The Adventures of Tintin

Rating: 9/10 (5 November 2011)

Strangely enough, this film is almost 2 months earlier here in Europe than its North American premier near the Christmas time(I watched it at 29th Oct with friends here), particularly this is a mammoth-budgeted blockbuster animation and not until I had finished it in the IMAX cinema, I become forthrightly certain that the sturdy word-of-mouth will allure even a larger audience into the theater during the Yuletide season and its US territory will be effortlessly seized like here in Europe.
In fact, Tintin is just one of the two enthusiastically-hyped films from director Spielberg this year, WAR HORSE (still under its veil) will rush into the Christmas field as well with some more potential Oscar buzz. Now it's rather too early to predict which one is better, but aiming different spectators, I optimistically expect it will be a win-win situation, and basely according to my enraptured experience with Tintin, Spielberg is back at his top form after the universally- disappointing INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL in 2008.
From the technique angle, this cutting edge performance-capture animation has surpassed any precedents which endeavor to blur the boundary between animated feature and real-person features. After the tepid responses from a clumsy pioneer FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRIT WITHIN (2001), Robert Zemeckis' misfired THE POLAR EXPRESS (2004) and BEOWULF (2007), Tintin is truly an innovative triumph, all the subtlety and details are represented immaculately with accuracy and verisimilitude. Thanks to this state-of-the-art cutting-edge advancement, seamlessly matches with the Indiana Jones-que adventure structure, being a non-fan of the original cartoon books, I was stupefied to witness the smoothly fabricated world, everything is miraculously tangible (my favorite part is with Bianca Castafiore and the subsequent eagle- chasing bravura) and the narrative doesn't lose its fuel until the very end, which leaves its audience no time for any distraction (as a matter of fact, it is indeed the story of Captain Haddock, Tintin is demoted as a sidekick during the latter part).
We all know film is a world of imagination and somehow this film is foreboding that here comes the arch enemy of actors, high-tech could be the kryptonite of this glamorous yet sumptuous occupation, which had been proposed before when the ill-fated FINAL FANTASY first came into being! By the way, I cannot figure out Daniel Craig and Andy Sekis' voices in the film, I was pretty sure Craig could not be the villain, and it turned out to be my mistake!
This is no question this is one of the best animation in this century, if the academy acknowledge its admission (accidentally news came out today Tintin is officially on the shortlist of BEST ANIMATED FEATURE category of next years' Oscar race), it will without any doubt be the definite front-runner!