The Adventures of Tintin is a 2011 animated film directed by Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg and starring Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis and Daniel Craig.
That this film is enjoyable and exciting from start to finish is a great example of what happens when an adaptation is made by film makers who are dedicated fans of the original work. That this film received such an abundance of negative criticism upon its release is what happens when that film is then watched by people who are idiots.
When I first read about the Spielberg adaptation of Tintin it was planned as a live action film. I immediately recalled the abysmal live action film from the 80’s. Enough said.
But after I heard that Peter Jackson had become involved, with the full weight of Weta Workshop behind him, and that the film was to be CGI-motion-capture, I became excited. Jackson was the perfect film maker for this – his Lord of the Rings adaptation proved he is skilled at both keeping loyal fans happy, and bringing in new ones.
And unlike Tolkien’s wordy, old-English, Anglo-mythology (which must have been extremely challenging to adapt visually), Herge’s visual style of drawing would have essentially constituted a ready-made storyboard.
One of my favourite scenes is early on – where Snowy chases the kidnapped Tintin (Jamie Bell) across town. It’s a great example of the freedom a pure CGI film allows – the camera ducks and weaves through traffic, passes through gaps far too narrow for any human cameraman to pass through, and races along behind Snowy as he leaps over cars, people, and fences. It’s an amazing piece of action.
While the film is mostly an adaptation of The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure, it also takes sections from The Crab with the Golden Claws, which was necessary to do justice to introducing the character of Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis).
My other favourite scenes are the ‘flashbacks’ Haddock has to his ancestor doing battle with the pirate Red Rackham. The high seas confrontation is the best tall ship battle I’ve ever seen put to film. It’s fantastic in every sense of the word.
One departure from the books I thought was really necessary was the decision to not have Snowy vocalise his thoughts the way he does in the books. In the film he is a real dog, but the way he’s written it’s obvious what he’s thinking anyway.
The film manages to seamlessly mix comedy and action. The comedy is both dry and slapstick, and the action ranges from light hearted (the pickpocket scenes) to way over the top, but it never strays into absurdity. It’s like a CGI version of the set pieces from an Indiana Jones film.
The set pieces themselves are just incredible. The highlight for me is the scene where Tintin and Haddock (and Snowy of course) escape the freight ship in a small rowboat and then end up in the biplane. It’s a perfect example of what I was just saying – comedy and action seamlessly mixed. From Haddock drunkenly setting the boat on fire to Tintin bringing the plane down with a well aimed shot, and their subsequent hijack of the plane and flight through the storm, to the final tense/comedic bit where Tintin is almost pulled into the propeller but saved by a desperate Snowy, the whole scene is magnificently executed. Motion capture has come a long way and the animators here should be very proud of their work indeed.
And unlike some of Peter Jackson’s longer adventures, the intrigue and exposition between the action set pieces never drags (I’m thinking of the sleep-inducing Merry and Pippin/Treebeard sequences from Lord of the Rings).
Most of the character voice acting is spot on, with the exception of Daniel Craig. I really like him as an actor, he has screen presence up the yin yang but here his voice is just too recognisable or something. You immediately picture James Bond’s voice coming out of a middle aged guy with a cane. It just doesn’t work.
But that’s a small gripe in what is otherwise one of the best animated films I’ve ever seen. Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg have awesome jobs – they get unlimited funds to basically play with toys on a massive scale. I certainly hope that despite the negative criticism they do decide to team up again and that there’s more Adventures of Tintin on the way. Two hours well spent.
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