The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Even the collective efforts of Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and the visual effects wizards at WETA Digital haven’t completely licked the fundamental problem with this sort of motion-capture animation: the eyes. All too often, Tintin’s eyes just don’t behave right as he gets sucked into another adventure.
That said, Tintin’s eyes are the only thing off about this deliriously entertaining action adventure yarn, adapted from three of the stories written by the late, Belgian cartoonist, Herge, namely, “The Secret of the Unicorn” (which is the overseas release subtitle of this film). Whatever hesitation or nervousness Spielberg had going into making his first animated feature is invisible as the film unfolds: this is a great director, working with great material (adapted beautifully by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish), and operating at his most creative, inspired level. To say it’s the director’s best film since 2002’s “Minority Report” is a bit of an understatement; there was a giddy part of me that thought it was his most FUN movie since “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “E.T.”.
A big part of that fun is from the comedic nature of the material. True, Spielberg and Janusz Kaminski, who was a lighting consultant on the film, hue closer to a film noir look for the movie, as the intrepid young reporter (played perfectly by Jamie Bell) and his faithful dog, Snowy, are led into a centuries-old mystery involving the legendary treasure of the ship, the Unicorn (I couldn’t help but think of “The Maltese Falcon” at times), but the tone of the script is very much comedic, and Spielberg works it to his advantage. Though I haven’t read a lot of the Tintin comics, the personalities of the characters, be it Tintin; Snowy; the twin inspectors, Thomson and Thompson (here played by the dynamic duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, recapturing the effortless teamwork that was missing from this year’s “Paul”); and the drunk Captain Haddock (played by Andy Serkis in another magnificent performance that deserves to earn the process of performance-capture more legitimacy as an acting method), are all well established, with different ways of behaving and thinking. Spielberg and his writers capture those idiosyncrasies wonderfully, and the actors dig into the script without even worrying about whether we know it’s THEM doing the acting (Hell, even I had a hard time figuring out which one was Pegg and which one was Frost at times), which is, ultimately, the point of acting anyway, whether it’s behind layers of makeup or with a mo-cap suit on.
Watching “The Adventures of Tintin,” it occurred to me what, I think, a big part of the hesitation has been in accepting motion-capture animation, especially as it’s been employed in Robert Zemeckis’s three films using the process, “The Polar Express,” “Beowulf,” and “A Christmas Carol.” By trying to create living, breathing human characters in those films (all of which I enjoy, by the way), with realistic features and physical attributes, Zemeckis has been fighting against one of the things that sets the art of animation apart as a filmmaking medium: the ability to characature the human figure. With “Tintin,” Spielberg is simply taking the 2D drawings of Herge and rendering in a third dimension, whether they’re realistic or not. The important thing Spielberg and his collaborators understand is that it isn’t the physical appearance of CG characters that make them realistic, but their feel, and their movements. The performance capture process assures that the latter are believable, and the artistry of WETA’s animators guarantee that we believe that these characters are as real as their live-action counterparts, even if they look kind of funny.
Spielberg keeps the film moving at a lightening pace, and with an energy I haven’t felt in one of his movies since “Minority Report” or “Raiders.” In many ways, animation was the only way Spielberg could properly visualize Herge’s world, and Spielberg embraces the freedom the medium gives him in creating set pieces and images he never could have accomplished in live-action, especially as we flashback to the last voyage of the Unicorn as Captain Haddock recalls it to Tintin, as well as an extraordinary, single-take chase through Morocco that finds Tintin chasing down the keys to locating the treasure as the bad guys, led by the devious Sakharine (Daniel Craig), are in hot pursuit. In addition to the bigger picture, animation also allows Spielberg to envision Snowy, Tintin’s dog, the same way Herge did– as an important supporting character in the film. The only other dog I’ve seen that’s this resourceful, and this full of personality, is another comic strip dog– Snoopy. The type of performance Snowy needs to give in this film to be faithful to Herge could only be accomplished using CG, and Spielberg and co. deliver in making Snowy the greatest silent actor since the days of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. Part of me wants to see Snowy have his own adventures, but I can’t see Herge approving.
This first cinematic adventure for Tintin and co. was a labor of love for Spielberg (who’s controlled the rights to the character for nearly 30 years) and his partner in crime, producer Peter Jackson. The filmmakers hope to continue bringing Tintin to life on the big screen with two more films, the next one with Jackson directing and Spielberg producing. Certainly, the film ends with the promise of further adventures for Tintin and Captain Haddock, but as with any movie in Hollywood, that will depend on the film’s success. That will be interesting to follow, since Tintin is a character more known (and more beloved) overseas than here in the United States, and indeed, the film is already a smash hit overseas, where it’s been in release since October. Still, I can see a lot of people in the States getting hooked as a result of Spielberg’s film. I know that, for reasons beyond the filmmakers involved, I can’t wait to see where Tintin and his friends go from here.
