Great Snakes! It's Tintin!

I have never been a fan of Tintin and have not read any of the books, but the trailers for this motion capture release have really caught my attention over the last few months. I was not disappointed. With such a great production team including Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson and writers Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish and Steven Moffatt, plus a cast including Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig and motion capture actor extraordinaire Andy Serkis, it really could not have wrong!

The begins with Tintin purchasing a model boat - The Unicorn - much to the disgust of some unknown enemies. The boat is stolen, but the secret message stays with Tintin, who leans that only a true 'Haddock' will lean the meaning. He soon meets the last remaining Haddock, the Captain of the ship he is kidnapped on and a fast and furious adventure soon begins taking place on the high seas and in parched deserts.

The most impressive thing about this film for me was the technology. The attention to detail is amazing. At some parts I totally forgot it wasn't a live action film and in other parts it worked really well as it helped to make some of the death defying stunts not so unbelievable as Tintin, Captain Haddock and Snowy are thrown around some amazing landscapes. 

A couple of scenes that were highlights for me included the opening sequence, as the identity of Tintin is slowly revealed at a London market place, as he is having a portrait done (a great comic moment of the final product being the orginal Tintin image) and then walking past a line of mirrors, each one revealing a different view of his face. The other one included the hapless Thompson twins, finally finding a wallet thief, but not actually realising it, thinking his large collection is a hobby rather than the result of a long career of pickpocketing. But for me, Snowy really steals most of the scenes as the very clever, loyal and brave sidekick to Tintin. His relationship with a vicious guard dog Rottweiler is very sweet.

There were some sequences that I did lose a little interest in as they went on too long, especially Haddock's visions of his Grandfather's story and I wasn't expecting the film to be so slapstick, although the children in the screening seemed to love it! There are plenty of jokes for the adults though, mostly surrounding Haddock's alcohol addiction, which does come in handy when he provides much needed fuel for an aeroplane!

Overall, I really enjoyed this film and am looking forward to the planned sequels. There were times that it felt like an Indiana Jones adventure, not a bad thing! It has definitely encouraged me to read the original stories, and with the box set on special offer at my local Waterstones, I may just be doing that...!

Watch the trailer here