The Adventures of Tintin

Director Steven Spielberg stated that he has been fascinated by the Belgian Tintin comic for over 30 years. Tintin's adventures are unfamiliar to many Americans, but scores of children of all ages abroad had sneaked a magazine or two past their bedtimes since the late 1920s. I had heard about but never saw the strips or the TV specials. I think HBO ran a Tintin show when I was little.

2011's THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN is a performance capture adaptation based on a few of artist Hergé's old stories. Tintin is a brave, resourceful, yet strangely bland teenager who, with his equally and unbelievably fearless dog Snowy, embarks on impossible adventures filled with chases and scrapes that may well remind you of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and its sequels. Spielberg in fact stated that he felt that Tintin was an "Indiana Jones for kids." He and co-producer Peter Jackson wanted each frame of their movie to seem like a single panel from Hergé's comic. I've only seen online reproductions of them but it appears as if this has been achieved, and that is the real (if not only) reason to watch this movie.

The story opens in a large outdoor marketplace, the first of many impressively rendered set pieces. There is a pickpocket flitting amongst the crowd. Tintin appears, amazed at how inexpensive a model of the "Unicorn", a 17th century Navy vessel, is. No sooner does he acquire it when sinister men are hovering, trying to buy it off him, for top dollar. Tintin cares about history and research, not a quick buck. One of the bad guys is called Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine. You can practically smell the evil in him.

Later that day, Snowy and a feline chase each other through Tintin's apartment, nearly destroying the new model. Nonetheless, thieves make away with it while Tintin is at the library. Why is everyone so interested in a replica, a broken one at that? Amid the wreckage of his ransacked home, Tintin discovers a tube which had popped out of the toy ship and rolled away unnoticed under a piece of furniture after the chase. Inside is a scroll that points the way to hidden treasure. Sakharine's men kidnap Tintin. The adventure begins.

Hergé's gallery of characters are filled color and eccentricity, both of which are largely missing from the protagonist. Tintin is kind of like Jerry Seinfeld in a way; the comedian was the main character but his supporting players were what made the show entertaining. Tintin himself is somewhat of a neutral medium, like tofu, you could say. Contrast him with bumbling detectives Tomson and Thompson, haplessly on the trail of the pickpocket Aristrides Silk, who is found to have bookcases filled with his victims' wallets, one of which belongs to Tintin. I read that T & T will have larger roles in the sequel.

Captain Haddock is another curious one. He is introduced during Tintin's capture aboard Haddock's ship the SS Karaboudjian. And what sad tales Haddock tells: ship taken by Sakharine's men, his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock from generations ago sinking his own vessel when pirates invade. That's how the treasure ended up where, well, "x" marks the spot. Haddock is also constantly intoxicated, perhaps a problematic (but refreshingly alternative) thing for a kid's movie.

TINTIN takes nary a breath, pulling viewers by the arm from one treachery to the next. It's good but exhausting fun, the breathless pace punctuated by some unusual moments - such as when an entire building becomes involved in a chase. My investment in the characters (other than Snowy) was close to nil, so I didn't much care what happened. I was along for the ride, and promptly forgot the whole thing after it was over. If I wasn't writing this review, I may never have thought of it again, until the inevitable sequel(s). And it was not just because I was watching something so patently artificial. But again, the striking pallate is what makes the film worth seeing. Treat it like an art exhibit that makes a lot of noise, rather than a satisfying story and you'll do fine.

I'm very fussy about animation. I dismiss most Anime (excepting AKIRA) simply because the widely drawn eyes are aesthetically annoying to me. Performance/motion capture has run hot and cold. POLAR EXPRESS and BEOWULF failed to enthrall. When Ralph Bakshi rotoscoped (drawing/tracing over live action) his films it often came off as stilted and unnatural. In TINTIN, movement is more fluid and believable. The process has become infinitely more sophisticated. This movie is the very definition of eye candy. But despite the frantic nature of it, good spirits and a sense of fun were very short lived; it left me a bit hollow. I was expecting more than just a disposable adventure.