Review: 'The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn'

Film: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (U/A)
Cast: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Daniel Craig
Director: Steven Spielberg
Rating: ***

Muted colour tones, ultra-anthropomorphic character design, photo-realistically detailed texturing; these things couldn’t possibly be associated with Belgian artist Herge. Well, not until Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson came along and worked their magic upon the cartoonist’s tuft-haired reporter and his universe.

In the film, our boy wonder and his fluffy prodigiously resourceful pup Snowy chances upon a quaint model of a 17-century ship in a flea market, he lands himself into continent-spanning adventure with the drunken Captain Haddock (Serkis) that involves murderous pursuers including the enigmatic antique collector Ivanovich Sakharine (Craig) and a largely looming mystery.

Principally adapted from The Secret of the Unicorn with snatches of The Crab with the Golden Claws and Red Rackham's Treasure, the film is a far cry from the Ellipse Nelvana cartoons that were more faithful to the source material and its bold, neat Ligne Claire (clear line) styling.

But Spielberg in his first animated film (and comic adaptation) captures the dynamism of Herge's works without letting over reverence come in the way of grafting a new faced-paced, suspense-filled thriller which stays true to the lively spirit and ample humour of Herge’s volumes. Watching the film, you come to appreciate how Spielberg accommodates the small visual gags that are to the series what wordplay is to Asterix. A scene where the scorched Tintin and delirious Haddock trudge through an ocean of ocean sand dunes with Snowy bearing an oversized dinosaur bone in his mouth trailing behind, for example, comes straight out of the panels of Golden Claws. Overall, the European look of the film isn’t compromised while the writing might have been (yes, this reviewer caught that veiled reference to bestiality).

Serkis, who plays Haddock (thankfully, not Snowy what with him essaying motion-capture based roles like Gollum, King King and Caesar from Rise of the Planet of the Apes) amuses with his alcohol-wrought bipolar excesses and colourful cuss words (This time while effecting a brogue, an embellishment that suits the character). Craig is menacing as Sakharine, whose role assumes more significance in the film.

Your average Tintinologist (that's a connoisseur of all things Herge, not a doctor you go to when your ears are ringing) shouldn’t be set off by the motion capture, which is notches above that of the Polar Express and Beowulf. Though the 3D doesn’t necessarily enhance the jaunt by much.

That Herge was proven right when he said that only Spielberg could do justice to his character is something that even the bumbling identical law enforcers Thomson and Thompson wouldn’t dispute amongst themselves.