Redefining a sense of wonder

Film review: The Adventures of Tintin

MANILA, Philippines - With The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, director Steven Spielberg comes full circle. More than Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, or the more recent A.I. and Minority Report, the 3D action capture film is a throwback to the Spielberg of E.T., Hook and especially, Raiders of the Lost Ark. And it is no coincidence that Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame) is along for the ride as co-producer, along with Kathleen Kennedy. By utilizing the action capture filming technique (where layers of animation are placed on top of the live footage), which we saw in such films as Planet of the Apes and the LOTR films, Spielberg doesn’t just bring a comic book character to life, but animates the book itself! To truly experience this magic, you have to watch the film in digital 3D, as I did at the SM IMAX theaters.

According to Quintin, my film buff son, before Tintin’s creator Herge passed away in the early ’80s, he had watched the Raiders film and declared Spielberg as the director best suited to bring his well-loved Tintin character to film. It may have taken more than 20 years to see that wish come to fruition, but despite the transplanting of the French boy reporter to England, the spirit and joie de vivre of the original comic book is kept intact and immortalized in this luminous film adaptation. The high jinks, the droll comedy, the essential mystery, the action adventure elements, the exotic locales and traveling around the globe, and the irrepressible and lovable sidekick Snowy (Milou in the original comic books) are present and accounted for. You can see the love and affinity Spielberg has for the original comics emanate from every scene. The car/motorcycle chase scene down the winding roads of a Moroccan town comes straight out of early Indiana Jones territory, and when the flashback/mirage scenes play out in the desert, there is superb transitioning of what is happening film-time with what is playing in the mind of Captain Haddock — who else but Speilberg would start a pitched sea battle between pirate ship and schooner in the desert!

Jamie Bell (who was in Billy Elliot and Defiance) plays Tintin with a swagger, confidence and rashness that’s pitch perfect, while Daniel Craig (yes, the James Bond Daniel Craig) is the dastardly Red Rackham/Ivanovich Sakharine. If there are two true standouts in the film, I would have to give the nod to Andy Serkis (Gollum of the LOTR films) who plays Captain Haddock, and the CGI Snowy, to share the prize! Buried (yet again) under layers of animation, Serkis still manages to upstage the rest of the cast with his more than human, bumbling drunk, portrayal of Haddock. As for Snowy, never has a dog been more prescient, adorable and faithful. One moment chasing cats and sandwiches, the next rescuing his master from the jaws of another vicious dog, or death itself.

As for the movie’s plot — of course, it has to do with buried treasure, family fortunes, feuds that have lived through generations, and we have Tintin to unravel all this, and solve the mystery that lies behind the Unicorn. Leave all doubts by the door as you pick up those 3D glasses, and let Spielberg weave his magic of yore. This one is for the child in everyone of us — a loving treatment of a comic book series that has stood the test of time.