The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

Rating: 6/10 (23 September 2012)

Based on the popular comic books by Belgian animator Hergé, when I was a kid I used to love the cartoon, from the theme tune to my favourite character Captain Haddock and his catchphrase "blistering barnacles", and I was definitely interested to see if writer Edgar Wright, producer Peter Jackson (Heavenly Creatures, The Lord of the Rings) and director Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan) could create a great motion capture computer animated version. Basically young reporter Tintin (Billy Elliot's Jamie Bell), with his dog Snowy, is in a European market and buys himself a model of the Unicorn, the three-masted armed naval sailing ship, and he is approached by sinister Sakharine (Daniel Craig) and the mysterious Barnaby (Joe Starr) who both want the model ship, but they don't get it. When Snowy gets into a squabble with a cat Tintin drops the model ship, unknowingly breaking out a parchment scroll that rolls out of the mast and under a chest, but the dog can't get his master to retrieve it, and Tintin wants to find out more about the Unicorn from someone who may know more than he is letting on. After an encounter with incompetent detectives Thomson (Nick Frost) and Thompson (Simon Pegg), Tintin goes to see Sakhaine, who has another model of the ship, and after returning to his place he finds it ransacked, but Snowy points him to the secret scroll, which he reads before putting it in his pocket which is stolen by pickpocket Aristides Silk (Harry Potter's Toby Jones). The young reporter ends up shot and kidnapped by the thugs of Sakharine, and he wakes up on the SS Karaboudjan, where he meets Captain Archibald Haddock (Andy Serkis) who has been made permanently drunk with tons of whiskey supplied by Allan (Plus One's Daniel Mays), but he helps him and his dog get away in a lifeboat. After being attacked by a seaplane, that they manage to bring down and use to fly to Morocco, the trio end up in the desert during a storm, and in the heat, dehydration and lack of alcohol Haddock hallucinates his ancestor's life, captaining the Unicorn during the 17th Century. His memories see Sir Francis Haddock (also Serkis) battling against Red Rackham, the descendant of Sakharine (also Craig), who was trying to steal the priceless treasure on board the ship, and Sir Francis chose to sink the ship rather than let other pirates get the treasure, and there are three model ships with clues as to the location of the shipwreck and the fortune. Tintin has two of the scrolls, and the last one is guarded in the home of wealthy Omar Ben Salaad (Gad Elmaleh) in a bulletproof display case, and Sakharine plans to distract people with famous diva Bianca Castafiore (Kim Stengel) in a concert and use her voice to shatter the glass, and this does work. But Tintin, Haddock and Snowy manage to get the third scroll before the bad guys, and a big chase ensues to keep hold of it, but the villain manages to steal all three and get away, but there is an arrangement where the police gather back in Europe, Sakharine and Haddock combat, and at the end Thomson and Thompson arrest the criminal mastermind. The end of the film sees Tintin and Haddock, with Snowy of course, work out the key to the three scrolls and the puzzle, which leads them to Sakharine's place, Marlinspike Hall, and in a further part of the cellar they find some of the famous Unicorn treasure, as well as a clue to where the rest of the treasure can be found, and Tintin and Haddock agree to go on an adventure. Also starring Mackenzie Crook as Tom, Tony Curran as Lieutenant Delcourt and Cary Elwes as Pilot. Bell is a good choice to play the young adventuring journalist, Serkis does well as the drunken captain and faithful friend to the hero, Craig in near unrecognisable as the sinister villain, and Frost and Pegg do get some giggles, it is a little odd that Professor Calculus is missing. The motion capture animation, where the actors play out the scenes and it is animated over, is clever, Spielberg certainly puts creative filmmaking into the action which is full excitement and fun, the big chase for the three scrolls is a continuous shot that keeps you watching, is may be paying more attention to thrills than the charming stuff the cartoon created, but overall it is definitely an animated action adventure to see. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Music for John Williams, it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Animated Film and Best Special Visual Effects, and it won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film. The Adventure of Tintin cartoon show was number 77 on The 100 Greatest Cartoons. Good!