The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn – Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011)

Directed by: Steven Spielberg | 111 minutes | animation, adventure, family | Original voice cast: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Nick Frost, Toby Jones, Tony Curran, Daniel Craig, Cary Elwes, Simon Pegg, Mackenzie Crook, Sebastian Roché, Daniel Mays, Phillip Rhys, Mark Ivanir, Gad Elmaleh, Sonje Fortag, Enn Reitel , Jacquie Barnbrook, Kim Stengel, Joe Starr, Ron Bottitta, Ian Bonar | Dutch voice cast: Levi van Kempen, Najib Amhali, Remco Veldhuis, Richard Kemper

Tintin, the world-famous creation of the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, is getting its own feature film that offers plenty of entertainment, as you would expect from grandmasters Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg. The film is not only a tribute to the comics, but gives it its own, captivating twist. The result is an energetic action/animation film that is not only fun for children, but also for parents and ‘regular’ film buffs to enjoy.

Reporter Tintin (Jamie Bell) buys a model of a 17th century three-master: ‘The Unicorn’ at the flea market in Brussels. Almost immediately other potential buyers pop up, but he blows them off. When his trusty dog ​​Bobbie accidentally knocks over the ship, a tube with a mysteriously written parchment falls out. When Tintin wants to learn more about the ship, it is stolen and one of the other buyers, an Interpol agent, is shot in front of his door. So enough intrigue. It soon turns out that the dealer and collector Ivan Sakharine (Daniel Craig) is also looking for De Eenhoon, of which three models have been made. There is something mysterious hidden in all three models that together should lead to Red Rackham’s treasure. Along the way, Tintin – with his trusty companion Bobbie (Snowy in the English version) encounters drunken sea captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), who has a personal connection to the history of the Unicorn.

The scenario is based on three well-known Tintin albums: “The Crab with the Golden Claws”, “The Secret of the Unicorn” and “The Treasure of Scarlet Rackham”, but does not slavishly follow the original comics. For example, in the film Tintin and Haddock meet each other for the first time, while in the comics they had already experienced many adventures together. The singer with the high (and false) notes Bianca Castafiore is also featured in the film and plays a small, but crucial role in the development of the plot as the “Milanese nightingale”.

As in the source material, Tintin’s precise work (Does he work as a freelance journalist? How does he get money? How can he just go on a trip?) remains vague, but that should not spoil the fun. Through all kinds of unlikely maneuvers, kidnappings and actions, in which he also bumps into clumsy interpol agents Jansen and Janssen (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost), he comes on the trail of Sakharine and tries to thwart his evil plans. Not for nothing is ‘Tintin’ (to use a shorter version of the title) compared to ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, the very first Indiana Jones adventure.

The pace is good, maybe even too good, because the film barely has a breather before the next action moment or spectacle presents itself. Perhaps Spielberg and Jackson thought the viewer would get bored faster without human actors? Because of that frantic pace, there is sometimes only little time to enjoy all the technical ingenuity.

Because it’s best to stop there for a while. Twenty years from now ‘Tintin’ will probably be hopelessly outdated, but for 2011 it was a triumph of what is possible in the field of 3D animation. For example, where Robert Zemeckis with his ‘Polar Express’ failed miserably in realistically conveying facial expressions and the characters in that film had scary, lifeless eyes, ‘Tintin’ shows how it should be done. Apart from the sometimes somewhat cartoonish protruding noses and chins, you would sometimes almost forget that you are watching a cartoon. This result can be attributed to the so-called “performance capture”.

Since ‘The Lord of the Rings’, Peter Jackson has been passionate about motion capture, which uses the movements of an actor in a suit to create realistic animation. Andy Serkis broke new ground as an actor, first as Gollum in the “Rings” trilogy and later as the titular gorilla in “King Kong.” In doing so, he blurred the line between a “real” and an animated character. Performance capture builds on motion capture and also includes detailed facial expressions and movements to make everything even more realistic.

The rumbling story and the beautiful animations make ‘Tintin’ a joy to watch. For the Tintin fans there is another dimension: the film is chock full of references and jokes to other albums. After the brilliantly executed credits, there is an equally brilliant opening scene in which a street artist (modelled after Hergé) creates a portrait of Tintin, which looks exactly like in the comics. It’s a promising start and the film doesn’t really sink into anything. In the comics Tintin is actually quite a boring character – with a simply drawn face – always heroic, always willing to go on an adventure and it is the eccentric figures around him; Captain Haddock; Professor Calculus (absent from the film); the funny asides of Bobbie; and of course Jansen and Janssen who made the stories so colorful and lively. In the film, too, there’s plenty of slapstick with the detectives’ canes and bowler hats; Haddock’s whiskey breath and berates the captain – with civilized curses, of course. Still, it seems that Spielberg and Jackson are holding back a bit on that front – which isn’t so noticeable due to all the action antics. ‘Tintin’ is a rollercoaster ride that is more faithful to the spirit than to the letter – or the drawing pencil – of the comics, but so recognizable and new that everyone can enjoy it.