Film review: Adventures of Tintin

The Adventures of Tintin
2011
Based on the comics by Hergé, screenplay by Stephen Moffat, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish, directed by Steven Spielberg

This fantastic computer-animated adaptation of the Tintin books (specifically The Secret of the Unicorn) is not only incredibly well done animation-wise, but also, I felt, provided an excellent adaptation of the original. It hewed very, very closely to the original, both in terms of dialogue and visuals (frequently shot-for-shot), but it gave itself a little room to play, too.


Jamie Bell was spot-on as Tintin, courageous and focused but unassuming. While I'll admit, I was taken aback by his thick Scottish accent, Captain Haddock felt also true to himself. And holy shit. Andy Serkis was not at all who I expected for that role, but I hope he's proved to the industry that they shouldn't permanently box him in as Gollum. Daniel Craig was velvet poison as Sakharine (I didn't even recognize his voice), and Simon Pegg and Nick Frost were perfect as Thomson and Thompson.

The quality of animation was terrific: smooth, with tiny thoughtful details of texture and light (fingerprints on a cane, light refracting just right off surfaces, grime and sweat on Haddock's face in the desert), but not trying for the hyper-realistic look that brings animation down. This was unapologetically animated, a fictional depiction of people, and they melded the original look of the comics into the animation in a way that I found deeply satisfying.

Some of the same criticisms that can be leveled at the originals apply here as well. There are virtually no women in the comics, for example, and the few that exist - Bianca Castafiore being the sterling example - are more caricature than character. Most of them, like Castafiore (voiced by Kim Stengel but sung by Renée Fleming), are self-absorbed and frightening, and the very few who are not are as innocent and non-sexual as Tintin himself.
The overall prudery of the books - surprisingly American for a Belgian author - where nefarious villains and  violence are okay, but cursing is either gibberish comic-style (#&*!) or funny exclamations ("blistering barnacles!"), Haddock drinks but is looked down on for it and Tintin never touches a drop, and sex and sexuality Do Not Even Exist In the World Let Alone in the Characters Themselves.
 Remarkably, in all the Tintin stories, there isn't even a romantic subplot. Tintin is not only immune to feminine wiles, it appears, but the only one who ever attempts to flirt with anyone else, ever, is Castafiore, and that is an ongoing cruel joke at her expense.
The movie did manage to make its way gingerly around the general old-world Euro-centric imperialistic racism of the original comics. Secret of the Unicorn, with only the brief interlude in a Moroccan city, was also a fairly safe bet for this. No one's going to try to make a movie out of The Blue Lotus.

One could criticize the movie, therefore, for being a virtually all-male cast, for the somewhat sanctimonious "purity" of the main character in all respects, and for its brief portrayal of Arabs, but personally I'm glad they kept to the book rather than feeling a need to overhaul it to conform to modern sensibilities, and simply made careful choices and trod gently where they needed to. Giving Tintin a smart sassy female companion would be awesome...and wrong.

Ultimately I felt like this was a labor of love, created by people who truly love the originals, and not only a successful adaptation but a fun, well-made movie in its own right.

IMDB Link: Adventures of Tintin

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