The Adventures of Tintin

[Santa's Boyfriend]

The French are doing a CGI Asterix too:

[Jemble Fred]

The French are doing a CGI Asterix too:

Hooray! Sorry, but that's far more exciting to me than the boring Belgian's dated exploits. If they just get a shit-hot translator and a great UK cast onto it, that could be a massive pleasure.

I wonder who will follow Bill Oddie and Craig Charles as the next Asterix...? Daniel Radcliffe or someone probably.

[CaledonianGonzo]

<Tentatively>

This looks........GREAT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEj3UsAl0K8

(Won't embed for some reason)

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Actual goosepimples.

The only minor criticism is whether the cartoon-like humour of the Thompson Twins will transfer to the screen.

The rest though, it looks dangerously good.

Lots of people complaining about uncanny valley on youtube, but as far as I can tell with my eyes, it's meant to be a cartoon in the style of the comics and it manages that very nicely.

[biggytitbo]

That looks jolly good! Is it Andy Serkis as Haddock? And its Pegg and Frost as the Thompsons isnt it?

Can't wait for this!

[sirhenry]

I was really looking forward to hating this for shitting all over the original. Bugger!

[CaledonianGonzo]

Not surprised to see that Haddock has metamorphosed into a Scotsman.  Should have stuck money on it.

Even if he does sound almost identical to Bill Nighy's Davey Jones in POTC.

[Catalogue Trousers]

"Haddock...Archibald Haddock."

GLEE!

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Not surprised to see that Haddock has metamorphosed into a Scotsman.  Should have stuck money on it.

That did surprise me, actually. Never pegged Haddock as a Scotchman when reading the books. To my mind and ear, he always spoke in a guttural, archetypal pirate brogue, somewhere between Robert Newton and Quint from Jaws.

Anyway, this does indeed look great!

[Glebe]

That new trailer is beautiful... fantastic animation. A guy on CHUD.com makes an interesting point:

"To my eyes, there's a weird mix of facial approaches going on in this movies. Some characters seem more traditionally animated and "cartoony," while others look like they're pushing photo-real as close as possible. Oddly, Tintin seems to be the one most awkwardly treading the line, while Haddock and the villain look the most advanced (Serkis especially shines through). I'll admit though- I'm not creeped out by anyone, which suggests I'll be able to not really give a shit about the motion-capture and just watch the film. That's a step forward in my book."

Thomson and Thompson look a little bit more cartoony, as does Haddock's conk, doesn't bother me a bit though.

[DocDaneeka]

I still think everyone looks creepy and wierd. It does look like fun but how much more beautiful would a high budget fully animated 2D Tintin look?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

A 2D one would probably flop, sadly. But looking at this trailer, I'd have preferred it if they'd gone for purely animated CGI, instead of this freaky motion capture approach.

[Lt Plonker]

HD Trailer here if you want to get up close and personal with Tintin.

Some of the final mo-cap/animation looks very floaty, especially that lampost scene. I don't feel the impact or the weight of the character as he hits the ground.

But still, story-wise, it feels very exciting. The world looks lovely; I hope it doesn't go down the Revenge of the Sith road and end up looking too clean and perfect.

[Lt Plonker]

It's very definitely Hergé's world though, and that deserves a huge amount of kudos.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

The world looks like it has a bit of detail and character which already advances it beyond most Hollywood computer-animated films nowadays.

The style of the cartoons however was deliberately plain and arguably part of the appeal, as it made the characters stand out more.

Tintin has a very particular feel- it never felt like 'ah a jolly good old adventure', but neither did it feel like a tense everything-at-stake thriller. It was more of a sort of character adventure-mystery, where he finds himself becoming slowly more entangled in the plot. Like a loose thread you can't help but keep pulling and pulling at.

[mothman]

There's never really any great sense of peril, and often Tintin would escape ostensibly-certain death by a rather contrived coincidence - a mix-up with a wooden dumb-bell ... In America, or an anchor just happening to hit a frogman about to attach a limpet-mine to the ship in Red Sea Sharks, for instance.

[Mister Six]

It was amusing to begin with, but it's become seriously crackers, and not just on Ain't It Cool.  They're not just confused, they're kind of angry about it, because it's like the whole world is in on something that's passed them by and is LAUGHING BEHIND THEIR BACKS for not getting excited about it.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if boycotting the film became a Tea Party 'thing' on release:  Don't know it, don't need it.

I know it's a bit late, but got any links? I could do with a bit of a chuckle.

[Mister Six]

There's never really any great sense of peril, and often Tintin would escape ostensibly-certain death by a rather contrived coincidence - a mix-up with a wooden dumb-bell ... In America, or an anchor just happening to hit a frogman about to attach a limpet-mine to the ship in Red Sea Sharks, for instance.

Or, for the most egregious example in 'America', a lightning bolt rushing down a chimney, hitting Tintin, burning away the ropes that tied him to his chair and catapulting him (uninjured) out of a window while his gun-toting captors are temporarily blinded. Even as an eight-year-old, I thought that was bollocks.

Isn't much of the odd pacing in Tintin books down to the fact that they were serialised, page by page? That's why each page ends on its own mini (and sometimes a bit shit) cliffhanger, and why the plots just roll on and on rather than conforming to a more traditional structure.

[biggytitbo]

Tintin was always an exercise in atmosphere and setting rather than character I thought. The whole challenge for Herge was evoking these far flung foreign locations which he did with meticilous detail even though he never himself travelled to any of them. And its nice to see this film seems to be trying to replicate in CGI those increadiblly detailed worlds and mise en scene Herge created.

[mothman]

Actually, there are loads of bad examples in ... In America, it's almost laughable. I guess you could chalk it up to being an early book. "Oops! We gassed Tintin with the wrong gas - we used sleeping-gas! He'll wake up as soon as he gets thrown in the lake!" I mean, come on. . .

[madhair60]

Awesome fan-made opening

So this is out on the 26th in the UK, and I'm really looking forward to it.  Good reviews!

[Sam]

Apart from this one:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/oct/18/how-could-do-this-tintin

Not sure whether to trust Lezard here because he's not a film critic. However, he writes damn fine book reviews and is one of the Grauniad's best writers IMO.

Definitely read McCarthy's book on Tintin, it's very funny.

[madhair60]

That's a more interesting article than the piece-of-shit Guardian Media one I saw yesterday, thanks for linking it.

Edit: Rrngh.  Read it properly now, and it is in fact a bit wank.  Still, thanks for the read.

[CaledonianGonzo]

When's the release date for this?

And - by the by - when's War Horse out?  Could Spielberg be about to do the double, in Jurassic Park/Schindler's List fashion?

[Bad Ambassador]

Officially out a week today, but there are previews from Monday because of half-term.

[jutl]

I saw this today and was very impressed. It hangs together well and is respectful of the source material (

Spoiler alert

the first shot of the film is Hergé himself sketching Tintin at a street stall

[close]

). The only slight problem

Spoiler alert

in pacing comes near the end, where one extraordinary action scene is followed almost immediately by another, with only a fragment of dialogue providing the link. It felt to me like a substantial part of the script had been razored out and never quite papered over.

[close]

[Santa's Boyfriend]

And - by the by - when's War Horse out?  Could Spielberg be about to do the double, in Jurassic Park/Schindler's List fashion?

January I believe.

[Paaaaul]

I saw this today and was very impressed. It hangs together well and is respectful of the source material (

Spoiler alert

the first shot of the film is Hergé himself sketching Tintin at a street stall

[close]

). The only slight problem

Spoiler alert

in pacing comes near the end, where one extraordinary action scene is followed almost immediately by another, with only a fragment of dialogue providing the link. It felt to me like a substantial part of the script had been razored out and never quite papered over.

[close]

I've been re-reading the books this week (£45 for the complete collection in hardback in Waterstones at the mo)

Spoiler alert

and the action scenes are almost relentless in them

[close]

. I have been pleasantly surprised how clever, funny, satirical and well crafted they are and that I can still appreciate them 30 years after loving them as a kid.

I don't know if I can stomach the film though.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Actually, there are loads of bad examples in ... In America, it's almost laughable. I guess you could chalk it up to being an early book. "Oops! We gassed Tintin with the wrong gas - we used sleeping-gas! He'll wake up as soon as he gets thrown in the lake!" I mean, come on. . .

How come some animated children's fiction can do this and get away with it but not Tintin? Larger adult audience?

[Mister Six]

How come some animated children's fiction can do this and get away with it but not Tintin?

It can't - it's still shit no matter who does it. But at least Tintin has lovely art and great characters.