The Adventures of Tintin

In a lot of ways, The Adventures of Tintin is a pretty big gamble for director Steven Spielberg. Not only is it his first time directing an animated feature (his past efforts with animation have been as a producer), but it's a motion capture film - a technology that a lot of viewers are quite divided on as to its effectiveness of capturing human emotion. But perhaps the biggest gamble of all is Tintin himself. He is a famed comic book character known the world over...except for the US, where he is somewhat obscure.

Hopefully this will not keep audiences away, as they would be missing out on an exuberant adventure that's right up there with Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark. No knowledge of the character or the comics is required anyway. This is a fast-paced, frequently laugh out loud funny, and always exciting movie that evokes childhood fantasies of faraway places and dangers. It's impossible not to picture Spielberg having a big goofy grin on his face the entire time he was making this. He gets to play around with a lot of tools, and makes great use out of all of them. The fact that the film is animated allows him to create sensational action sequences that would be next to impossible to pull off with live actors. The film's 3D is used to enhance the look of the film, rather than be a tired gimmick. And finally, the motion capture, while by no means perfect (they still can't quite get the eyes right with this form of animation), is amongst the best around. Those who criticize the movie for having a lack of plot or strong characters can go see Spielberg's other movie this Christmas, War Horse. This is the director being a giant kid, creating and dreaming in a $100 million sandbox built of his imagination.

The character of Tintin (voiced here by Jamie Bell) is, despite his boyish appearance, an experienced journalist and globe-spanning adventurer. He doesn't seem very concerned with his job or deadlines, as he can just race off to the farthest corners of the Earth for a new adventure at a moment's notice. He is usually accompanied on these adventures by his faithful dog and sidekick, Snowy. Snowy is quite clever for a dog, although he can get easily distracted from the mission by unguarded food, or a bothersome cat. His other main sidekick is a burly and usually drunken man of the sea named Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis). He serves more as comic relief, but he can be quite useful to our young hero in a fight or a tough situation. The adventure kicks off when Tintin purchases a model ship from a street merchant, not knowing that an evil man by the name of Sakharine (Daniel Craig) is seeking it as well. The model apparently holds a clue to a great treasure, and Sakharine is not below killing in order to obtain its secrets. Tintin, Snowy, and Haddock must now stay ahead of the men they suddenly find pursuing them, in order to learn of the model's secrets.

In the tradition of the Indiana Jones films, Tintin concerns itself with harrowing escapes, daring plane flights through dangerous storms, deadly pirates, high speed chases in cars and motorcycles that usually result in massive property damage to whatever faraway place our heroes happen to be, and secrets of the past hidden by cryptic riddles that lead to lost treasure. When you consider that these are elements of both the film and the comics and inspired them, it's easy to see why the comic's creator, Herge, insisted that Spielberg was the only man capable of bringing his stories and characters to the screen. He was right. The movie is able to tap into that ridiculous classic Saturday matinee serial vibe that pays tribute to the great adventures of old, while having a little bit of fun at its own expense. Not only is the action frequently fast and tense (but never so chaotic that we feel overwhelmed), but they are filled with several blink and you'll miss it visual gags that the filmmakers have thrown in to show that this is all in fun.

And what fun this movie is. And if the screenplay by Steven Moffat (TV's Dr. Who), Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) seems like it was dreamed up by a child's imagination, then that's part of the fun, too. The movie is thrilling, exciting, funny, and upbeat enough that kids of a certain age (I'd say around 10) will find irresistible. Adults won't be left out of the fun, as the movie has plenty of sly dialogue exchanges, and a sense of wonder to many of its visuals. This is a beautiful movie, but most of all, this is a movie that is full of wonder. It's a rare combination of innocence and frantic action. I have a feeling that many young boys who see this will have a new favorite movie walking out. I know it would be one of mine had I seen this at their age.

It's hard to describe just how The Adventures of Tintin made me feel. It's so full of joy, action, and humor that I got lost in the thrill. I didn't care about the thin plot, or the somewhat two dimensional characters. I suppose there will be those who see them as shortcomings so strong, they can't enjoy the film. The way I saw the movie, I was having too much fun to care. I guess this is one of those movies that will either work for you or it won't. It worked for me in a big way.

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