Teesside Tintin

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## Teesside Tintin

### Genre

Comedy
 Parody

### Network

Youtube (2006-2012)
 DubToons (2007-2010)

### Based on

*The Adventures of Tintin* (Nelvana series)

### Language

English

***Teesside Tintin*** is an early abridged series that re-imagines Tintin as an eastern English chav. The series spanned 58 episodes of varying length from 2006 to 2011. Like many abridged web series of the era, *Teesside Tintin* features edgy, snappy humour, and frequent profanity.

## Synopsis

Tintin, also known as "Tinhead", is a delinquent born and raised in the Northeast English district of Teesside. Tinhead spends much of his time getting into street fights or going out to clubs. There are very few overarching storylines; at most, Tintin has a running feud with other scousers around town. At one point, Middlesbrough's then-mayor Ray Mallon launched a campaign to capture Tintin dead or alive, so Tintin hid out for a while in space.

The *Tintin* universe is also subtly altered in a way to make it fit within local English culture. Haddock is no longer an official captain, but an older chav who Tintin has been learning mischief from. Professor Calculus is now the owner of Marlinspike Hall, though it is not referred to as such; he is now an uptown citizen who Tinhead nicknames "Syphillis" and still hangs out with.

## Production

The series was first produced as a side project by two friends, Nick and Andy, while producing work for their film production company. The series adapts music and video footage from the Canadian animated series *The Adventures of Tintin*, restructuring its episodes into short skits. In order to better utilize the animation, certain scenes were looped, slowed down, or spliced, for the benefit of comedic timing and character lip movements. Milou's English name of "Snowy" is replaced with "Snowie", stemming from a typo on the official Teesside Tintin website, which stuck around for the course of the series.

Much like how the original *Tintin* comics contain frequent specific references from around Brussels, Belgium, the *Teesside Tintin* series makes frequent reference to Middlesbrough and Northern English culture. Tinhead often mentions real pubs, restaurants, and streets from around Teesside. The series has since gone on to become a cult classic in Middlesbrough and elsewhere in Europe.

## Availability

*Teesside Tintin* was first posted to the internet in late 2006, via the website DubToons and the then-up-and-coming Youtube. These short "episodes" were simply titled "Teesside Tintin ##" and sometimes featured an opening sequence parodying the 20th Century Fox theatres logo. Unfortunately, in 2007, the *Teesside Tintin* episodes were removed from Youtube after a copyright claim by *The Adventures of Tintin*'s UK distributor. All further official uploads were uploaded exclusively to an original website, DubToons.com, which was online until 2011.

Most of the series has since been located and collected online.  Several episodes are missing from the internet but have been confirmed to exist. Many of the available episodes are in 320x240p or 480x360p resolution, which was a common video resolution when *Teesside Tintin* was still being produced.

## References

1. ↑ The Rendezvous Point: Top 5 Quiet Deaths of Web Series - 25 November 2011
2. ↑ Teesside Tintin paints the town red on stag do | The Northern Echo
3. ↑ Teesside Tintin (Series) : Internet Archive