As every comic book out there gets bought up by studios for adaptation, you wouldn’t really expect a film based on a young reporter and his sidekick dog to cut the mustard when going up against batmobiles, webslingers and adamantium claws. It’s an even more daunting task when you consider that the target audience for Hergé’s legendary character’s exploits are now in their 50s.
Still, there’s a reason why Tintin has stood the test of time and why everybody’s dad is so keen to wax lyrical about the old comic books they’re chock full of incredible characters, fantastic stories and they’re pretty funny to boot. Thankfully this has been translated brilliantly by Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson and the gang, as they’ve given Tintin to a new generation with aplomb.
Based on three of Hergé’s tomes, The Secret of the Unicorn sees the ginger-quiffed hero hunting down a trio of model ships in an effort to uncover the titular secret. Naturally it wouldn’t be a Tintin story if there wasn’t a bunch of goons and sinster baddies for him to beat the snot out of along the way most particularly the villainous Rackham.
The finished product is something pretty special. Having banged out four Indiana Jones movies over the years, and despite the move from live-action to stop-motion animation, Steven Spielberg is in familiar territory here and it shows. Capturing the atmosphere and magic of Hergé’s creation, the film is every bit as kinetic and fun as you’d hope. Marry that with Weta’s incredible motion capture and a snappy, pacy script by Steven Moffat, Joe Cornish and Edgar Wright and we’ve got a winner that’ll appeal to the older fans and newcomers alike.
As for the DVD, the disc is shamefully light on extras. In fact there’s just a couple of featurettes one where Spielberg bangs on about how he’s wanted to adapt Tintin since Raiders of the Lost Ark and another going through Weta’s process for creating everyone’s favourite Tintin character, Snowy. The final result is a great film on a mediocre disc meaning Blu-ray will probably be the way to go on this one, where you’ll get top notch picture quality and more special features.
Overall Verdict: A brilliant return to adventure-driven form for Steven Spielberg that’ll please fans and anybody in search of a good wholesome family film.
Special Features:
Snowy: From Beginning to End
The Journey to Tintin
Review: Jordan Brown