The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

I was impatiently waiting for this movie for more than a year but my introduction of Tintin did not come from the original comics. As a kid, the Tintin animated series from Ellipse/Nelvana was not the most important part of my Saturday morning but it was part of it nevertheless, especially if I needed to see Part 2 of an episode. I liked Tintin because not only was it funny but also it had genuine mystery and action. It was different from all the other Saturday morning cartoons because it seemed to be made for all ages. When I heard that Peter Jackson was going to produce a motion capture Tintin film with Steven Spielberg as the director, I was more than sold. I thought it was cool that Spielberg presented Jackson with his Best Picture Oscar for "The Return of the King" but back then, I didn't even think about the possibility that they would work together at some point. Just as Spielberg and George Lucas joined up to make “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, Spielberg and Jackson were going to adapt something that already appealed to me. The adaptation of Herge’s stories and characters was very well achieved in that for the most part, they stayed true to their essence. “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” has a few flaws but it was a good deal of fun and adventure nonetheless. The movie is much better after multiple viewings.

When Spielberg was making “Raiders”, a critic compared that movie to the Tintin comics and Spielberg investigated. Even though the first Tintin comics Spielberg saw were in French, it was the artwork that motivated him to try to create a live action version someday. When Peter Jackson got wind of this a decade later, he suggested that motion capture would be the best way to preserve the visual world of Herge. Thus, this grand collaboration was begun. I wish to first point out a few problems I saw with “The Secret of the Unicorn” in order to end on a positive note. First of all, Sakharine becomes the antagonist of the story whereas in the original comic he was a collector of model ships who had no idea about the scrolls. He also was not a descendant from Red Rackham. The filmmakers seem to have eliminated the Bird Brothers who were the original villains in the story and I liked them as the bad guys. As with Robert Zemeckis and his mo-cap films, it seems as though Spielberg got a tad carried away with the possibilities of digital cinematography. As I expected with Spielberg, the camera did a lot of storytelling and there were some artistic shots. There are creative transitions between shots and you see all sorts of things through the reflections of knives, glasses and bottles but things went a bit overboard. The match cuts during Haddock’s tale for example were neat but there were a few too many of them. Filmmakers today should try to show some restraint. Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. That message is right out of Spielberg's "Jurassic Park". Spielberg did have his priorties set right; I just feel he did a little too much experimentation with the digital camera. Because Spielberg and Jackson chose to start this possible film trilogy with “Unicorn”, they encountered a problem: it is not the comic where Tintin and Captain Haddock meet. That story is “The Crab with the Golden Claws”. If the movie had been based on just the two “Unicorn” comic books, the story would have had a good pace. Because this movie was based on three stories by Herge, things felt a little rushed when I first saw the movie. The pace of the movie really never slowed down: plot points happened every 5 seconds and it was a little tiring. You need moments in an adventure movie where you can take a breath or relax. Both “Raiders” and "The Last Crusade" had scenes like that but “The Secret of the Unicorn” could have used more. Speaking of that comparison, I was hoping for a classic John Williams melody in the musical score that would be forever associated with Tintin in the future. While his work on this film was more than worthy of the Oscar nomination it received, I was expecting another Indiana Jones-type march. The musical theme by Ray Parker, Jim Morgan and Tom Szczesniak for the Tintin animated TV show from the early 90’s was quite good and I was excited to see five time Oscar-winner John Williams overshadow them. It didn’t happen for me so that was too bad.

Now we come to the good stuff and I am grateful to say that they made the movie worthwhile. First of all, Herge’s world and characters were adapted to 3D very well. Motion capture was a great way to adapt this beloved comic because live action performances could be generated in a world based on Herge’ style of drawing. Even background characters were modeled after Herge’s work. The film does have a lot of believability in how the characters move and perform. It is pleasing to the eye unlike some past motion capture films where you subconsciously can tell something is amiss. Fittingly, Tintin is the most realistic character in the movie. In one shot towards the opening of the film, a lightning flash is the light source on Tintin’s face and that moment is when Tintin appeared incredibly real. We have seen Jamie Bell before as a young man trying to help in the battle against King Kong, as a soldier in World War II (Spielberg was the producer in that instance by the way) and as a teleporter. He made Tintin quite an everyman with the help of the CG design and I applaud him for that. Interestingly enough, the two stars of this movie were both in Peter Jackson’s “King Kong”. It wouldn’t be a motion capture film produced by Jackson without Andy Serkis. Serkis truly is the Gandalf of motion capture acting. His work as Gollum on “The Lord of the Rings” has yet to be matched by anyone and it showed the world just how wonderful this new medium was. Serkis has also portrayed two GG apes: Kong himself and Caesar from the “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” franchise. When he was announced as Captain Haddock, I was interested in seeing if Serkis was able to replicate Haddock’s temper, determination and comedy. He did just fine. Many shots in the film hint that he is the man behind the CG character. I am still attached to Colin O’Meara and David Fox as Tintin and Haddock respectively but that didn’t stop me from enjoying Bell and Serkis in this movie. Daniel Craig’s performance did not hint at James Bond at all and that is a good thing. Despite the fact that Sakharine has become the antagonist, he is very much a classic Herge bad guy thanks to Craig. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are a known comedy duo and so they were more than able to play Thomson and Thompson. Every time I see or hear Toby Jones, he is playing a role that is quite different from the last one and that displays his talent. It was great to see other classic Herge characters brought to life such as Allan and Nestor. Bianca Castafiore was probably the second most realistic character in “The Secret of the Unicorn” after Tintin but all the characters had a good deal of realism. It was fascinating how Spielberg used digital lighting to achieve this sense of realism in the characters. I like the opening credit sequence. It is very reminiscent of the opening of Spielberg’s “Catch Me if You Can” and there was even a small reference to another film of his: "The Terminal". Another Spielberg reference was during the hijacking of the sea plane when Tintin's cowlick reminds us of "Jaws". The flashbacks to Sir Francis and Red Rackham remind me of "Hook", even if just a little bit. As a final note, if I am not mistaken, Haddock pours the treasure out of the hat into a cauldron that very much resembles the Stanley Cup. The humor in the movie was enjoyable and the 3D was cool. I like how the chase in Bagghar is shown basically in one shot lasting 2 and half minutes. I was very happy in particular to hear Tintin say “Great snakes!” and Haddock say “Blistering Blue Barnacles” & "Thundering Typhoons". Another nice touch was that the closing credits are written in the font of Herge’s comics.

“The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” is like “Raiders of the Lost Ark” for kids. It brought me a lot of joy when Spielberg won Best Animated Film at the Golden Globes. I wish to point out my usual stance at this time however that motion capture films are not animated films. Motion capture is like an actor moving a puppet except the puppet happens to be CGI. We are not seeing the performances of an animator at a computer desk moving a character one frame at a time; we are seeing the acting of Jamie Bell and Andy Serkis captured in real time. That makes it different from animation in my opinion. I thought the motion capture aspect would prevent it from winning at the Golden Globes but I was wrong and I am glad I was. "The Secret of the Unicorn" was the first non-Pixar film to win that award by the way. Despite the few hickups with the film, I had a good deal of fun. Herge’s work was well captured. When the Hobbit trilogy was completed, I was quite excited for Jackson to take up the director's chair on the second Tintin film. That has yet to happen but I am at least glad that the sequel is guaranteed to be made at some point.

4.5 Stars