Impeccable animation

Rating: Null/10 (15 November 2011)

I've been a Tintin fan (got all the books) since I was ten years old (or thereabouts), so I was pleasantly surprised when the movie was announced. Considering that some previous attempts to put Tintin on the big screen had been underwhelming (the 1964 live action "Tintin and the Blue Oranges", or the animated "Tintin and the Lake of Sharks", 1972), I was a bit wary, considering that the script is a mash of three books. Watching the movie, I was pleased to see the cameo (of sorts) by Hergé (the cartoonist in the market), and the realism of the settings was quite amazing. I had several moments where I asked myself whether a scene was entirely CGI, or consisting of real environments and objects with the characters added in. But the photo-realism was a bit of a problem when it came to the characters. Whereas the comics work because they are obviously drawn, the realistic textures (down to Haddock's nose hairs) clashed with the exaggerated facial features. Many characters looked pretty grotesque, with big noses and all that. As for the story, it worked within the movie, and there were many faithful scenes, but the over-the-top action wasn't in the tradition of the comics all that often. Being loud, with lots of action and fast cuts, makes it more Hollywood than the comics (which might explain why Tintin didn't really make a hit in the US - he's too European). With the promise of a sequel, I hope that Spielberg will tone down the action a notch or two, and let the story speak for itself.