The Adventures of Tintin

The Adventures of Tintin is an animated adaption of the popular Belgium comic series of the same name. Directed by Stephen Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson this movie has been on many people’s watchlists. The question was if it would pay off or if this motion capture movie would be a multimillion dollar one-way-trip.

The adventure starts
On a flea market the journalist Tintin (Jamie Bell) gets his hands on the model of a ship that seems to draw a lot of interest from some strange people. When he refuses to sell the model said people someone breaks into Tintin’s house and the ship is gone.
Due to some fortunate accidents involving Snowy (Tintin’s dog) and a cat a mysterious message has fallen out of the model before it got stolen. So after some journalist work Tintin and Snowy decide to find out the history behind this ship named Unicorn and the family it belonged to.

Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Unicorn
Watching Tintin made me wonder (again) what went wrong with Indiana Jones 4.
Tintin manages to capture the adventurous spirits of the original Indiana Jones movies. There are breathtaking action sequences and everything is done with a playful sense of ridiculousness. This doesn’t mean that Tintin doesn’t take itself seriously – the action is very real for the characters, but for an outside viewer it is extremely entertaining.
very action scene is filled with energy and like the good old Spielberg movies it is composed of many elements working with and against each other. When there is a chase you not only have two parties trying to outwit each other – you have at least two different actions happening at the same time and also the environment where so much is going on.

The animation is superb and I feel guilty of not going so much into that aspect – the fact is that Spielberg, Jackson and their team of talented animators have perfected the technology so that it naturally aids the story. Maybe it is because of this that the action works better than in the last Indiana Jones movie – animated storytelling is a different kind and we accept more things that are implausible due to the stylistic nature of the medium.

So Spielberg has used animation to his advantage. This Tintin would not have been half as good if it were a real life adaption. Still with the help of motion capture nothing gets lost on the actor’s side.
Of course when it comes to motion capture Andy Serkis (Gollum, Caesar, King Kong) features as a hilarious Captain Haddock who teams up with Tintin.

More movies like this please
I was not sure if I would invest money to see this movie. Only after some recommendations I decided to give this movie a try and I was happy I did it.

In my eyes Tintin is a must see movie. It showcases the potential of animated storytelling and like Super 8 brings back some movie magic that seems to have been lost. It is a fantastic children’s movie. On the downside this means that sometimes Tintin has to spell out things that are quite obvious.

But on the other hand there is no pop-culture humor. The fun while being derived from a lot of slapstick situations is in no way idiotic – it is much more a showcase of well executed slapstick. Spielberg has made a children’s movie that you don’t need to be embarrassed to watch. And as previously mentioned the action is breathtaking. There is a flashback sequence about the history of the Unicorn which consists of creative scene transitions, dynamic action and a seabattle that should make the people behind Pirates 4 feel ashamed of themselves.

With this blend of action, mystery and a constant sense of dread Tintin is a great treat. Because of Tintin’s age the action scenes are way more serious and even though there is no ultra violence the threat for Tintin feels genuinely real.
Seeing as there are more stories of Tintin I can only hope that the next installment will get produced to give us more exciting adventures with Tintin, Snowy and Haddock.