Commentary – The Adventures of Tintin

by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

You take the imagination of the man who brought us Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones, combine it with the brilliance of the man who brought us The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the result is… the lackluster, uninspired Adventures of Tintin.

I took my normally attentive 5 year-old niece and 9 year-old nephew to see this animated (performance motion caption) highly anticipated movie, and I don’t know which one of us was more restless. I was so detached that when Eva said she needed to use the restroom, I actually welcomed the interruption.
 

I watched a behind the scenes interview with Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson both brimming over with love and excitement for this collaborative creation. So how did it go so wrong? I can only imagine the problem I have with the movie lies within the original text – the books and comics of illustrator and writer Hergé.

The Adventures of Tintin series was created in 1929 by a Belgian artist who called himself Hergé. Clever and ever-curious, Tintin is a reporter-turned-detective whose pursuit of villains, criminals, treasure and the occasional artifact takes him all over the world, along with a colorful cast of friends. Hergé based his stories on real-world events and cultures that had caught the Belgian national attention — from space exploration to Arab oil wars — and brought them to life for his readers in inspiring and exciting ways. – The Official Site of Hergé’s Tintin Adventures

By this description you may think perhaps the movie’s storyline was too complicated, causing our ennui.  But no. Although, I feel an introduction to the character of Tintin, his life and dog would have helped draw us in; both the kids and I understood the story which has Tintin buying a model ship that turns out to be part of a clue to an old hidden treasure, involving the ancestors of a boozy Captain Haddock. What I don’t understand is why so much gun play and alcoholism should be a core element in a movie for kids.

I suppose like Scorsese’s Hugo and Lucas’s Red Tails, it all comes down to the special effects, technology and visuals.  And I appreciate the scope and advancements in this area. But I want to see more films like Toy Story 3 which made me laugh out loud, fret, cry, and was completely engaging for all ages!