A splendid attempt to capture the magic of Tintin

Rating: 8/10 (25 October 2011)

When I was a child, I devoured the Tintin stories, I used to visit the library every week and take out as many as I was allowed - over and over again.
So I was worried, despite the names of the Director and Producer, that this wouldn't quite capture the joy of my youth (I'm now 40).
However, I had nothing to fear - and despite being an amalgamation of several Tintin stories I think it flows rather well with more than enough set pieces to fill a film.
The relationship between Tintin and Snowy and Tintin and Haddock work really well and having read some of the other reviews it annoys me somewhat that the other reviewers say "voiced by" - that does a great disservice to the actors involved - in particular Serkis (Gollum, King Kong) as Haddock. "Performance Capture" (ala Avatar) really does capture the nuances of the actors performance - Serkis really is Haddock - he fills the character and at times the screen and scene.
I think only Thompson and Thomson let this aspect down - I love Pegg and Frost, but were they right to play the bumbling Twins? Possibly not.
From a computer-geek point of view - the 3D is good, but I won't miss it when I buy this on standard Blu-Ray when it comes out and there were times when I forgot I was watching a computer generated scene - the level of detail on skin, hair, clothing is truly staggering.
Indeed Spielberg makes good use of the technology to create sweeping camera shots that pass through glass and water that would be impossible had this been a live action film.
Finally, for me the most telling tribute to this film, is that I took my ten and four year old daughters, who have no history with Tintin at all, to see it and they absolutely loved it - they giggled and whooped and gasped at all the places I think they were supposed to.
If you have no history with Tintin then you should enjoy this as a feel-good, family, rip-roaring adventure and if you're a die-hard Tintin lover, I suggest you leave your baggage at the door otherwise you will disappointed, because how could you be anything else?