I FINALLY got back to the theater yesterday, as we took the kids to see The Adventures of Tintin. It’s a wonderful 3D animated adventure movie based on the comics by Belgian artist Hergé. It uses the ever more prevalent performance capture, and since it has Peter Jackson co-producing along with Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, that means Andy Serkis is involved. Jamie Bell is Tintin, and Serkis plays Haddock, the drunken sea captain who may be the key to the whole mystery.
And what is that mystery? It’s a mix of a few different comics, involving lost treasure, pirates, and hidden clues. Tintin is of course accompanied by his faithful dog Snowy, who my daughter (3) loved. The villain is played by Daniel Craig, who has the voice to sound supremely, well, villainous. There’s a side story played for humor about a pickpocket that keeps the bumbling cops Thompson and Thompson in the mix (Simon Pegg is one of the Thompsons).
Steven Spielberg has said that he first learned of the Tintin stories after someone compared Raiders of the Lost Ark to them, and it’s easy to see why. Treasure, exotic locations, goofy sidekicks, it’s all there. The only thing you lose out on is the love interest. I’m not familiar with the source material so I’ve no idea if that could be coming. Peter Jackson has said he wants to do the sequel, and possibly re-team with Spielberg for the third. I would definitely watch them. If you are looking for good fun for your kids, that won’t make you put a gun barrel in your mouth (Chipmunks), and you don’t mind a drunken lout as one of the characters, you can’t go wrong with The Adventures of Tintin.
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