To 40ish-something die hard Tintin fans...

[Omaroo]

I declare myself to be a die-hard Tintin fan. I have been since early childhood. I've always had the entire series of books at hand and over the years must have read each of them literally hundreds of times. I could never get enough.

I've just come back from the Spieldberg/Jackson 3D offering based on "The Secret of the Unicorn".

I'm utterly blown away. As big a fan as I am, I am thoroughly delighted and satisfied - my expectations were far-exceeded. A masterpiece of animation/motion capture that absolutely nails it on the head. The characters, almost never what you've always imagined them to sound like, do - to me, anyway. The rendering is state of the art - there's been nothing better before it. Jackson and Weta are phenomenally talented people.

If you're a fan - go see it in 3D. Don't wait until it's on iTunes or DVD. By all means buy it then too, but see it on the big screen. It's marvellous. :thumbsup:

[lacad01]

Thanks for the review Chris. I'm not a huge Tintin fan however this is one movie I definitely want to see this summer :)

[shelltree]

So glad to hear this Chris, I am also a big Tin Tin fan and am very excited to see this!!! :D

[SkyViking]

Sounds awesome :D Tintin rocks and I've been waiting for this movie for a long time now. I'm re-reading my Tintin collection at the moment, for the 100th time, and I'm going to see the movie tomorrow - can't wait!

[Steffen]

I've been a Tintin fan for almost 40 years myself and I went and watched the movie of course. I gave the 3D version a miss though, for me this sort of effect tends to take away from movies rather than add to them.

I found the character and face animation amazing with most of the characters. Snowy disappointed me a bit, as did the Thompson twins. Overall it was a great spectacle and I look forward to the sequel.

EDIT I found opening the movie with Hergé drawing Tintin's portrait a nice touch :)

Cheers
Steffen.

[Omaroo]

The opening was great, I agree. The Thom(p)son twins were OK, but I always pictured them a little more bumbling. Snowy, I thought, was perfect. His expressions, especially when cowering from the stream of bullets on the stairs, were superb.

In retrospect, the only thing I'd like to have seen was reasonably strict adherence to the content of each separate book, rather than being presented as an amalgam.

[gbeal]

Darn you Oma, you've pushed me into this. I too grew up reading them, all the time, it must be an age thing.
I don't normally "do" movies, I think LOR's was the last one, and only because I was familiar with a fair chunk of the scenery (not that the CGI rendition I saw resembled too much of it, plus the "shire" is about 5 minutes flying from where I live).
This TinTin one though I will go see.
Thanks
Gary

[Omaroo]

Suffer Gary.

:P

Merry Christmas by the way... :)

[gbeal]

Cruel, cruel Chris. Thank you, and same to you.
T'is a great community this.
Gary

[Omaroo]

Oh yeah... Bianca Castafiore is outstanding :)

[multiweb]

Tintin tragic here too. Sounds great. Next on the todo list.

[Omaroo]

Anyone else seen this yet?

[bartman]

No not yet ,,,,,,but after reading these posts, I might haveta!
Also a fan of TinTin and have several comic books!
Thanks for that Chris!
Bartman

[stephenb]

As another Tintin fan in my 40's I grew up in the 70's and early 80's reading Herge's wonderful books. I borrowed them so much from my school library that the Head Librarian offered the entire library collection to me for a token fee ($2 I think), because I was literally wearing them out. These days I have three sets: the originals, and a complete set in softback and hardback, plus my children are collecting a set now.

The movie? Brilliant! The animation - second to none.

The homage to Herge in the opening scenes (he is the artist in the market who is drawing Tintin) This was a running theme in all Herge's where he drew himself in a cameo scene in his books. This also occurs in the animated TV series.

Notice in the scene in In Bagghar where Bianca Castafiore performs for Omar Ben Salaad, she is flanked by treasures and statues from other books (The Broken Ear statue)?

Also Chris did you see Mr Cutts the Butcher's shop in the first chase scene? So many small references to other adventures.

What I enjoy most about Tintin is the old school boy-type adventure theme: traveling to exotic lands, danger and suspense. I'm a bit of a romantic when it comes to the 30's - 50's and I have always had an interest in European and old Soviet culture, so Tintin's adventures fits in well with all that.

Tintin's adventures take me back to a simpler age of telegrams, rotary-dial phones, fedora hats and traveling by steamships or prop aircrafts.

Check out this interview: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/video/steven-spielberg-peter-jackson-adventures-tintin-full-interview

It is long but worth it.

Yes Chris they did deviate from the original books, that was my only disappointment. As you know Professor Calculus was introduced in Red Rackham's Treasure. Rumour is that they will consider The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun as the next installment. I think there is potential for Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon also.

Oh and there is an Apple game app also ;)


Regards,
Stephen

[Omaroo]

Great post Stephen :) I'm going to start reading the whole set again - for the 451st time at least! LOL

I'm glad that someone else picked up on these. Mr Cutts was always a favourite character of mine. :lol:

I was a little surprised about the exclusion of the Bird brothers, as in the books it was they, of course, who had bought Marlinspike Hall, and whose wallets (stolen by Silk) contained the second and third maps. Oh well, and Sakharine played only a very minor role in the book. Not to worry, "based on" means just that, and I'm still gloriously happy with the result. I was kind of hoping to see Calculus and his shark mini sub.

Funny story - as I was very young, I never knew that "Calculus" was pronounced as it is until I heard the term at school for the very first time. I remember standing up in class and, correcting the teacher, said "But Sir, it's pronounced "Cal-cull-us"!" I laugh about it to this day. :)

My favourite (hmmm... there are a few) book was Flight 714, probably because of the reference at the time to Sydney - my home town. I even remember Rastapopoulos' plane (pilot: Skut) had Rolls Royce Turbomeca engines - sighted as the plane was pushed off the makeshift runway by Allan and his henchmen. LOL

I think I'm going to be in Tintin heaven if they produce their takes on both Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon as a set, as you say, The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun.

I'm going to see the movie again this week. Maybe tonight. :thumbsup: I have to say that Jamie Bell does Tintin's voice justice. He's perfect, and just how I always imagined it.

Thanks for the interview link and app alert. I'll investigate! :)

[stephenb]

Ha Ha, I was the same with the pronunciation of Calculus!!!! I also said "Cal-Cull-us" !! Until my mother corrected me one day and the whole family laughed at me for ages!

Yes, we are going to see it again today!

Have you read Tintin in Alph-Art? Herge's unfinished book published after his death. Mainly sketches and notes. A great collectable for fans.

Yes, the whole Bird Brothers plot and the fact the Calculus provided the funds to Haddock to purchase Marlinspike Hall would have been good to include. Nevermind.

Destination Moon was the first book I read (1975-ish?) but it is so hard to find a favorite. Perhaps for me The Calculus Affair, King Ottokar's Septre and The Castafiore Emerald, but it is so hard to choose.

Chris I am not a fan of 3D, but I am considering seeing Tintin in 3D today. Convince me it's worth the effort?

[Omaroo]

Ohhh yes. I wasn't expecting much either, but they've used it very subtly and to great effect. The face renderings are incredible, as are the sand dunes and raging ocean scenes. I think I'll see it in 2-D today just for the reference. :thumbsup:

I've read Alph-Art, but am yet to get hold of a copy. I recently acquired hard-back copies of the first two books in the series, which were never really popular in my day because they were crude in comparison to the later books - "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets" and "Tintin in the Congo". Black and white and certainly unrefined, but nevertheless his cornerstone books.

[Barrykgerdes]

I hope to see it in Melbourne later this month. I will look for the 3D version and take my 3D glasses that I had to buy last year to see the "Green Hornet"

I also now have a Samsung Smart 3D TV and a couple of 3D movies (they come with a 2D version as well). These of course require the switchmode glasses. 3D maybe a gimmick but I still like it!

They have trailers of 3D movies and some free Docos but My ADSL2 is reputedly not fast enough to view anything over about 2 minutes. I think it is more to do with their server capacity.

For those who think 3D is useless. Get your heads out of the sand it's great fun!

Barry

[stephenb]

Ticket booked for Tintin 3D at 3pm :thumbsup:

The last time I watched a movie in 3D was 3 years ago with those cardboard glasses. I didn't think the technology was sufficient at that stage, but I accept it is a lot better now.

When booking the ticket this morning the young girl at the counter tried very hard to dissuade me from Tintin 3D and was imploring me to see Mission Impossible. pffft I told her the animated acting in Tintin would be more realistic than Tom Cruise's.

[Omaroo]

Enjoy :)

I'd be interested to know Stephen, as a huge Tintin fan, are you also into Asterix? Both fought for my time.

[stephenb]

We had two groups throughout most of my school days - Tintin and Asterix readers, and the allegiances to both was quite strong. I actually sat on the fence and read both, but Asterix didn't quite capture my imagination as much as our world famous reporter.

In Engineering Graphics in tech school one of my projects was to draw a cross section of a ship - I drew the Aurora from The Shooting Star!

[Omaroo]

Yep, I agree. Whilst Asterix adventures were fun, Tintin's were rip-roaring.

[stephenb]

Just returned home. I had some issues with the 3D glasses in conjunction with my normal glasses. Because I am shortsighted, I needed to wear my prescription glasses, causing the 3D glasses to sit a fair distance out from my eyes. This was quite off putting and I suspect I did not always get the full effect.

Correction to an earlier post - not the 'broken ear' statue at Omar Ben Salaad's palace. Just an Easter Island statue. But I did see a 'broken ear' statue earlier on in the film but I just cannot place the scene at the moment (Tintin's apartment?)

I loved seeing all of Herge's character drawings in on display in the market.
And Red Rackham's First Mate was a descendant to Nestor??

[beren]

Saw the movie in 3D yesterday :) nothing but praises from me the film was excellent thoroughly enjoyed it. Be interesting what story the sequel {s:)} will follow hopefully the Seven crystal balls/Prisoners of the sun.

[spacezebra]

Hi Chris

David and I went to Tin Tin 3D - I was not a fan, however loved the movie!

Cheers Petra d.

[DJVege]

Thanks Omaroo! I'll be watching this alright! :)

[multiweb]

Saw it last night. Very well done. Enjoyed it a lot. They got the characters spot on and the CG is fantastic, very immersive. Looking forward to the next installments. Lot of the stuff gets lot in translations though but it was funny to the see the anglicised names.

[overlord]

Me too! I saw it 2 nights ago at the Rivoli. Anyways, I went in there thinking... ok here we go... it's going to be like Indy 4... lame and try-hard, with lots of `modern' touches like maybe lady gaga music, etc, or even chipmunks doing hiphop. I was thinking... well I hope they make it like the cartoon was about 20 years ago. That was so awesome. Well, what can I say... it was better than the cartoon ever was! IT was excellent, sublime! I had a massive smile on my face for the whole thing!

I give it 4.5 stars out of five.

A few things stopped me giving it the full complement

SPOILERS


*The non-stop action scenes in the arab state started getting on my nerves. I felt I was being mentally molested by not being given a breather in the action. It starts to become utterly ridiculous and then you realise you are just watching a cartoon. It snaps you out of the intensity.
* Haddock tries to explain the loss of the manuscript and Tintin rejects his explanation and claims he is `going alone', and then Haddock gets in the car anyway and that is the end of that scene.
* I was mistified by why, towards the end of the movie, Tintin is suddenly so interested in finding the treasure. Since when is he interrested in money. Why has the film become like `Batman returns', or `Pirates of the Carribean.' or `National Treasure?'
* Interesting recycling of incidental music from Indy 3.
* The ending is just an ad for the next movie. I would have preferred an ending where Tintin just returns to normal life.
* IT just goes TOO LONG and there is too much. I was reminded of Dark Night... total overload. Batman begins was more restrained and better for me.

Plusses:
* The 3d effects were sublime.
* Thomson and Thompson are so funny... the funniest bits of the movie!
Yes it was so funny.
* I LOVED IT!
* Lots of typical Speilberg effects, including `camera work' which I liked.

[overlord]

That's interesting. I found the Tintin comics intensely boring, and the Asterix comics a masterpiece of hilarity. :rofl: But was I ever a fan of the Tintin cartoon! eeeeeeeeeeeeehar!

[Manav]

Having watched this on friday I would agree with Chucky especially the complete overload which resulted in a hurried storyline much like the Dark Knight. To anyone who hasn't seen the TV series I would highly recommend it IMDB link here (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179552/).

Nothing beats the original comics though :)

[Gem]

Saw it yesterday as a family. The boys (12, 7, 4) have watched all the cartoons on DVD and have read alot of the comics. The 12 and 7 year old really loved it, but the 4 year old prefers the cartoons (which is understandable - he is still getting used to cinemas too).
My wife and I enjoyed it too. Rare to get a movie that caters for all age groups so well! :)

[Gem]

I liked Asterix more than Tin Tin at school, but I have never seen a decent version of Asterix other than the original comics. Tin Tin on the other hand has been made into a decent cartoon series and (now) movie. Asterix has never made the cross over successfully IMO.

[trek1701]

Even though I never had read the Tin Tin books as a child I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.
I was partially impressed with the sharpness with the graphics. I regularly see movies on Tuesday nights at Know complex here in Melbourne and they usually appear soft. However on this occasion I saw this at the recently refurbished Forrest Hill cinema.
Maybe they have sharper lenses, who knows but I was impressed to the level of detail they went to.:eyepop:

Cheers Mark