rented a villa near a lake in order to build his latest invention. At the airport they run into Thompson and Thomson, who are also heading for Calculus on a special mission.
The four men and dog fly by hired plane to Calculus' house, but during the flight they get into some engine trouble and the pilot bails out with the only parachute. Tintin attempts to safely land the plane, but it ends up on the edge of a cliff and on fire. They are saved with the help of two local children, Niko and his sister Nouchka, and their dog Gustav. But as it turns out, the crash was deliberately set up, as the pilot contacts his superior ("Mr. Big"/"Shark King") via walkie-talkie to inform him that the plan has failed.
The children give their new friends a lift in their wagon, but as they learn of their destination, they warn them that there is a curse on the lake, at the bottom of which is an old submerged town. The party finally arrives at Calculus' villa where he demonstrates his invention: a camera which can project holographic images. It is part of a far more ambitious project: a machine which will make actual copies of physical objects. Later, over dinner, Thompson and Thomson explain that they are Calculus' bodyguards as they suspect that a criminal organization specializing in making art forgeries wants to steal his machine. Eventually, everybody goes to bed. In the middle of the night, Snowy wakes up Tintin at one point after hearing a noise outside, but Tintin shakes it off as bird calls. In fact, the noise is made by Calculus' housekeeper, Madame Black, who is in league with "Mr. Big" as well.
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