The Adventures of Tintin
Jan. 9th, 2012 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)

It did feel odd at first. The way that Tintin constantly talked to himself was distracting until I remembered that that was exactly how he talked in the comic, and when just attempting to describe it, the artwork style sounds very strange - the film takes the proportions of the characters as they were in the comic (which you may remember as very human, until you really think hard about them compared to what humans actually look like) and apply them to realistically-textured faces. But they've managed to defy the odds and make these half-human hybrids seem very natural and not at all like Pixeloo's rendition of Homer Simpson over on the left - you can recognize each character instantly without them breaking the look of the film world.
"The Adventures of Tintin" is an appropriate title, as it seems to be a collection of most of the books stuck together - primarily the Secret of the Unicorn series in its storyline, but there are references to the other books everywhere. They even managed to work in elements from the moon story, with whisky becoming weightless as a plane dives, and book titles are constantly alluded to (such as in a prominent statue of a crab with golden claws).
It must be said that the reviews I saw that complained that this film was "relentless" were certainly right - working with computer-generated graphics allows the film to set up absolutely massive set-pieces without much of a pause in between them, culminating in a sort of shipping crane conkers battle. The ludicrous level to which the action sequences escalate give it the impression of an Indiana Jones film as directed by Nick Park - when I saw Die Hard 4 with Timothy the Oliphaunt I mentioned that every action film had to top the last one, and that it was going to be difficult to beat driving an eighteen-wheel truck on nine wheels around a collapsing freeway ramp, while on fire, pursued by a Harrier jumpjet. This one has a go with the following:
- Racing down a mountain to catch a falcon
- Going straight through buildings as they rapidly crumble
- With a wall of water close behind after accidentally shooting a rocket launcher at the dam
- Pursued by a tank
- Which has driven through a hotel and is carrying the entire three-storey facade along with it as it advances
- Hurtling down a washing line
- While clinging to a rapidly disintegrating motorbike
But the silliness works in animation - the whole thing really works as an adaptation, and... I really don't say this often, so enjoy it while you can, but this felt like a great interpretation and a wonderful way to introduce this world to people who through no fault of their own grew up in the wrong place to experience it.
There's a video that someone called andylyth put together of the audio from the film trailer, set to clips from the 90s cartoon version - and I hadn't realized just how faithful they'd been to it until I saw that, with it almost being possible to make a shot-by-shot reconstruction. Now I really want to get the books out of the library again... and for them to do another film with Professor Calculus in it.