In my humble opinion Georges Remi was one of the greatest pioneers in Comic Book history. He is of course better known by his published name of Herge. Herge brought the comic book genius that is TinTin to the masses in Europe. Over 90 years later that franchise has grown and still entertains millions of children of all ages with the tales of a plucky young Belgian reporter.
There has been many very admirable attempts of bringing these stories to the screen including my favorite which is the animated series “The Adventures of Tintin”, however it seems Sir Peter Jackson has a talent for picking prized childhood favorites and doing something rather spectacular with them.
Herge was not however a big fan of the previous big screen and animated cartoon efforts, so accessing the rights to this film was not very easy. What worked in everyones favour was his love of Steven Speilbergs work, so with that a very long development cycle began. Initially touted as a live action film, Sir Peter Jackson suggested they move to the motion capture system that he and Weta Digital had perfected in the Lord of the Rings. His thoughts were that it would do a great deal of justice to the original work Herge had created.
The movie is a combination of three original comic books: The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackhams Treasure. On the outset this sounds like a recipe for disaster in terms of trying to achieve a storyline amongst three different threads. However what it does deliver is a very nicely paced storyline which should keep fans and newcomers on the edge of their seats.
The opening sequence to this movie made me gasp. This is TinTin almost picture perfect and in an environment that quite frankly smashes the line between animation and the real world. Like everything Weta Digital and Sir Peter Jackson put their minds to this is an unbeliveably perfect looking picture. And yes.. I did gasp.. Visually stunning and almost beyond belief.
The film begins with Tintin buying a wooden ship in a market. Soon he realises this ship is warranting alot of interest and so he goes on a journey to discover its mysterious attraction. Along the way he meets Captain Haddock, who seems more interested in the adventures found at the bottom of a bottle. The journey is quite fast paced and will have you engaged right from the outset. The storyline does allow plenty of exploration of the characters and their individual quirks, and i think the choice to go with motion capture saved the film by allowing Snowy, Tintin’s dog, to retain his character (no Disney-esque dog style films here).
Ok.. Im just going to say it like it is.. This is the best family friendly action film you will watch this year.
FILMGUIDE rating:
Reviewed by: Skip Parker
