Flick Flak: The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn
Director: Steven Spielberg
With: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig
U, 107mins
Almost the first line of this new animation from Steven Spielberg comes as we see the eponymous hero’s face for the first time. He turns to the camera, holding a caricature of himself drawn by a street artist (which also happens to be the original Hergé version) and asks what we think of the likeness. The question is actually directed at Snowy, but it seems that you are immediately asked to judge this shiny new character. It’s a fairly cringe-worthy beginning, but judge it I shall. It looks good!
Yes, moving on from the horrifying, dead-eyed style of The Polar Express and its own trailers, Tintin looks cartoony and realistic at the same time. In short, it looks gorgeous. The characters are well-realised and the motion capture gives them soul, and some of the vistas are stunning; burning pirate ships battle on raging seas, an aeroplane swerves through lightning-torn clouds, and a Moroccan palace adorns a cliff above a seaside port. The animation style is used by Spielberg to create shots that would not be possible in live action and the 3D did seem to be worthwhile.
The next praise-worthy aspect of the film is the action. Pirates, ships, car chases, guns, swords, swinging, punching, exploring… it’s a boy’s adventure story realised to the fullest. Several of the action scenes are fantastic, particularly a chase sequence through the Moroccan village which switches focus between Tintin (Jamie Bell), Snowy and Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) even as they career manically apart during the descent. This is a children’s film no doubt, but one not afraid to inject a little peril into proceedings – indeed danger is rarely far behind our hero as he follows clues to an old pirate treasure.
The acting is all great, as is the music by the ever-reliable John Williams. Snowy the dog is good value too - he gets a lot to do by the standards of film dogs (obviously being an animated creation helps with the stunt work).
The main problem is the script. It isn’t bad, it just doesn’t sparkle with wit and humour, which you would hope it would, given that Dr Who’s Steven Moffat was involved in the writing process. Sadly Tintin lacks Dr Who’s easy banter, and while the character relationships are believable enough, there just isn’t a lot of wit in the writing. The story is good, but is delivered in telegraphed revelations that children will see coming a mile off, and the humour is largely slapstick and presented in the form of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s Thompson Twins. Unfortunately they are deeply unfunny and the film suffers when they are on screen.
Tintin also disappoints in terms of its villain, played by Daniel Craig. He has the voice of a first-class villain, but the character is rather one dimensional.
Overall then Tintin is a mixed bag. It is great fun with some thrilling action scenes. But silly moments and rubbish humour bring it down a bit and with a team of Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish writing we were entitled to expect a lot more. A sequel, directed by Peter Jackson, is already in the works, so let’s hope that that film can reach greater heights.
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1 Comment – Post a comment
Sam (Sub-Editor)
Commented 6 months ago - 1st November 2011 - 11:55am
We were talking about this yesterday in our first aid training and the issue of the uncanny valley and Tintin.