The Adventures of Tintin

It is easy to see why the work of Belgian comic artist Herge appealed to Steven Spielberg--Tintin, the intrepid young journalist, accompanied by his faithful terrier Snowy, is an antecedent of Indiana Jones. In many way, The Adventures of Tintin, Spielberg's first animated film, bears many resemblances to Raiders of the Lost Ark. There are clues, a buried treasure, and numerous high-speed chases and narrow escapes. What's missing is a sense of of ingeniousness. Tintin, ultimately, is sound and fury, signifying not much.

Things are off to a promising start. Instead of an origin story, we are thrust right into an adventure. Tintin, shopping at a bazaar, is attracted to the model of a ship. After he buys it, not one but two mysterious men try to buy it off of him. One of them is later murdered at his doorstep, and the ship is stolen. But not before a cylinder containing a mysterious scroll has ended up underneath his bureau.

From there Tintin is captured and taken aboard a ship bound for Morocco. He ends meeting and forming an alliance with Captain Haddock, a perpetually soused sea captain who is the last of the Haddocks, descendants of the ship that was the basis of the model, the Unicorn. It holds a treasure, and the descendant of the pirate who took it, Sakharin (Daniel Craig), is after the three scrolls that will lead to its location.

After about half of the movie I became a little fatigued, as there is so much movement and tumult that it starts to overwhelm the story. Tintin, unlike Indiana Jones, doesn't have much character development--at least we knew Indy was afraid of snakes. Most of the humor centers around the drunkenness of Haddock (voiced by Andy Serkis) and a little of that is plenty.

The film is the latest in motion capture animation, which has had limited success. I didn't see Polar Express, but I did see Beowulf, and some of the knock on the process is that the eyes of the characters are dead. There's less of that in Tintin, and at times the rendering was so realistic that I forgot I was watching animation.

The Adventures of Tintin wasn't a huge hit in North America, but it did earn over 300 million worldwide, so we can probably expect a sequel. If so, Spielberg should focus more on story and less on stunts. I'm all for movies of this kind, that recapture the feeling of old-time movie serials, but they have to be balanced by modern sensibility. That doesn't mean, though, an avalanche of CGI.