Movie Review: The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

  

The Adventures of Tintin 

A movie review by Dave Randal

January 7, 2012

Genre: Action | Adventure | Animation
Cast: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Hergé(comic book), Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish(screenplay)
Release Date: December 21, 2011 (USA)
Plot: Intrepid reporter Tintin and Captain Haddock set off on a treasure hunt for a sunken ship commanded by Haddock's ancestor.
Want to know more about this movie?: The Adventures of Tintin IMDb Page

I wasn't too surprised to find out that not too many people have heard of The Adventures of Tintin in the United States. The usual response I get from people when I ask them about this movie is "Do you mean the dog?". A lot of people over in Europe know it as a very famous comic book. I knew it as a cool cartoon TV show that aired on Nickelodeon in the early 90s. Being a young four or five year old kid I was just about the right age to really enjoy the cartoon of The Adventures of Tintin(1991).

Considering how somewhat obscure it was I was pretty surprised to hear that they made a movie about it. I think I underestimated the popularity it has overseas in Europe. It turns out that Steven Spielberg bought the rights to do a feature length movie based on Tintin way back in 1983. He also re-optioned them in 2002. Steven Spielberg first became a fan of the comic book series back when he read a review that was comparing Raiders of the Lost Ark to Tintin. The comparison makes a lot of sense, because there are a lot of similarities between the two series of stories.

The first thing you have to realize about this movie is that it is a kid's movie. If you can't stand a kid's movie with some of it's kid humor then this movie probably isn't for you. I myself as someone who watched the early 90s cartoon series could enjoy it not only from a nostalgia factor but also from getting into the storyline of the movie. Now even though it is a kid's movie I think it may be a little confusing for most young kids. The storyline isn't that hard to follow although I can see how it could be hard for a five year old to follow along.

I liked that they did this movie with motion capture rather than in live action. Doing it with motion capture reminded me of the cartoon series and I think it allowed the filmmakers to do really cool action sequences. As a live action movie I think it would have come off too cheesy for most people. Tintin is a very young boyish looking character and I think if the movie had been done in live action people would have been making Opie jokes.

I like the action in this movie, but one small complaint I have on the action scenes is that I think they are a little too long and maybe a tad over the top. This doesn't really ruin the movie or anything, but I just felt they could have done them a little differently. In the beginning of the movie there isn't that much action and it actually has a lot of patience for a kid's movie. It builds up the mystery and then goes from there into the action.

The Adventures of Tintin is pretty mature for a kid's movie. There are a few scenes that involve gun fire and it is neat to see Tintin have to deal with a very dangerous situations. They also have Captain Haddock drink alcohol quite a bit and that actually forms a pretty cool subplot within the movie. I'm not sure how the MPAA let this movie get away with a PG. The rating system has become so ridiculously arbitrary that I really don't give a rat's ass anymore. I'm just glad that the filmmakers made the decision not to tone it down too much.

When it comes to an animated kid's movie I have to say that The Adventures of Tintinis pretty top notch. There were very few things I could find to complain about. The movie has great adventure, action, and a really cool story. I don't believe enough effort is put into kid's movies these days like when I was a kid. I like it when filmmakers take their work seriously enough to make an above average kid's movie. This movie gets an easy Rock On! Rating(5 out of 5 Stars) from me.

Dave's Rating- Rock On!!!
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Damien's Star Rating-  ★★★★½(4½) out of ★★★★★(5)