The Adventures of Tintin (Dreamworks)
Rated PG for adventure action violence, some drunkenness and brief smoking.
Starring (voices of) Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Cary Elwes, Toby Jones, Nick Frost, Tony Curran.
Written by Steven Moffat and Edgar Wright Joe Cornish, based on the comic book series "The Adventures of Tintin" by Hergé.
Directed by Steven Spielberg.
GRADE: A-
REVIEW:
It's come to this: Having run out thing to rehash, American filmmakers are turning to old French comic strips. Director Steven Spielberg and Producer Peter Jackson are the brains behind the computer-animated feature The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, based on the comic books created by Belgian artist Georges Remi (Herge'), first published 1920s France.
Jamie Bell voices Tintin, a teenage sleuth and reporter who buys a rare model ship at market. Little does he know that the ship holds a clue to the location of the lost treasure of The Unicorn, a ship lost at sea decades before. As Tintin investigates the treasure, he is led to an abandoned mansion belonging to the Haddock family, a group whose ancestry boasts a long line of sea captains in its family tree. When Tintin is captured by Sakharine (Daniel Craig), he ends up on a ship where he meets Captain Archibald Haddock (Andy Serkis) the last in the Haddock line, although a raging alcoholic and not quite up to his family's formerly proud name. Tintin's white terrier dog Snowy, as always, tags along wherever Tintin goes.
Tintin soon discovers that Haddock is also Sakharine's prisoner, and the two eventually escape the ship via a plane, which they crash in the Moroccan desert. Tintin, Haddock and Snowy eventually make it to the fictional city of Bagghar, where they find even more clues about the lost treasure before escaping a huge flood through the city. The group eventually heads back to their own (unnamed and nondescript) European city (perhaps a London-Paris hybrid) where Haddock and Tintin do battle with Sakharine and discover the truth of the lost treasure.
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is a great animated film that most families will enjoy. It's a throwback to Spielberg's Indiana Jones series, and like Indiana Jones, Tintin has a lot of ridiculous moments with inplausable escapes. You can forgive some of those silly premises with the help of some incredible animation and plenty of non-stop action.
Some may find Tintin's humor a little too European or early 20th Century to understand, but everyone will enjoy the epic story and fantastic animation. One tiny qualm I had with the film is the constant depiction of Haddock's drunken state and nearly romantic view of liquid spirits. It reminded me of a time when it was okay to laugh at drunks like Otis on the Andy Griffiths show. I guess I didn't get the memo that alcoholism was funny again.
Despite a little too much to drink, Tintin is a fun action adventure that can be enjoyed by all.
