Blistering barnacles! Tintin fans up in arms after Captain Haddock gets a Hollywood makeover with a SCOTTISH accent

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 03:09 EDT, 15 July 2011

Tintin fans were up in arms today after it emerged that the boy reporter’s quintessentially Cornish best friend and protector Captain Haddock developed a Scottish accent.

Captain Archibald Haddock has been a favourite for years for fans of the boy detective Tintin, famous for his outlandish expressions, volcanic temper, and unerring nose for a bottle.

But - Mountebanks! Troglodytes! Turncoats! Lily-livered bandicoots! - as Herge’s comic creation becomes a $100 million 3D CGI-animated

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Transformed: Tintin's quintessentially Cornish best friend and protector Captain Haddock has developed a Scottish accent

blockbuster Tintin buffs have been left wondering why the swashbuckling English merchant navy skipper has suddenly become a Scot.

The accent was revealed when the trailer for director Stephen Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin was unveiled this week.

One website critic asked: ‘Why the blistering f*** is Captain Haddock Scottish?’ - using an twist on Captain Haddock’s most famous expression, ‘blistering barnacles’.

‘There is never the remotest indication in the comics that Captain Haddock comes from Scotland, speaks with a Scottish accent, or has any Scottish connection other than an intense love for whisky.

‘I cannot understand this decision on any level.’

Tintin fans of all ages are familiar with Captain Haddock, a multi-millionaire seafaring Merchant Marine Captain whose ancestral home is Marlinspike Hall and whose ancestors include the British naval hero, Sir Francis Haddock. While he likes a bottle of Loch Lomond whisky, every other indication places him firmly in England.

Cast members: Jamie Bell (left) plays Tintin and Andy Serkis (right) plays Captain Haddock in The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

The comic’s Belgian creator, Georges Prosper Remi, known as Herge, named Haddock while at dinner with his wife.

‘What is that?’ he asked, when seeing haddock on the menu.

‘A sad English fish,’ she replied. There was a real 20th-century ship’s master bearing the surname - Captain Herbert Haddock was skipper of the famous White Star Line’s passenger vessel Olympic, and had also been temporarily at the helm of its sister ship, Titanic, before it was officially handed over to White Star for her doomed 1912 maiden voyage with passengers.

Spielberg’s script was co-written by Scottish screenwriter and producer, Steven Moffat, famous for his work on Doctor Who.

The move is even more confusing for some, as the character in the computer animation film is voiced by Andy Serkis, the English actor best known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings.

From Bond to Tintin: Daniel Craig also stars in the film as Red Rackham

One comment on the website of the film magazine Empire, said: ‘Hollywood seems to be in love with Scottish voices since Shrek and How to Train Your Dragon’ - which featured Vikings with Scottish accents by Craig Ferguson and Gerard Butler.

‘They probably wouldn’t understand a West Country accent. Just be thankful they didn’t make Haddock Welsh.’

The trailer features the moment when the drunken Captain Haddock starts a fire in a rowboat. Tintin asks: ‘What are you doing?’, to which Haddock replies: ‘I lit a wee fire’. ‘In a boat?’ Tintin screams.

One viewer referred to Serkis’ Scottish accent as ‘somewhere between Christopher Lambert’s in Highlander and Robin Williams’s in Mrs Doubtfire’ - Scottish accents voiced by a Frenchman and an American comedian.

The Scottish film-maker Murray Grigor said of the Scottish Haddock, who makes his first appearance as a cargo ship captain unwittingly drawn into a sinister plot: ‘Historically all ship’s engineers and lots of ship’s captains were Scots. I don’t think it’s really derogatory and certainly Scots enjoy a drink. I like the positive attributes.’

The original: The reporter from The Adventures of Tintin from the TV series in 1990

The former director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Hannah McGill, said: ‘The Scottification of Captain Haddock is going to annoy purists, but it does follow a tradition of gruff, eccentric, cynical-but-good-hearted characters being designated Scottish in cartoonish mainstream films.

‘This dependable-grouch brand of onscreen Scot dates back to Whisky Galore and I Know Where I’m Going! and I’d say it crops up more often than the violent, threatening oik who’s commonly seen as the prevalent Scottish stereotype.

‘And however sensitive we are to matters of accent, most of the rest of the world don’t distinguish - or will see the film dubbed.’

Captain Haddock was introduced to the Tintin books in The Crab with the Golden Claws.

Haddock was first introduced as the rum-loving captain of the Karaboudjan, a merchant vessel used, without Haddock’s knowledge, by his first mate Allan Thompson for smuggling drugs inside crab tins.

Co-workers: Steven Spielberg's script was co-written by Scottish screenwriter and producer, Steven Moffat (right)

But his most noble act is in Tintin in Tibet, in which he stoically volunteers to sacrifice his life to save Tintin.

Although when introduced Haddock has command of a freighter, in later volumes he is clearly retired.

The Captain’s coarse humanity and sarcasm act as a counterpoint to Tintin’s often implausible heroism; he is always quick with a dry comment whenever the boy reporter gets too idealistic.

By the time of their last completed and published adventure, Tintin and the Picaros, Haddock had become such an important figure that he dominates much of the first half of the story.

He is especially notable in The Red Sea Sharks, where his skilful captaining of the ship he and Tintin seize from Rastapopoulos allows them to survive until they are rescued.

In addition to his many insults, the most famous of Haddock’s expressions include permutations of two phrases: ‘Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles!’ and ‘Ten thousand thundering typhoons!’