The Adventures of TinTin (Review of the movie and a little back history)

PG 1hr 47min

Animation, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense

Directed By Steven Spielberg

In Theaters December 21, 2011

When Hollywood announces that they are going to remake a well-known character or childhood figure into movie, there are always many speculators. When it was revealed that the most World-renowned super sleuth report Tin Tin was going to be turned into a computer animated character there had to be raised eyebrows from at least here to Belgium.  

A Belgian man named George Remi was the creator of the original Adventures of Tin Tin stores, he wrote under the name Hergé.  Apparently Hergé created the original incarnation of TinTin, Totor, in the image of a Boy Scout that when on adventures. Later when Hergé worked for Le Vingtième Siècle he restructured his boyhood adventurer into a journalist, changed his name, and even took a few queues from stories of a real life French reporter. When his first time story Tintin in the Land of the Soviets was published in 1929 it was a hit among children and adult. He continued to progress the stories adding all kinds of characters for his hero to meet and adventures for his character to go on. The character became so popular he has since spread across the globe as comic strip, cartoon and even one live action film.

It is easy to see why Spielberg would pick such a beloved character for his first step into directing animation. Yet, let us not forget that Spielberg is no stranger to the genre, having executive produce three animated series in the 1990s, Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures and Pinky and the Brain.

The Adventures of Tin Tin, currently out in theater, follows Tin Tin as he tries to solve a case that falls right in his lap. After purchasing a beautiful model ship Tin Tin, along with his dog Snowy, is thrust into an adventure over a century. He must help a ship captain, Captain Haddock, find the inheritance that his great great grandfather left behind before the evil Rackham finds it first. 

The film is a fantastic adventure ride for families to go and watch together or a child of any age. Like many animation films of the last few year all of the major characters of the film are voiced by well known actors; Simon Pegg, Daniel Craig, Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis and Nick Frost. This does not affect the film in any way except for the budget and bringing in fans of those actors. The storyline of the film is well developed for an animated as well as easy to understand, but that is probably because of the source material. This is a very large contributing factor to making it a child/ family friendly film. An enhancement in the animation element is that, the film appears to have used the same motion capture as used in the film The Polar Express. If that is not the case the computer animators were very detailed with facial expressions and movement. Everything pops very well in 3D but it has not been witnessed in standard so there is no comparison to say if it really is worth the extra few dollars. In the end this is a film that really takes the audience on a ride and even hits at possibilities for a theme park ride to be developed. 

If you see the film there shouldn’t be any let downs at all and you will be able to say that you have seen an Oscar nominated/ possibly winning film. (I know the nominations aren’t out yet but it already took home the Golden Globe for Best Animation [which is a feat for a non Disney movie to do])