And no matter what skill went into creating Tintin (and they are formidable), the bottom line is that it is a cartoon. And a strangely disjointed one at that. The animation of our hero Tintin is incredible - the care taken to make his skin, hair, and even fuzzy sweater look real. Some of the same care is exhibited in the creation of the mise-en-scène. And then there are the other characters — Captain Haddock, Tintin's intrepid terrier Snowy, the comic police duo of Thomson and Thompson — all very cartoony and exaggerated in their looks and movement. Did Spielberg want to remind us we were watching a cartoon, or did he just have his animators spend extra time on Tintin?
Motion capture has come a long way since the creepy characters of Polar Express, but for the most part, we are still looking at cartoons, which, the more 'realistic' they become, somehow become even less and less human. A line-drawn Bugs Bunny can still express more personality with a stylized smirk and eyebrow than the exquisitely rendered Tintin. I couldn't help but wonder why anyone involved in making the movie didn't step back a moment and ask themselves — why are we hiring tons of computer geniuses and animators to do what we have already done in live action movies — thrilling chase scenes? As cool as the scene is with Snowy and Tintin dodging cars as they try to pursue a pickpocket through busy traffic, wouldn't that have been three times as thrilling if they had pulled that off with stunts and live action?
Daniel Craig on his motion capture experience (from Esquire Magazine): "Craig reports that he's pleased by the final product, though he says it's hard to remember what he expected, since they filmed his part two years before. 'We shot it in mo-cap. Which is like: Fuck me, I'm literally in a leotard with a fucking helmet on, and a camera strapped to it. It's Steven Spielberg, so every fucker in the world comes to visit. Fincher comes to visit. Clint fucking Eastwood comes to visit. It was just like, are you kidding me? I'm gonna meet these people dressed like this? Playing a pirate, wearing a leotard and a camera? Really?'"
The plot of The Adventures of Tintin concerns search for treasure involving an ancestor of Captain's Haddock. Tintin, who can't resist a good story, pursues answers while constantly exposing himself to danger on the sea, in the air, and on land. I found the story and mystery pretty lacking and uninvolving. I know it was just an excuse to create some set pieces, but this is Spielberg and Peter Jackson and Steven Moffat. They should have come up with a better mystery. And they didn't "dumb it down" for kids. the movie is hardly for kids at all. Tintin has gunfights and gets into some real peril that little kids would find quite frightening.
Good points: There are some very funny moments and some great risky chase scenes, especially featuring Snowy who really steals the show. The voice talent is also good. Jamie Bell does a nice job with Tintin, as does Andy Serkis and Daniel Craig, with Captain Haddock and the villain Sakharine. The opening credit sequence is fun and full of original Tintin images, and there is a nice homage to illustrator Hergé in the first few moments of the film.
There also was not one significant female character. An opera singer is brought on near the end, but she is clearly a figure of fun and not a character anyone could relate to. Little girls might feel a bit left out with this movie. The only character they might get excited about would be Snowy. This is of course not Spielberg's fault, as he is staying close to Hergé, and Tintin is the ultimate boy adventurer. Girls do love Tintin comics, so maybe this won't be such a problem.
So who exactly is The Adventures of Tintin for? Fans of the comic may have a problem with all of the "realistic" animation. Kids younger than seven are really too young for it. Kids seven to eleven might be bored by the mystery (I have to admit that the over-long sequence in the dark and not very visually appealing ship's hold had my eyes closing and my head nodding at times. Kids eleven and up are probably at the latest Mission Impossible.
The chase scene set in Morocco is of course making everyone compare Tintin to Indiana Jones There are some Rube Goldbergian aspects to the chase that bring those movies to mind, but it also made me immediately think of Kung Fu Panda 2's recent rollercoaster-like chase scene. I guess it's hard to be original, even for Spielberg.
My take-away:
Two hours is way too long for an animated film (especially one without much of a plot).
Motion capture can be cool — in very small doses. The longer you look at it, the creepier the characters become.
Why did Spielberg feel compelled to release two family films around the holidays that can't really be viewed by the whole family?
I am looking forward to viewing the Tintin DVD I got my mom — with animation that looks more like the original Hergé illustrations.
I asked the kid critic, which did you like better ...
Tintin or Arthur Christmas? She answered Tintin. For me it's Arthur Christmas, hands down.
Tintin or Sherlock Holmes? Sherlock.
Tintin or Tangled? Tangled.
6 comments:
Egads! My kids both _adored_ Tintin, and in 3d no less. They adore the books, and the movie--albeit a very clever realigning of the 3 books it's based on--I can attest perfectly captured the books. And I mean spot-on.
My daughter--who you know--and her younger brother totally lapped it up and couldn't stop talking about the plot twists and turns for days! My daughter wants to _be_ Tintin!
But all or many of the faults you identify are Herge's own, so faithful is the movie. Male-centric? Check. Disjointed? Check. Shallow/action packed? Check.
So yes--long. And that is one money Craig quote--very funny! But I suspect that if you're a parent whose kids are already hooked on Tintin, your kids will be predisposed to lap it up. As it is, I never read Tintin, but the Jackson connection led me and my kids to pick one up. From that moment on--the kids were hooked--stay up to the wee hours poring through the silly old books!!!
Lime
Haven't seen the movie, so I cannot comment on its quality or lack of same, although I expect your review is excellent, as always. My two comments are more general:
First, length has to do with quality of story and writing, not with form of presentation; a good film is a good film, and a good animated feature can last two hours just as well as a good live action one. I suspect that, had Tintin been live-action, it would have been too long at two hours, as well.
Second, the assumption, apparently implied by your statement "the movie is hardly for kids at all", that animation is always primarily aimed at children might have been true in the U.S. some decades ago, but that time is long past even here. Even as far back as 1972, we had Fritz the Cat ...
--Mario
HLime - Hi! To be fair, this is more my review than the kid's - she loved it.I may be being extra hard on it, but I was disappointed. But Spielberg always disappoints me some way or another. I LOVE Tintin, always have, and have recently bought the animated series discs for us. Maybe I just couldn't make the leap. But whatever way kids get into Tintin is great.
JJM - You are right about cartoon length. I was just nitpicking. I'm really looking forward to Miyazaki's new one - that can be long, short - it doesn't matter to me.
About adult cartoons, I agree, too. I guess in this case I was just a little mystified that Spielberg seemed to be combining his ET kid-friendly persona with his action movie persona, and the two didn't always jibe for me. It seemed like the movie should have been marketed, aimed, to a slightly older audience.
Kids and adults have such different ways of looking at things ... And, of course, you're viewing films with the intention of reviewing them, so you watch them more critically than almost any child would. I'll be Netflixing the DVD eventually, it'll be interesting to see to what extent we agree. (Of course, seeing it on the tiny screen would make a difference.) In any case, it was a good review, as always. :) --Mario
Tintin was good. It really was, but I've been a fan since childhood and anything that has Tintin in it is thrilling to me.
Sherlock Holmes sucked balls, ok.
Really.
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