![]() All executed in cartoon form, but in a style grounded in meticulous attention to detail and respect for veracity. Tintin, with or without the others, rights wrongs, rescues the innocent, uncovers dastardly plots, goes on mind-boggling adventures even, in one book, to the moon (a scientifically accurate adventure conceived some 15 years before people actually walked there). The elements are simple: a boy, or boy/man his dog Snowy and, in later books, his gruff sidekick, a quick-tempered alcoholic old seadog called Haddock and a deaf, absent-minded professor called Calculus. But I will try to make things better as well as I can and remind you of some of the things that made Hergé's original one of the consistently great works of art of the 20th century. The forces of marketing, and of global idiocy, will see to that. The sense of outrage is palpable, and even after two days I find myself moved to pity to pick up my shuddering, weeping copy of Hergé's The Secret of the Unicorn, cradle it in my arms, and whisper soothingly to it that everything will be all right but all the time knowing that, after this, it won't be nothing will be the same again. They made him squeal like a pig." The tragic irony of this is that it was Hergé himself, Tintin's creator, who, a few weeks before his death in 1983, anointed Spielberg as his preferred director to make a Tintin film and this after he had seen, and loved, as we all do and did, the first Indiana Jones film. I use this comparison not as a provocation or to cause unnecessary offence: I am using it in honour of a very good joke made by an episode of South Park, in which the cartoon's children watch the final Indiana Jones film and are so traumatised by what they have seen that they go round to the police station and try to get Spielberg and his colleagues charged with the crime. In fact, the sense of violation was so strong that it felt as though I had witnessed a rape. Daring escapes from a freighter, a seaplane, a stranding in a desert and a chase by tank will conjure up fond memories of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” And the funny way the dog is used brings to mind “Wallace and Gromit.C oming out of the new Tintin film directed by Steven Spielberg, I found myself, for a few seconds, too stunned and sickened to speak for I had been obliged to watch two hours of literally senseless violence being perpetrated on something I loved dearly. Before Tintin can figure out why, bullets are flying and he and the dog and a sea captain (Andy Serkis) with a serious weakness for drink are on the run, off on the search for clues. ![]() So Snowy has to wait for Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell) to figure out that the model sailing ship he bought from a street vendor has a hidden clue in it, a clue to the lost treasure of that very ship - the Unicorn.Ī pushy American wants the model so does a conniving professor type (Daniel Craig). One of the great conceits of the Herge comic book this is based on is that Snowy, a white wire fox terrier, is usually a couple of clues ahead of his master. And being modestly famous doesn’t keep them out of danger. In this world, datable to the mid-1950s thanks to the presence of a Jeep, a World War II-vintage tank and a Triumph TR3, the freelance journalist and his intrepid dog Snowy are well-known figures with an eye for trouble. have adapted the comic book character Tintin in a way that avoids all that worry about killing stuntmen and all that fuss about obeying the laws of physics. A rollicking, breezy, motion-capture animated romp, Spielberg & Co. “The Adventures of Tintin” is the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” sequel Steven Spielberg might have made if he hadn’t felt the need to keep Shia LaBeouf on the payroll. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |