Title: The Adventures of Tintin
Year: 2011
Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writer: Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish (screenplay), Hergé (comic book series "The Adventures of Tintin")
Runtime: 107min
Cast: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkins, Daniel Craig, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg
Produc.: Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, WingNut Films, The Kennedy/Marshall Company, Hemisphere Media Capital, Nickelodeon Movies
Budget: $130 million approx.
In The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret
of the Unicorn, after having himself portrayed in a craft fair, Tintin
meets a salesman that offers him a model of a boat. The young journalist gets
the purchase, at a price that will later come to sound overly cheap, when he
finds out of the incredible adventures that this ship holds to him and the fortune
to which access he could be reaching down the road. But of course, none of this
process will be easy, when he must face the fearsome Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine,
who plans to sabotage his plans. In this way, Tintin must rely on the help of
his dog Snowy, his new friend, Captain Haddock, and of police officers Thomson
and Thompson, two clumsy, but always well-meaning servants of the law, to
succeed.
With The
Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, famous American director
Steven Spielberg has finally got to work, fulfilling his dream of bringing to
the screen the most recognizable cartoon character of Hergé´s work, created in
1929.
Long time had to pass before this director got
busy in the film, if we consider that he already owned the rights in 1983. It
is also interesting to know how it was that cartoonist and director knew about each other. On the one hand, Duel (1971)
was the first film that Hergé claimed to have known from the spielbergian
filmography, and in his own words, he liked it so much that from that moment he
tried not to miss any other.
On the other hand, Steven Spielberg would meet the
cartoonist, following his 1981 release of Indiana
Jones and the Lost Ark. On one occasion, when he was looking at a French
criticism, the director noted that in the text there was made constant
reference to a certain Tintin, at which he decided to refer someone to
translate it for him. Right away he could learn that, according to critics, the
film was a clear homage to Hergé. But the funny thing was the fact that
Spielberg had never heard of this guy until now. It would be so, that Steven
decided to learn more about it and read the comic, which would result in his
immediate fanaticism and his subsequent acquisition of the adaptation rights.
Something that would even serve as a greater inspiration for this man, would be
to find out that Hergé himself considered him as the ideal filmmaker to make a
movie out of his character. According to the author's own statements: "If anyone can bring Tintin successfully to the screen, it is this young American film director." This was
written by the cartoonist shortly before his death in 1983, when negotiations
between him and Spielberg had just started.
In this way, and even after, a somewhat late
start, Spielberg finally directed the shooting of the film in March of 2009, in a total of 32
days, for then cede the recorded material to the special effects experts,
responsible for giving color to a work until then, only of Motion Capture. It
is worth to mention that Spielberg initially wanted to adapt Tintin in a live
action film, to what Peter Jackson would have to convince him that a movie with
actors of flesh and blood would not do justice to the comic. Jackson's idea was
that all the characters were designed based on this capture, with the exception
of Snowy, whom he saw better as all-digital. So, The Adventures of Tintin would become the first animated feature film
directed by Steven Spielberg.
Turning now to my own observations, I think it is
important to distinguish between "animation" and
"argument". After watching it, more than once I made the mistake of
saying aloud: "It's Indiana Jones, but in cartoons." This statement,
in the end could end up looking bad for anyone who considers himself to be a
fan of the comic, as well as erroneous, considering that Tintin came long
before the archaeologist, in which case it would have been correct to say:
"It's Tintin, but with actors." Despite this, I must clarify that my
intention was never to lower this film adaptation of our beloved character, nor
underestimate the tetralogy of Dr. Jones. In contrast, what has always been
indeed my intention, was to imply that this adventure, made into a movie looks
remarkably similar to those experienced by the flesh and blood character,
played by Harrison Ford. Thus, anyone who saw it, either being or not a comic
book fan, I think, should contemplate it with the sufficient lucidity to notice
the undeniable similarity between the two protagonists. Because one should
accept that both, each within his universe (one, a journalist and the other, an
archaeologist and history teacher), they live their adventures under the same
model of circumstances, such as, always been looking for treasures, on the
verge of death, being constantly persecuted and always dodging bullets, to say
a few.
Beyond that, The
Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn ends up being an
entertaining film to pass the time. Yet, regarding to its animation, both, in terms
of its characters and settings, it is very reminiscent of what was done in
movies like Avatar (2009) or Alice in Wonderland (2010). This two,
synonyms of outstanding visual quality, and where three-dimensional images were
endowed with such realism that it was difficult even to believe that they were not made of
real footage, but generated images.
Finally I put up what it meant to me seeing this
flick. And I have no doubt I might be expressing myself as someone who has
never touched a single Hergé comic and lacks of a real understanding of the
true essence of his character, when I say that as I watched it, there was a
time when I thought, "I already saw this before." What happens is
that if one took the trouble to take away all its mysticism, it would be possible
to think that what one is watching is kind of like a fifth installment of the
Indiana Jones franchise, except that fully adapted to the animated format. So,
if we ignored for a moment all it means the wonderful art of animation (in this
case, in 3D), it all could well be reduced to: young adventurer who faces the
worst dangers in search of the most hidden of the secrets and the greatest of
the rewards. Seen from this perspective, The
Adventures of Tintin ends up being much more about action and adrenaline,
than of a good argument, which is not really a bad thing. This simply means that it´s creators intention (in this case, the director) is not to
explore in the fields of human relationships, because that's not what it points
to.
In short, and having said the above, in The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the
Unicorn, whether one sees it in 2D or 3D, the entertainment is assured, and
won´t be few the ones to grant Hergé the reason, concerning to Spielberg.
My rating: 7/10
My rating: 7/10
