Adam Collins posted on December 27, 2011 00:00
Steven Spielberg’s first movie of the holiday season also happens to be his first feature length animated movie, The Adventures of Tintin. Tintin was created by a Belgian cartoonist named Herge. He wrote over 20 stories featuring his journalist protagonist. There have been previous film adaptations in France, but this is the first one in America.
The Adventures of Tintin opens with a good, old-fashioned opening titles sequence which is refreshing. The story centers on the book The Secret of the Unicorn, which focuses on a legendary ship from the 17th century that sank with a mysterious cargo onboard. This leads Tintin (Jamie Bell) and his dog Snowy on an adventure to discover what the cargo is, what happened to the Unicorn, and why it is being pursued by a villainous Sakharine (Daniel Craig).
This adventure kicks off with Tintin as he purchases a model ship at a bazaar. After turning down a proposal by Sakharine, Tintin and Snowy start to dig into the story of the last fateful journey of the Unircorn. The adventure quickly takes off and they travel all over the globe. Along the way, we are introduced to the twin investigators Thompson and Thompson (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) and a drunkard boat captain, Haddock (Andy Serkis).
The Adventures of Tintin is not your typical animated movie. Steven Spielberg is not your typical director. This film captured action and adventure like nothing I have seen before. The camera movement and shots were amazing. Like War Horse, Spielberg brings classic filmmaking back. Some of his transitions between scenes were not only old-fashioned, but creatively done. He uses the match cut many times. I do not remember the last time I have seen this transition used to so well.
The animation itself is above and beyond anything I have seen before. The motion-capture that Robert Zemeckis has been trying to unsuccessfully pioneer with The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol, was vastly surpassed by Spielberg and company. The rendering of the characters and the landscapes is amazingly detailed and realistic. Sakharine looks eerily like Spielberg himself.
As I mentioned, the story is based on the eleventh book by Herge. It was adapted as part of the early nineties cartoon, The Adventures of Tintin. It was a two-part story running forty minutes. I recently got my hands on it. It was entertaining, but nothing close to what Edgar Wright, Steven Moffat and Joe Cornish came up with. They also added a full sixty minutes to the story.
The Adventures of Tintin is a very entertaining film. I saw this in 3D. The 3D was so subtle, that I enjoyed it. It did not do a lot of in-your-face shots, but you know it’s there. It is one of the best movies I have seen all year, let alone the best animated film. I thought there would be a battle between Kung Fu Panda 2 and Arthur Christmas for Best Animated Film this year at the Oscars, but, now, I am sure that they will both succumb to the awesomeness that is The Adventures of Tintin. It has already made over $225 million in foreign markets and it is poised to be the highest grossing animated film domestically.
Rating: 9.5/10