Only a true fan could have made this film and director Steven Spielberg completely indulges himself in the world of Tintin and Herge. He often keeps the shot wide or medium which lets the audience view and admire the beautifully animated landscapes and locations. Spielberg must have known the weight of expectation on his shoulders when making the movie, and he never diverts from Herge’s original M.O; adventure, mystery and thrilling action. If you’ve read our interview with Tintinologist Michael Farr, then you’ll know Herge (back in the day) named Spielberg as the man to bring Tintin to the big screen, and it’s done with a huge amount of love and passion.

The Adventures of Tintin is surely the pinnacle of motion capture, and Spielberg treats the technology like an over-excited child with a super 8 camera and a toy set; he fluidly moves the action across scenes and locations and the action set pieces are pure spectacle. In a scene in which Captain Haddock recounts the story of the Unicorn, Spielberg cuts the action between Haddock recounting the story and the actual events in the past. The frame whizzes around at high speeds and cuts effortlessly between both locations, it’s stunning, and the action sequences on board the Unicorn are truly magical, I was in effing awe.

Screenwriters Moffat, Wright and Cornish have freely taken story points from across the Tintin volumes and have created a patchwork quilt of a script, which perfectly matches up to any Herge story. The cast all fill their roles well, and the animators have done a great job re-creating the characters on screen. When it comes to Tintin himself, considering that Herge’s drawings of the boy hero lacked any great amount of detail surrounding his facial features, I thought he looked pretty good in the film. Pegg and Frost also shine as Thompson and Thomson, and Andy Serkis is brilliant barging his way across the scene as Captain Haddock (even if his accent does sometimes drop).

The Adventures of Tintin starts not with a shot of the hero himself, but brilliantly begins with a shot of his creator Herge drawing a portrait of Tintin in a busy market square. The film is littered with little in jokes and trivia, and I will need to see the film again to catch them all. Tintin is pure old school fun, full off adventure, mystery and action. I already know when I will be seeing the film again upon its release, and I cannot wait.

Will Pond.

Adventure: CHECK!
Mystery and suspense: CHECK!
Tintin walking straight into danger: CHECK!
Thompson and Thomson being Thompson and Thomson: CHECK!
And best of all, Captain Haddock being drunken and surly: CHECK!

The movie officially looks awesome sauce (and you heard that here first) have a look at the trailer below and keep checking back to GCB for further updates…

invisible words

The story starts the same as pretty much any other Tintin book… With his trustful fox terrier Snowy at his side, our intrepid young reporter wanders straight into trouble within the first few pages! At a market stall in his native Belgium, Tintin comes across a model of a ship thinking it to be the perfect present for his friend Captain Haddock. After purchasing the model, two mysterious gentlemen step forward and try to forcibly buy it from Tintin, but he refuses to sell and heads home. Back at his flat, Snowy knocks over the model and breaks the mast and once Captain Haddock arrives he is amazed to find it is a replica of a ship his ancestor used to command before suffering at the hands of a vicious pirate attack. I would usually give slightly more of the plot away here, but I am worried that to say more would ruin this brilliant story.

In a first for Herge the plot is spread out over two books, allowing the action to move at a slower pace than usual. The scenes are much longer, and the dialogue is fleshed out a great deal with some brilliant exchanges (an aspect of Tintin that is often overlooked). Eventually though, Herge’s writing does come back to default mode and he finishes the action with an exciting chase through Marlinspike Hall (which Tintin will later move into with Captain Haddock) with gangsters armed with guns and fierce dogs hot on Tintin’s tail.

Lets face it, deep down we all really just want to wake up in the morning and walk into an adventure by lunch time, and if you don’t feel this, then I don’t think you’d be cut out for Tintin. The Secret of the Unicorn has maybe the most sophisticated narrative structure of any Tintin book; Herge’s masterful grasp of adventure is clearly on display as he slowly weaves together a story full of mystery and suspense. Although the action is limited to Belgium (the location where Tintin is based is never actually confirmed as Belgium, but it’s a pretty good bet it is!) Herge uses this to his advantage by having the book finish as an expedition is being planned, you’re really not going to get away with not reading the next book…

The artwork is very impressive, drawn in the same clear Herge style, with vivid colours jumping out from every page. In maybe my favourite sequence in the book, Captain Haddock recounts the tale of his ancestor and a pirate attack on his ship. Unusually for Herge, the action is cut between both Haddock becoming more and more animated as the tale unfolds and a flashback to the events happening, giving the perfect opportunity to draw some beautifully detailed images of a ship on the high seas. Herge was near obsessive about researching all elements of his books down to the smallest detail, and this can be seen not just in the image below but also in all his work.

The Secret of the Unicorn was Herge’s favourite book of his own work, and also his first double length story. Tintinoligist Michael Farr (best job title in the world ever?) has described it as Tintin’s last great detective adventure. The book is full of classic Herge humour but also compelling and adventurous, spreading the action out over two books leaves Herge the space to fully flesh out the characters he would have left in the background before, and lets the plot run at a slower pace than usual. This most definitely gets a rating of awesome sauce.

Next, I’ll be reviewing the second part of the adventure; Red Rackham’s Treasure, so keep your eyes peeled… That’s a rather disturbing phrase isn’t it? Keeping your eyes peeled. Have you ever seen that youtube video of a laser eye surgery? Some eye peeling goes on in that, it’s gross – ED.

Will Pond.

The trailer contains a mix of scenes and characters both familiar to readers of the books (the plane crashing into the desert, Thomson and Thompson etc…) and new scenes devised for film. What we all really want to know though is, is it faithful to Herge’s work, and does it bring that feeling of excitement that reading the books for the first time did? Well, for me the answer to both of the above is a firm… um, yes! From the first glimpse of Tintin’s feet coming out of his front door and his faithful dog Snowy playfully running around his ankles, I was hooked. Already we can see the attention to detail that Herge valued, just have a look at the shot of Tintin looking at at a model of the Unicorn through the glass case, or the beautifully lit scenes of the car speeding away from Tintin through the street at night, it looks awesome.

For negativity’s sake, the music is a little unimpressive but it’s still just a teaser, I’m sure in the next trailer we will hear more of John William’s full score. I’ve also never really liked how faces come out when motion capture is used, and the last close up shot of Tintin reinforced those fears a little, but even so, this teaser trailer has got me very excited.

Will Pond.

Check out the trailer below and two teaser posters also released today, which kind of make Tintin look like a techno super spy…