Tintin and the Blue Oranges (Tintin et les oranges bleues in French) is a 1964 Live-Action Adaptation film of the famous Tintin series of comics, and the sequel to 1961's Tintin and the Golden Fleece. Like the aforementioned film, it boasts an original story, rather than being based on any album. Jean-Pierre Talbot reprises his role as Tintin, though Captain Haddock is now played by Jean Bouise and Professor Calculus by Félix Fernandez.
Calculus receives a strange parcel in the mail from the famous Professor Zalamea, containing a blue orange that glows in the dark and which can be grown in the desert, making it a potential solution to world hunger. When the orange is stolen, Calculus, Tintin, and Haddock all travel to Valencia to meet Zalamea and explain the situation to him. However, Zalamea has been kidnapped, and so is Calculus, with their abductors seeking to use the blue oranges for their own benefits. Tintin is helped by a gang of local children in his search for the missing professors.
This film provides examples of the following tropes:
- Big Bad Ensemble: There turns out to be two competing villains who seek to use the blue oranges for their own benefit: Oranges Inc., who initially kidnap the professors, and the Emir of Sakali, who comes into play later in the movie and has them re-kidnapped just before Tintin and Haddock arrive to rescue them.
- Brutish Bulls: While investigating the kidnapped professors, Thompson and Thomson mistakenly bump into a belligerent bovine who chases them around.
- Distinguishing Mark: Fernando has a tattoo of a blue dragon biting its own tail on his wrist. The kids manage to track him down by asking every similar-looking man they meet for the time, allowing them to take a closer look at their wrists.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: In the end, Thompson and Thomson arrive, crash their car, and land in the fountain, making everyone else laugh as a photo is taken.
- Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: The titular blue oranges are genetically-modified oranges which are blue, glow in the dark, and most importantly, can be grown even in the harsh desert environment. They're highly sought-after by villains due to the economic implications such a crop carries, but in their current state, they have an awful bitter and salty taste, making them inedible.
- Improvised Weapon: During the film's climactic fight scene, Captain Haddock uses a ventilation pipe from the yacht he's on as an improvised armguard during a swordfight, before using it to send his opponent into the water.
- Kidnapped Scientist: Professor Zalamea and Calculus both get kidnapped by Oranges Inc., and later by the Emir of Sakali, and are forced to work on the blue oranges.
- Kid Sidekick: Pablito is a young boy who is a friend of Zalamea. He and his gang of friends help Tintin in their investigation of the professors' kidnappings, such as by helping track down Fernando.
- Tap on the Head: Tintin and Haddock are knocked out by men who bash them over the head with billy clubs. Both of them wake up later, complaining of a headache but otherwise unharmed.
