MOVIE NEWS: The Adventures of Tintin

If you’ve seen the December issue of OWL (click here to order back issues if you haven’t!), you already know a lot about The Adventures of Tintin. We dug deep to get all the facts about how the movie was made, including a ton of info on the cool performance capture technology in the film. I also had the chance to see the new movie, which opens today, and I’m here to share some thoughts.

The story is based on three classic Tintin tales written between 1941 and 1944. As Jamie Bell (the actor who plays Tintin) put it, it is all about the origin of the relationship between Tintin and his sea-faring friend Captain Haddock.

When intrepid reporter Tintin buys a model ship at a market, he quickly discovers he’s not the only one interested in it — several evil-looking men want the model, and will stop at nothing to get it. Before long, we find out the ship — known as the Unicorn — is actually the key to an ages-old mystery, and Tintin needs to figure it out fast or face the consequences. Along the dangerous path toward the truth, Tintin sails the seas, flies airplanes, and races through foreign cities.

But will Tintin discover the secret of the Unicorn before it’s too late? You’ll have to find out in theatres starting today!

Here are a few observations about the movie:

1) It looks great. As we talked about in the December issue, performance capture is a combination of live action and animation. Directors take the movements of real actors, give them animated bodies and faces, and put that together with animated sets and objects. In this new movie, it all adds up to a great-looking movie. The characters are life-like without being creepy and the cities and scenes are incredibly detailed and rich.

2) It’s fast paced. If you’re a fan of action sequences, this is the film for you. Tintin, his dog Snowy, and Captain Haddock leap (sometimes literally!) from chase scene to brawl all movie with barely a moment to breathe in between. Even the flashbacks are full of sword-fighting!

3) It’s Indiana Jones-y. That’s not surprising, really, because director Steven Spielberg is behind both this and the Indiana Jones movies, but they are very similar. Both involve a smart, motivated hero and tons of action. (Even Tintin’s punches sound like small explosions… just like Indy’s.)

Overall, I liked this movie and think lots of blog readers will, too. There’s a good dose of mystery and problem-solving to go along with the action, and Tintin makes for a good-hearted hero that we can all see ourselves in. That said, there’s some gunplay and Captain Haddock spends a lot of the movie drinking alcohol (like he does in the books), so this movie isn’t for your youngest siblings.

What do you think, OWL readers? Are you a fan of the Tintin books? Are you planning to see this movie? While we’re at it, what did you think of the article we wrote about the flick? Let me know in the comments below!

Craig, owlblog@owlkids.com