‘Tintin’: Spielberg’s blockbuster invades USA

‘THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN’: Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures & Columbia Pictures

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN
Produced by Peter Jackson
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Starring (voice and motion capture): Jamie Bell (Tintin), Andy Serkis (Captain Haddock), Daniel Craig (Sakharine)
Based on the characters created by Hergé
Paramount Pictures & Columbia Pictures
Now playing in the USA and Canada
http://www.us.movie.tintin.com/

By Frank Cavanagh

Who’s that boy?
 Twenty years after discovering Tintin, Steven Spielberg has finally realized his dream: to bring one of the world’s most famous comic-book characters to the big screen, and to American audiences.

 Tintin was created in 1929 by Belgian illustrator Georges Rémi, aka Hergé, as the hero of a comic series in the children’s supplement of a Brussels daily. (Tintin has been translated into several languages and has always been immensely popular throughout Europe, the United Kingdom, and Canada.)

Tintin is a Boy Scout (as was Hergé) who has grown up to become a world-famous reporter. Through his adventures he does his good deeds. The opening credits and the framed newspaper first pages in Tintin’s apartment at the beginning of the movie give the newcomer to the series an idea that Tintin is famous, despite being just 18 or 19.

Tintin is an unlikely hero. He has no name, really. His powers are his luck, his instinct, his intelligence, and his good heart.

The Tintin books are best described as graphic novels. Dialogue is sophisticated, though accessible.

Many were written in the 1930s. It is fitting that the movie be set in that era of famous correspondents and their astounding endeavors. Though young, Tintin already has a broad encyclopedic knowledge, as the solution to the location of Red Rackham’s treasure shows.

This is why Tintin has charmed so many, as it did Spielberg. The guiding principle of The Adventures of Tintin is, “For young people from ages 7 to 77.” One can read the books many times in one’s life and still be delighted. Spielberg and Jackson are almost successful.

This film is revolutionary for Jackson and Spielberg’s idea of making a 100 % motion capture film to try to remain true to Hergé’s style of clear lines, but gain the third dimension.
 The actors were finally only there to give voice and realistic body movements.

In computer animation, the camera need not be “grounded.” The spectator is like a fly, always in movement and changing point of view. At first, one can feel like in a whirlwind. One eventually comes to appreciate it.

The background is gentle “Old Europe,” but the pace is as relentless as any American film. The look and the way the characters move in the film are like in computer gaming. One could quibble, but who can say that, if Hergé had been born 50 years later, he wouldn’t have created Tintin in this way?

The film is a complete reworking of three Tintin books: The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn, and Red Rackham’s Treasure.

Tintin finds a parchment hidden in the model of an old galleon he bought. But from the outset, Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine is on his tail, also wanting to get that model, matching the other he already has. Tintin realizes this parchment is the key to a treasure.

What follows are the mad chases as Sakarine and Tintin seek to solve the mystery of the location of Red Rackham’s treasure.  Along the way, Tintin meets Captain Haddock, who is to become his unlikely sidekick, a vociferous, cantankerous drunk, but with a good heart.

Tintin and Haddock solve the mystery, which opens up to them teaming up for more adventures.

Tintin is a cult series, the most successful of the dozens of French graphic novel series. As usual, purists have decried the adaptation, particularly in Britain. But the film is true to the conclusion in the book, and moving the story ideas around was Hergé’s own creative process for a book.

One drawback is the Hollywood-style dialogue. A character saying that Tintin is “in whole mess of danger” is not in the style of the author in French, or its British English translation.

This is probably why the British critics were disappointed, or even dismayed.
 French and Belgian critics were more forgiving. The French version’s dialogue is less trite. And they accept that a great classic can be given new life, and can withstand revolutionary adaptation. Shakespeare can be set in New York or Los Angeles; the Pet Shop Boys can do a disco version of a U2 song.

Tintin: the Secret of the Unicorn is an exciting event for the whole family. It is respectful of the stories of Hergé, his style, his ideals, and his wonderful characters, but at a 21st century pace. The plethora of details in this film makes one recommend to also buy the DVD. 

This movie is a worldwide event, bringing all of us together.  That was the spirit of Tintin, and that’s what Christmas is all about.

Go see it. Enjoy the movie. Then discover the books.

Frank Cavanagh is a freelance writer and lifelong Tintin fan, based in Montreal, Canada.

Published December 21, 2011