The Adventures of Tintin

Again I claim ignorance of a very popular literary property: Belgian artist Herge's Tintin comics have found loving audiences for over 80 years, yet I only know them by reputation. Please take this into account for my review of The Adventures of Tintin. In his animated feature debut, Steven Spielberg presents an entertaining, if disposable, motion capture adaptation.

Intrepid reporter Tintin (voice of Jamie Bell) and his fox terrier Snowy buy a model of the sailing ship Unicorn at a market, little realizing this will launch them on an epic caper. Sinister Ivan Sakhrain (Daniel Craig) demands the model, which Tintin soon discovers contains a clue to a hidden treasure. Tintin and Snowy are kidnapped by Sakhrain, and team up with the drunken Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), whose whiskey-soaked memory holds the key to the Unicorn mystery. Their adventure takes them across the sea to Morocco, where another model of the Unicorn lay in wait.

Tintin starts a bit awkwardly, launching its story with perhaps undue haste. But it quickly gains its own momentum, engrossing its audience in a unique universe. Several reviewers have compared Tintin to Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the go-for-broke action scenes certainly rival Indy's exploits. The frenetic chase through a Moroccan bazaar, ludicrously building in true Spielberg fashion, is the best action scene I've seen in quite some time, though the lengthy pirate flashback is probably the film's highlight. The characters remain ciphers and the plot is super-thin, but these are technicalities in a story like this.

The decision to use motion capture irked many Tintin fans, who feel it doesn't (or couldn't) capture Herge's distinct visual style. This uninitiated reviewer thought it worked just fine: the characters look almost real, but are still able to engage in cartoon antics without live action constraints. Spielberg keeps the comic book origins intact with its oddball characters, vivid rendering of exotic locales, and even "deep focus" shots with action-heavy backgrounds. Viewers looking for escapsim won't have any qualms.

Jamie Bell is a very likeable Tintin, but Andy Serkis's drunken, lovably boisterous Captain Haddock is the real show-stealer. Well-known voices like Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Toby Jones and Cary Elwes populate supporting roles.

I can't rate The Adventures of Tintin as an adaptiation of Herge, but I will recommend it as breezy escapism. No masterpiece, its modest charms make for enjoyable viewing.