Release Date – 12/21/2011
Tintin is a young journalist who lives with his trusty canine companion, Snowy. He has broken huge stories throughout his short career and seems to stumble upon a new one that has his mind racing. He finds a model ship at a street vendor and decides to buy it. As soon as the transaction takes place, other men try to offer him excessive amounts to get it for themselves. Tintin is now curious and decides to deny the offers and research the ship himself to find out what’s so special about it. Turns out the model was based off of a real ship with a secret only known by the family of the captain, the Haddocks. Tintin gets a bit over his head when people are out to kill him for something inside that model ship and has to discover the secret before they do. This movie was like an animated version of Indiana Jones with a dash of Pirates of the Caribbean. Its nonstop action and a puzzle filled story to keep you on your toes.
Tintin (voice of Jamie Bell) is a youngster but very mature for his age. In fact, don’t let his baby face fool you, he’s packing heat. One of the first signs that this animated film is not for young children; the main character carries a gun and knows how to use it. Tintin lets his stories consume him. When he realizes his life is at stake chasing down this mysterious Unicorn ship, it doesn’t stop him. Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine (voice of Daniel Craig) is the man also hunting down the secret of the Unicorn but for more sinister reasons. He’s the epitome of a bad guy. Ordering his thugs around, hatching schemes and cursing the meddling youngster who gets in his way. Tintin eventually runs into Captain Haddock (voice of Andy Serkis) who is the last remaining member of the Haddock family and the only one that knows the secret. Of course, Haddock is a drunk and forgets what the secret is. He is bombed on whiskey throughout most of the film and gets into some pretty funny scenarios. Another great character is Tintin’s dog, Snowy. Yes, an animated dog was even a great character in this film and funny too. Rounding out the cast are lifelong movie buddies Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as bumbling Interpol agents Thomson and Thompson, providing a lot of the comic relief.
This is Steven Spielberg’s first time directing an animated film in his long and storied career. The man didn’t miss a beat. He took all the things he was kept from doing in live action Indiana Jones movies and made them come to life in motion capture animation. In fact, besides a couple silly faces and big noses, you can hardly tell this is animated. It’s like the best cut scenes from a video game. And even though it’s animated and easier to pull off, this movie contains probably the best long shot (no camera cuts) in the history of cinema. It’s based on three comic books from the 1940s, co-written for the screen by Edgar Wright, Steven Moffat and Joe Cornish and produced by Peter Jackson. Lots of talent involved to assist master Spielberg. Its edge of your seat action that will have you biting your nails the whole way through. There’s no love story to slow the action down (in fact not even any major women characters which could be a negative for some people) and not really any moments of boredom, it’s just straight up action and adventure. And hey why not throw in some Pirate story flashbacks to show Gore Verbinski how it’s done. Expect to see more Tintin in the near future. GREAT SNAKES! THIS MOVIE IS MADE!
IMDB – 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 76%
Movie Wiseguys – 8.5/10
