A Treat For Those Who Grew Up With The Comics

Rating: 7/10 (20 November 2011)

"I am entirely confident that I shan't see a better film this year." That is what I said upon seeing J.J. Abrams' 'Super 8' earlier this year. Quite a claim, huh? But I have adequate justification for it: that was a film of genuine excitement, with such originality in its screenplay to give good, fun thrills, devoid of cheap gimmicky clichés, and an impressive debut for the child actors. It was a film I so thoroughly enjoyed that I went to see it twice! I have never, ever done that before with a movie so it was certainly a significant cinematic experience. It was so earth-shatteringly good that I labelled it the cinematic highlight of 2011, primarily due to its levels of excitement and enjoyment. I was so sure nothing would come close until last night. Sitting in my seat of the Apollo Theatre watching the latest offering from director Steven Spielberg, 'The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn', I wasn't so sure if my claim was all that accurate.
Adapting the 'Tintin' comics, the sensation created by Belgian artist Hergé, into a film was an excellent idea. The comics, so rich in witty humour, unique characters, and plot lines that unravelled themselves stylishly like movies of the film-noir genre, were universally popular with everyone! It all seems unaffected by age, even now. There is very rarely a dull line of events in these comics because they are almost always accompanied with either the foundations of a new sub-plot shadowed by the story's primary story, or a select snippet of physical humour or some witty line. These comics are a golden opportunity for international attraction; everyone knows of Tintin.
The premise of this film (based on the three Tintin adventures 'The Crab With The Golden Claws' (1941), 'The Secret Of The Unicorn' (1943) and 'Red Rackham's Treasure' (1944)) is simple enough: Tintin (played by Jamie Bell), walking around a crowded market, spots a beautiful model of a ship called "The Unicorn" and, admiring it, he buys it. An American (who later turns out to be an ill-fated FBI Agent), having failed to buy it off him, warns that he's entering a world of trouble with that ship, just as the film's villain, Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine (voiced by Daniel Craig; a very appropriate choice for his dastardly and malicious, yet very suave, tone of voice) wants the ship, too. Later, Tintin discovers a secretly-hidden scroll inside it and discovers that three identical ships each contain scrolls that unlock the secret of the treasure of Red Rackham. Kidnapped by Sakharine's men and bundled onto the Karaboudjan, he meets the ship's Captain, Archibald Haddock (voiced with a Scottish accent by Andy Serkis).
The essence of the characters seems to have remained generally intact in this film. Yet it was somewhat lacking the ordinary amount of foolishness from the bumbling-but-adequate Police Inspectors Thomson and Thompson (with the perfectly-chosen voices of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to voice them). I can't argue that pursuing a master pick-pocket and smashing into a lamp-post is not what can be expected, but these two are known for their (eventually) efficient and cunning police work, underlined constantly with their iconic word rearrangements! They are forever correcting each other incorrectly (such as "It's insanely perfect," one says, only to have to the other say, "To be precise, it's perfectly insane"). That isn't truly shown in this film. But on the whole, it's all there: Haddock's light-weight alcoholism and characteristically elaborate insults still remain (such as, "Miserable molecule of mildew!"), Tintin's thirst for adventure is forever unquenchable, Nester remains Haddock's extremely tolerant yet quietly patronising manservant in Marlinspike Hall, Thomson and Thompson still the clever twits of the story. Whether or not Tintin's constant narration of every thought that ran through his head was strictly necessary, or indeed accurate to the original character, is beyond me. It did wear a tad thin, I have to say!
Continuing the wonderful working relationship they've shared since 1974's 'The Sugarland Express', John Williams, who has written the music for all but two Spielberg-directed films ('Twilight Zone: The Movie' and 'The Colour Purple'), writes the music here. It is quite a strong element of the adventure, with Williams composing themes so distinguishable that you can guess what character is going to come up next. The Thom(p)sons have their own theme, Haddock has his own "drinking theme", arising whenever he craves some of his favourite 'Loch Lomond' whisky, and Tintin has his own "mystery-solving/ thinking theme". The body of the score is upbeat trumpets, superbly intricate riffs of the piano, and violin quivers in the more suspenseful moments. It's reflects the Tintin adventures to great approval.
I am so pleased to say that whatever childhood memories I had of the Tintin comics were presented rather loyally on this silver screen adaptation. Amongst all this, there is, however, a new memory I will be taking away with me: the CGI wizardry of the film. I found the concept of transferring one of history's greatest comic book characters to a computer-generated format peculiar, but I can say that it was the right decision. Not the most immediate idea, but one that works.
According to numerous Spielberg interviews I've read, every frame of the film took five hours to create using the CGI photorealism format. Again, minute features are accounted for: the fibres of a sailor's jacket, the scattered refractions of sunlight on a man's beard, the pores on Tintin's face – all there. As producer Peter Jackson put it, "They look exactly like real people – but real Herge people!" This film will doubtlessly be remembered as a digital-animation triumph of the decade, let alone just 2011.
'The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn' is more than a kiddies' movie endorsed to make a shedload of money. It is so much more than that. It may well be the new 'Super 8'.