A gem from Steven Spielberg; once again sir we are indebted to you for bringing us a movie for the ages. This movie is for everyone; from 5 year old kids to one-foot-in-the-grave 90 year old people. The wonderful world of Tintin from the comics has been amazingly brought to life, well performance capture animated life, and the big screen and to your homes.
The Adventures of Tintin, directed by Spielberg, is co-produced by the great master along with Peter Jackson & Kathleen Kennedy and is based on the beloved Tintin series of comics created by Belgian artist Herge aka Georges Remi. We have Jami Bell as Tintin, Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock, Daniel Craig as Sakharine, Nick Frost & Simon Pegg as the bumbling detectives Thomson & Thompson.
Tintin is just like I pictured he should look like in an animated movie like this. Not a direct copy from the comics but close enough to make it more realistic. Snowy almost steals the scene several times! This Snowy is even more clever, braver & resourceful than I remember. Ofcourse he is faithful to a fault, like most dogs are, and loves to dig for bones and food. But in my opinion, Snowy is the best character in the movie. Great job on Captain Haddock too. Serkis does a nice voice for the role, in line with what I think he should sound like. However he doesn’t swear as much as we know the character does in the comics. Come one, we needed a few more “Avast you fresh water pirates” “ectoplasm” and such. Haddock has a foul mouth, although non of the words that he uses in the comics are at all abusive or filthy, and we want him to use it a lot!
Here is what I didn’t like; I assume that there are more movies to come but I didn’t like the fact that they called it “The Adventures Of Tintin : The Secret Of The Unicorn” when they have combined the storied of “The Crab With The Golden Claws”, “The Secret Of The Unicorn” & “Red Rackham Treasures”. And they change a few things and omit a few things. Where the hell is Cuthbert Calculus? The plot of the movie might confusing to longtime fans of the comics who know the stories by heart (like me). Mixing and matching might work to make a movie but it still isn’t all that it should & could have been. I assume that they used the storyline of how Tintin & Haddock met & became friends from “Golden Claws” in the movie to perhaps create an origin; was that really necessary? Could they not have just used the combines stories of “Secret of the Unicorn” and it’s sequel comic “Red Rackham’s Treasure” and made it one awesome story just like it is in the books?
That aside the extra addition is the villainous character of Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine who is the descendant of the pirate Red Rackham, (both played & voiced by Daniel Craig). Sakharine seeks vengeance for the death of his ancestor at the hands of Sir Francis Haddock the Captain’s ancestor, who then hid the treasure. The storyline is changed here for the maximum antagonist effect and I can understand but not like it. One like gripe – they bring in famous diva, the Milanese nightingale Bianca Castafiore and she just sings an opera number? Not the famous “Ah my beauty past compare, these jewels bright I wear, was I ever Margarita?” song that we most identify her with? Lol, ok one final thing and a disappointment really are the Thomson & Thompson characters – they seem a bit more subdued than I had hoped for. Perhaps in the next one we’ll find them in more glorious form.
Still a must watch for movie lovers. 8 out of 10!