TINTIN IN TIBETInteresting back-story on the state of Herge's life before he wrote this one. I've often thought of some of my own writing as self-therapy, particularly one story i did in mid-1988 where I returned to a character I hadn't touched in 9 years by that point. That story also involved (all the way in the background) a character who had gone missing from the hero's life, but who, in the long run (life isn't always so neat) NEVER turned up in his life again.
Around that same time, I was also having a number of dreams that seemed extraordinarily "real", and in one really shocking case, proved uncannily prophetic. But not in a good way.
Well, between the dream and the levitating monk, we're definitely seeing another story involving the supernatural (as we did in "
THE SEVEN CRYSTAL BALLS"). As I reading your review, I'm suddenly reminded of how the 1986 "
KUNG FU" tv-movie, intended as a revival of the TV series with David Carridine, was the 1st time that series actually showed real evidence of the supernatural. While in every previous story, Caine had thought back in his memory to Master Po (Keye Luke) giving him advice, in the '86 movie, he is VISITED by the spirit of the dead Master Po. Amazingly, this was predicted in 1980 when Carridine hosted an episode in the 6th season of "
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE", when Caine-- now in the modern world-- walks into a Harlem clothing store run by Eddie Murphy, and see Master Po reflected in a store mirror, telling him, "
The man of the spirit-- wears not the clothes of the pimp!" When they did that sketch, it seemed a reference to Christopher Reeve speaking directly with the dead Jor-El (Marlon Brando) in "
SUPERMAN" (1978). It was one of several striking instances where a long-gone TV series was parodied on "
SNL"-- and then, the show being revived in some form!
The '86 "
KUNG FU" movie also showed Caine LEVITATING above the floor-- something he never did on the old series-- but did at least once in the later "
KUNG FU: THE LEGEND CONTINUES".
The "Angel vs. Devil" bit (which pops up twice in this story) reminds me of the one in "
ANIMAL HOUSE", when Pinto's frat party date falls asleep from drinking too much, and the Devil calls him a homo when he decides NOT to take advantage of her while she's sleeping.
There was also a similar scene in the sitcom "
UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER", except in that one, both the Devil and the Angel urge Jack to
"DO IT!" "Oh, yes, by all means-- do it.", which really shows off the perversity of that show's humor.
I've never seen the mid-1950s Hammer Film "
THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF THE HIMALAYAS" with Peter Cushing & Forest Tucker (2 of my favorite actors, so it's annoying how overdue I am with this one). But I have seen the Abomnable Snowman covered in "
ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE",
JONNY QUEST (which also took place at a Himalayan monestery), "
RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER" (possibly the most famous and popular depiction),
ULTRA MAN (in that case, it turned out to be a GIANT snow-gorilla), and, funny enough, "
UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER", in the episode about the ski-trip weekend. While Tiffany accidentally got drunk and can't remember anything that happened, her brother Ryan repeatedly brags about his encounter with "
the Abomnable Snowman!" in which he "
SAVED THE WORLD!" At the end of the story, Ryan hears a knock on the door, and it's the snowman, who tells him (in a Jack Nicholson-style voice), "
I want a rematch-- you're goin' down!" Of course, nobody else (but the studio audience) sees this.
"Lost my umbrella"A clear reference to "
THE CALCULUS AFFAIR".
Regarding airplanes crashing in the Himalayas... this of course was what led to the discovery of "Shangri-La" in the film "
LOST HORIZON". A similar event was involved in the origin of "
Mandrake The Magician". Several characters from the film "
LOST HORIZON" clearly inspired characters in Steve Ditko's run of "
DR. STRANGE".
Although the Yeti is shown generally sympathetic, and Chang says he kept him alive, on the other hand, Chang would have been found without Tintin's entire expedition to Tibet if the Yeti hadn't insisted on hauling Chang away when he saw the original rescue party arriving on the scene!
It just hit me, Chang carving his name on the rock that leads to the conclusion that he did survive the crash seems a possible nod to Arne Saknussem in "
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH", especially as Tintin found it after entering a cave. (For a moment, I almost expected a deeper exploration of that cave.)
"it emphasises the courage and nobility of Tintin (the white man), in contrast to the cowardly Tibetan native."This reminds me of a scene late in the 1951 film "
HIS KIND OF WOMAN", where ego-maniacal Hollywood actor Vincent Price recruits and orders about a group of hotel guests and local Mexican policeman, to rescue his new friend Robert Mitchum, who's being held prisoner onboard Raymond Burr's yacht. The Mexican police are portrayed as inept and cowardly-- but of course, this part of the film is played entirely for laughs. This is especially obvious when the chief of police says, "
Senor! There are too many people in the boat!" Price yells out-- "
FULL SPEED AHEAD!" -- and within moments, the boat SINKS, forcing them all to make their way back to shore, and commandeer a bigger boat. Who's the bigger idiot there-- the guy barking orders, or the one following them? But Price succeeds in his self-appointed mission, mostly on sheer determination, not unlike Captain Haddock might have. (I just got this movie on DVD 4 days ago!)
In yet another astounding bit of timing, I started watching "
THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT" (1977) online the day before re-reading "
TINTIN IN TIBET". Both involve perilous missions into snowly climes to rescue a missing friend. The movie, based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' 2nd of 3 books in a trilogy, takes place in a dinosaur-filled jungle somewhere in Antarctica!
Shane Rimmer keeps count of how many flying dinos he's shot down.