I considered doing this review in one word: Delightful. But that is not enough to tell you that I loved this movie and you probably will too. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association did too, this morning granting it the 2012 Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film.
Caveat: I read and liked some of the books as a child and I'd only had 4 hours sleep and was full of sugar from my pancakes and syrup just consumed for breakfast (don't you just love the Pancake Manor?). So I could have been in the perfect condition for this film. But I digress.
Boys' own adventure is the order of the day in this surprisingly violent (I'll get back to this) movie. I was worried about falling asleep after my late night but every second of it was fun and had me hooked in from the opening credits. They kick it off well with tributes to both the original comics and Saul Bass plus a very breezy tune from the maestro John Williams. It doesn't take long for the mystery to begin after Tintin buys a model ship from an antiques dealer at the market for 1 pound, then along come another 2 buyers who clearly wish to own the model themselves. Why these two strange fellows want the model so badly drives the storyline for quite some time, involving car chases, murder, dog chases, kidnapping and sailing the high seas. The reason is revealed more than half way through and then we are on the chase to stop the bad guys getting their hands on the prize.
Tintin is just the gung-ho boy detective you expect, with a very lovable and loyal sidekick in Snowy. Snowy gets one of the best action set-pieces of the film as he tracks the people who have taken his master. The movie wisely selects a source novel which introduces Captain Haddock and how he and Tintin become friends, as this is what makes things more interesting. A very salty old drunken seadog he is and full of funny curses such as 'blistering barnacles' etc. Without Haddock around Tintin is just a little too bland. Strangely though whenever I saw Haddock he reminded me of Peter Jackson (who produced and assisted Mr Steven Spielberg) despite being 'played' by the king of motion capture Andy Serkis. Wonder if that was deliberate...
Motion capture is a great way to create animation, and I can confirm that they have got past the 'dead eyes' issue from when it was first introduced. The facial expressions are quite good but we found the hands were a little weird. Unless Jamie Bell (Tintin) really does have huge hands. This movie just looked glorious the whole time and the 3D was well used to create depth. Most actors and voices were unrecognisable (especially Daniel Craig as the antique buyer Sakharine and Red Rackham) but I think that was wise to let you sink more into the characters. My fave duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost were probably a bit wasted as Detectives Thomson and Thompson but I'm sure they will play roles in future films.
The action I think is what sets this film apart from other animated films. There are quite a lot of action scenes that are staged in spectacular fashion, full of good old fashioned derring-do and suspense. But also quite violent. From memory, Tintin did carry a small gun and knew how to use it, but I wasn't expecting such a lot of gunfire and people getting whacked on the head with bottles and other strong implements. Some blood is shown but not enough to raise the PG rating to an M obviously. It was more slapstick violence I think, which seems to be emphasised by the animation compared to live action. But what else should we expect from director Spielberg? All of his films seem to have an element of violence, whether they be kid films (ET), dramas (Warhorse - a lot of people have been telling me it was hard to stomach the war scenes)or the beautifully executed/sickening brutality of Saving Private Ryan.
Humour is also used well, I found myself giggling a lot at scenes that were either cute, slapstick-y or in-jokes. Or maybe I was just delirious. No, it was sorta funny. Just a great combination of funny, action-packed, smart and joyful. I just loved it.
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