Captain Haddock, left, and Tintin (All images from http://www.us.movie.tintin.com/)
I have found my dream job. It is the one that Tintin has. He is a reporter with an unlimited expense account, gets to travel the world in search of stories which he never files for a newspaper that does not exist and whose editor he never gets in touch with. Naturally, he has no deadlines.
I have also found a place where I want to be posted. It is called Bagghar, somewhere in Morocco. It is a North African sultanate by what looks like the sparkling blue Mediterranean Sea. There are other fringe benefits to being Tintin. Although he is 83, he does not look a day over 18. He has a perfect quiff that never collapses. Also, he does not seem to have a bank account or a credit card. He receives no threatening letters from the income tax or internal revenue authorities. And finally, he does not ever have to shave.
Watching Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin” yesterday was one thrilling ride but largely in an unmanageably frenetic manner. It would be somewhat akin to taking every single crazy ride at both Disney and Universal Studios theme parks in a span of about 24 minutes. Having been freed from the laws of physics, and particularly gravity, that govern the traditional filmmaking, Spielberg does go a bit crazy with the swinging action.
Don’t get me wrong, the film is a breathtaking example of motion capture brilliantly married with animation that is so real you want to inhabit every corner of every frame. But for some reason that I do not fully comprehend Spielberg makes the pace so hurried and hyper that one finds no time to savor the visual feast that the movie is. It is almost as if both Spielberg and his producer Peter Jackson are two boys on a sugar candy rush who want to showcase every little trick and toy that they possess in a limited time that they have you as their captive audience.
Early on though as the plot develops there is a moment, the kind of which one wishes one had more of. Tintin (Jamie Bell) is getting a portrait of his done by a sidewalk sketch artist. After the portrait is done the motion capture, animated 21st century Tintin turns towards his fox terrier Snowy holding his own early 20th century drawing as conceived by his creator, Belgian cartoonist Hergé (Georges Prosper Remi-1907-1983) and asks “What do you think Snowy?” That’s a charming and cheeky little moment.
Then there is the sequence (see the image below) in the Sahara, where Captain Haddock (played by the motion capture legend Andy Serkis of the Gollum fame) is so disoriented by the heat that not only does he see a mirage, he imagines a whole sea break out of the horizon with a medieval ship that one of his Haddock ancestors commanded. That scene is magical.
One major reason why the movie seems to move at such a frenzied speed could be because the director uses many long continuous shots to recreate the feel of Hergé’s panels in the comic book. This continuous movement can be taxing at times.
These are just minor quibbles in what is otherwise a very high benchmark entertainment in animation. Being a technology aficionado I would be very interested to find out in some detail how the final effects of the movie are achieved. It seems so real that one could see the pores on Tintin’s cheeks or Haddock’s nasal hair. And yet, Spielberg and his special effects and animation designer team of Joe Latteri, Jamie Beard and Paul Story make sure that it still retains all of its comic book charms. (See a typical frame below)
Since I do not like 3D I watched the regular version of the film but I can imagine how effective it would be for those who enjoy 3D.
The way the movie ends it is obvious that this is going to be a franchise. For future Tintin movies Spielberg might want to slow down the pace a bit. The first installment has showcased all that he and Jackson can accomplish in terms of action. Hopefully, the next one will be a little more deliberate.
