corto maltese the ballad of the salt sea

Unlike in the comics, we are never shown how Pandora and Cain were rescued in the animation, probably so as to not “dim” the rescuing of Corto Maltese. Here, the European tradition of comic animation is ever present, accentuating day-dreaming qualities and subtlety in story-telling, which is evident in the way the comics and the animation take pains to set the right atmosphere. In the comics, it is the ocean itself which starts the tale, putting romanticism forward, and it is exactly this quality that more or less defines all of the Corto Maltese adventures. Here, the comics and the animation instil in the reader this sense of nostalgia and a bitter-sweet, melancholy feeling for the past. Pandora and Cain are taken prisoners on a pirate ship led by abusive Rasputin, who has a plan to demand a ransom for the pair. In The Ballad of the Salt Sea, Corto is found sailing in the Pacific Ocean, and is in the midst of a shady deal with Rasputin, a psychopathic pirate and a Siberian army escapee, and with a man simply called the Monk, while the World War I is about to officially begin and the ocean is full of military ships.Ĭhronologically, The Ballad of the Salt Sea is the second earliest of Corto Maltese’s adventures, and the animation first follows Pandora Groovesnore, the daughter of a rich Australian industrialist, as she recounts the events of her past: that time when she was a teenager and shipwrecked with her cousin Cain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in November 1913. Corto Maltese is a mysterious and freedom-loving adventurer and sailor who travels the world in search of excitement and fortune, usually finding himself in the early twentieth century in such places as Southern Europe, Arabia, Africa and Russia.

La Ballade de la mer sal ée or The Ballad of the Salt Sea is a French-language TV animation based on the Italian comics of the adventures of Corto Maltese by Hugo Pratt. When I want something more serious to read, I read Corto Maltese” (Umberto Eco). “When I want to relax, I read an essay by Engels. “ He’s dreaming with his eyes open, and those that dream with their eyes open are dangerous, for they do not know when their dreams come to an end” (Hugo Pratt, taking inspiration from the famous quote by T.E.

Corto maltese the ballad of the salt sea