The Adventures of Tintin (Steven Spielberg, 2011)

[knives]

I'm not sure if realistic is what they seem to be going with here though. Admittedly we don't see much, but it looks like the overall stylization of Herge's drawings is present. The only bit I'm worried about is the over detailed faces is some of the artwork.

[Steven H]

Speaking as a big Hergé fan, I'd rather sit through a few screenings of Yogi Bear (2010) than even watch that trailer again.

[Gregory]

I love the Tintin comics because they had a special style that was subtle, tasteful, and consistently clever and funny in addition to being exciting. This looks like more of the same type of formulaic, adrenaline-filled thrill-ride we've been getting for many years now, with the same voices intoning the same dramatic, momentous things in the same voices. One could reply that I shouldn't presume to judge on the basis of a trailer, and that's true to an extent, but I'm not seeing anything hopeful here at all. In many senses, this seems far more two-dimensional than the comics, not to mention ugly and overwrought.

[Doctor Sunshine]

I think that's what they're going for with the character design here, taking the current standard and trying to amp it up. It looks like Pixar style models with super realistic textures. They obviously started, production-wise, with all the big special effects shots and likely hadn't finished fine-tuning the facial animation at the time the trailer was made, hence you don't see anyone speaking. I think it's way too early to judge without seeing how well that part does or doesn't work. Though, I'm sure the outlandish set pieces and dramatic one-liners will remain intact and be all Spielbergy.

Really like the way the clothing folds and such.

[Brian C]

Also ... is the movie called just "The Adventures of Tintin" now? The teaser doesn't include the "Secret of the Unicorn" part.

[FerdinandGriffon]

I'm not sure if realistic is what they seem to be going with here though. Admittedly we don't see much, but it looks like the overall stylization of Herge's drawings is present. The only bit I'm worried about is the over detailed faces is some of the artwork.

There is nothing of Herge's style anywhere in that trailer. Nothing.
I should not have watched this immediately before going to bed. Spieltin's face is one of the outright creepiest things I have seen in a long time.

[knives]

I both agree and disagree with you. Yes the essence of Herge is missing, but the outlines are there. We've seen the shell and I hope they are just hiding the filling. The one piece of hope I have for this is that the cast and writers are to kill for for this project. Only the mocap, The Beard, and not fat guy worry me at least on paper with this project. I'm probably should feel this is dead already because of that, but I really hope that Herge is one of those guys who can't be screwed over. Even those French live action movies were fun if not good.

[FerdinandGriffon]

Yes the essence of Herge is missing, but the outlines are there. We've seen the shell and I hope they are just hiding the filling.

How are the "outlines" or "shell" there? Yes, the characters are wearing the same costumes as in the books, and possess some, but not all, of their most distinctive anatomical and facial characteristics (yes, the quiff, but no black dot eyes, no plug nose). The art style is completely different though. Anatomically realistic figures and faces, complex lighting, lens flare and other camera effects, realistic textures, realistic (if horribly stiff and artificial) physics and unstylized movement, and, most importantly, no sign of Herge's characteristic and defining ligne clair or solid colors. Not to mention that the style of the dialogue and writing has been completely changed to Spielberg's usual bombastic schmaltz. I see no evidence of any respect for the source material, let alone the ardent love that Spielberg professes.

[knives]

I spoke nothing of the script which I'm taking a wait and see approach and I've already registered my disgust over the detail put into the animation. This entire time I've simply been talking about the outlines. An impression of a Herge drawing could fit over it. This is not a statement to the quality of the fidelity that The Beard is performing, it's simply saying that they've at least seen and used a Herge picture and are trying to imitate the visuals as well as they can considering the constraints of the medium. Beyond the detail of the face the two below photos are understandabley similar.

I doubt this will be a perfect adaptation, but given the switch to CGI (a mistake in the first place if you ask me, but I doubt even the Belgians would do any different nowadays) it would have been very difficult to match identically Herge's drawing style. Hell even the cartoon which I love to death made some minor changes in the level of detail given the difference between moving pictures and comics. The only thing I can conceive complaining about on the visual level is the amount of detail.

[Grand Illusion]

I enjoy most of Spielberg's output, and I have no care as to the fidelity to the Herge source material. That said, this looks dull. I really dislike this style of animation. Knowing Lincoln is on the horizon, that is just such a more interesting project.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Late in life Hergé became increasingly vindictive towards and haunted by his creation, le petit reporter. It inspired fantasies about how Tintin could be disposed of and in Alph-art there are sketches of Tintin with a noose around his neck and, more tellingly for this thread, a vat of polyester about to be poured over him. It seems Spielberg has finished the job for him.

[FerdinandGriffon]

This is not a statement to the quality of the fidelity that The Beard is performing, it's simply saying that they've at least seen and used a Herge picture and are trying to imitate the visuals as well as they can considering the constraints of the medium.

Have you ever heard of cell shading? It would have been a very simple way to give the sort of 3D CGI Spielberg insists on using something of the ligne claire style which is Herge. I still have no idea what you mean by the "outlines". That image you posted is a mocked up magazine cover which has gone out of its way to imitate an iconic image, and is not representative at all of the look of the film itself. But thank you for posting it in any case, as i just noticed another infidelity: Tintin's socks are white, doubtless to make his plus fours less earth-shattering to the tender minds that Spielberg is curdling. What is left of the original images after Spielberg has made all of the changes I listed in my earlier post? And why are these changes necessary to the medium? This is a CGI movie; there's absolutely no excuse for applying flashy, Star-Trek reboot style lens flare effects.

[Jeff]

Really good first reviews.

Also, all references to "Secret of the Unicorn" have indeed been dropped from the title.

[dtno]

Time Out have got an exclusive Tintin clip online now, it gives a sense of how the motion capture looks outside of the official trailers...

[MichaelB]

Really good first reviews.

A considerably less good one in today's Guardian

Still, I'll probably be seeing it anyway, if only to shut my kids up for a couple of hours.

[Markson]

New trailer.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Really good first reviews.

A considerably less good one in today's Guardian

Still, I'll probably be seeing it anyway, if only to shut my kids up for a couple of hours.

Has Xan Brooks been reading my posts? See 6 posts up!

[Cosmic Bus]

This theoretical title sequence by James Curran is quite lovely and fun.

[MichaelB]

I saw it this afternoon, and was very pleasantly surprised indeed.

I last read a Tintin book about twenty years ago, so wasn't watching it with an especially purist eye, but it was very clear from the opening scenes in particular that it was made by fans: I loved the little nods both to other Tintin adventures and even Hergé's actual life (the newspaper Le petit vingtième, for instance), and I thought the two source stories dovetailed surprisingly well together given that 'The Crab with the Golden Claws' was essentially plonked in the middle of 'The Secret of the Unicorn'.

Despite the naysaying about the motion-capture work and my own misgivings from the trailer, I thought it worked brilliantly - Andy Serkis's Scottish-accented Haddock in particular is a wholly convincing creation, and the shots where his eyes are clearly visible look anything but "dead". They obviously put a huge amount of work into it: this is a very definite advance on the likes of The Polar Express. Granted, Tintin is a bit blah, but that's arguably true to the original!

And this may be the first 3-D film I've seen where I'd seriously recommend making an effort to catch it in that format - Spielberg has always had an uncanny sense of exactly where to put the camera (even when it's moving at high speed), and it turns out that he has a terrific spatial sense as well. The chase through the Moroccan village with action occurring on multiple planes including a falcon sweeping in and out of the frame is hands down one of the greatest 3-D set-pieces ever shot, and worth the price of admission on its own - the fact that it looks as though it was shot in one seamless take that would be technically impossible in live action is particularly thrilling.

As for my kids, both Tintin virgins, I've never known them fidget so little during a film - and if that isn't an endorsement, I don't know what is. I'm not entirely convinced that they picked up on every narrative nuance, as Spielberg is so keen to keep the film moving (the cliffhanger-on-every-page pace is also true to the original) that possibly crucial details end up being somewhat gabbled - but I can hardly complain about a 106-minute running time after railing against so many overly bloated two-hour-plus blockbusters.

In short, great fun - I'd very happily see it again, and suspect I'll probably be forced to.

[knives]

Well I'm glad that it at least works by itself. I doubt it could ever stand to my memories of the comics and cartoons, but it sounds like it at least advances on the live action films which I'm glad to hear.

[stroszeck]

Sounds fun. Only red flag was for me, which has become Spielberg's trademark for the last 10 years it seems, a lack of overall character development and allowing time for the movie to "breathe." Still, I wonder if this would have benefitted from the Pixar touch, if only for their ability to breathe genuine life and energy into their stories without losing the heart.

[MichaelB]

Sounds fun. Only red flag was for me, which has become Spielberg's trademark for the last 10 years it seems, a lack of overall character development and allowing time for the movie to "breathe."

It's hard to judge this from my perspective, as I've read all the Tintin books avidly (in two sessions, the first when I was still in single figures, the second in my early twenties), so I'd mentally fill in the necessary character development. There's also the issue of Tintin being something of a blank page - one of the reasons he's so universally popular.

But Haddock was something else entirely: by some distance the film's most rounded and complex character, he's also its emotional anchor. Even moments that initially seem like gross-out gags, for instance...

Spoiler

the scene where he inadvertently breathes alcohol fumes on Tintin, temporarily disorientating him

...turn out to have a more substantial dramatic function later on.

The flashbacks to his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock were particularly well judged, and not just because of the virtuoso visual transitions (the ship Unicorn apparently sailing through the desert dunes is a show-stopper) - they demonstrate the heroic genetic legacy still held by someone who initially appears to be little more than a drunken old sot. In fact, this was one of the most successful outcomes from the decision to fuse material from both The Crab with the Golden Claws and The Secret of the Unicorn.

Still, I wonder if this would have benefitted from the Pixar touch, if only for their ability to breathe genuine life and energy into their stories without losing the heart.

I'm honestly not convinced Pixar could have done it any better than Spielberg does here. As I said above, the cliffhanger-every-minute approach is very much true to the original - Hergé's genius as a storyteller is that he's able to combine this with complex character development. But so, arguably, is Spielberg, which is one of the reasons Hergé singled him out as his potential ideal interpreter - and this is very much Spielberg in Raiders of the Lost Ark mode (in fact, there's at least one explicit quotation involving a potentially deadly aeroplane propeller).

[stroszeck]

I totally agree with your analysis. Would Herge didn't live to see what the pixar artists would be creating, but i agree at that particular time Spielberg of the early 80s would have been the best bet to capture the childlike wonder of the stories.

[stroszeck]

Just saw a TinTin commercial tie-in on TV with DOG CHOW brand dog food. So begins the avalanche of TINTIN marketing...

[hearthesilence]

I finally saw it - not terrible but didn't really enjoy it all that much either. This was actually the first time I've seen a motion capture film from start-to-finish - I've only seen bits and pieces of other motion capture movies on TV. For this material, it really didn't work for me, especially after the title sequence refreshed my memories of Tintin (which I haven't read since high school when I had some decent exposure to it thanks to a few classmates who were big fans).

Cynically, I wanted to say that motion capture is the most technically sophisticated yet aesthetically unimaginative form of animation possible. It's the sort of thing a cold, unimaginative technician would invent, someone who only thought of animation as a way of duplicating "life" without giving much consideration to the art form's ability to imbue every aspect of it with an artist's style/personality. With this Tintin, there is some attempt to make a 3D version of Herge's art, I'll give them that, but the result still tilts a bit towards a fake-looking recreation of "real life" people, especially in the close-ups. It's enough that it overwhelms whatever attempt was made to retain Herge's spirit in the actual look of the movie.

The chase scene with the falcon was pretty cool, even if it did feel like a video game - there's no way they could've shot that in real life without making heavy compromises in the POV. But stuff like that really makes a case for 3D animation in a general sense, not motion capture for humans.