Plot
Intrepid reporter Tintin and Captain Haddock set off on a treasure hunt for a sunken ship commanded by Haddock's ancestor.
Release Year: 2011
Rating: 7.6/10 (47,176 voted)
Critic's Score: 68/100
Director:
Steven Spielberg
Stars: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig
Storyline Having bought a model ship, the Unicorn, for a pound off a market stall Tintin is initially puzzled that the sinister Mr. Sakharine should be so eager to buy it from him, resorting to murder and kidnapping Tintin - accompanied by his marvellous dog Snowy - to join him and his gang as they sail to Morocco on an old cargo ship. Sakharine has bribed the crew to revolt against the ship's master, drunken Captain Haddock, but Tintin, Snowy and Haddock escape, arriving in Morocco at the court of a sheikh, who also has a model of the Unicorn. Haddock tells Tintin that over three hundred years earlier his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock was forced to scuttle the original Unicorn when attacked by a piratical forebear of Sakharine but he managed to save his treasure and provide clues to its location in three separate scrolls, all of which were secreted in models of the Unicorn. Tintin and Sakharine...
Writers: Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright
Cast: Jamie Bell
-
Tintin
(voice)
Andy Serkis
-
Captain Haddock
/
Sir Francis Haddock
(voice)
Daniel Craig
-
Rackham
/
Sakharine
(voice)
Nick Frost
-
Thomson
(voice)
Simon Pegg
-
Thompson
(voice)
Daniel Mays
-
Allan
/
Pirate Flunky #1
(voice)
Gad Elmaleh
-
Ben Salaad
(voice)
Toby Jones
-
Silk
(voice)
Joe Starr
-
Barnaby
(voice)
Enn Reitel
-
Nestor
/
Mr. Crabtree
(voice)
Mackenzie Crook
-
Tom
/
Pirate Flunky #2
(voice)
Tony Curran
-
Lieutenant Delcourt
(voice)
Sonje Fortag
-
Mrs. Finch
(voice)
Cary Elwes
-
Pilot
(voice)
Phillip Rhys
-
Co-Pilot
/
French Medic
(voice)
Taglines:
This year, discover how far adventure will take you.
Gross: $371,940,071
(Worldwide)
(21 February 2012)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
The man in the pamphlet Tintin finds on the ship with the third model is clearly Steven Spielberg.
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes:
At the end of the film, Tintin is letting the gold coins fall from his hand back into the globe; in the wide shot all the coins clearly fall from his hand. In the next shot, the last of the coins fall a second time.
Quotes: Ivanovich Sakharine:
The legend says only a Haddock is able to find the treasure... but it took a Rackham to get the job done!
User Review
An intrepid report on The Adventures of Tintin
Rating:
First off, this is the first time I ever write a review in here. For
once, I felt compelled to do it because... Well... because I'm Belgian
and grew up on a steady Tintin diet, like most Belgians my age and
older. The comics... not the cartoons. Needless to say I'm a old fan.
I also happen to be a fan of Spielberg's, probably since seeing E.T.
when I was about 5 years old. The two could be mutually exclusive. I
could take the role of the harcore comics fan who despises the
adaptation, or the rabid Spielby fan forgiving everything.
Thankfully, after having the chance to see it before most people out
here in Belgium and everywhere else thanks to a journalist buddy, I
found out I can to be none of the above. Spielberg and Jackson and all
the team behind the adaptation obviously gave the original material the
love and respect it deserved, while making it their own.
To clarify the origins of the story itself, you have to know that it
isn't the adaptation of one, but three Tintin comics. Its beginning
takes root in "Le Crabe aux Pinces D'or", while the rest of the movie
revolves around the two-albums story of the hunt for Rakham the Red's
treasure, "Le Secret de la Licorne" and "Le Trésor de Rakham le Rouge".
While it could seem like a lot of material for a whole movie, the
choice of blending those three (two and a half) stories together turns
out giving the movie a rather perfect pacing.
To kill a double controversy in the making, and like I've already read
in a couple critics: Tintin has always been a "bland" character in the
comics. He has no asperities. He is brave, always gets out of the
tangles he gets in, he is a good guy, he doesn't know doubts... Tintin
as a character has his limits, dramatically speaking, and even Hergé
knew that... It is actually the reason for the appearance of Captain
Haddock after a few albums. Haddock is the dark side of Tintin, prone
to anger and shouting insults, hard drinker, natural born loser... Far
from a being just a comical sidekick, Haddock is the human counterpart
to the flawless hero that Tintin is (remember, this is a comic,
originally aimed at kids and older kids). The movie has the
intelligence of starting off the big screen adventures of Tintin with
the two meeting up and becoming friends, a real turning point in the
continued adventures of Tintin.
The movie also deftly skips what could have been a typically
Hollywoodish mistake of giving Tintin exposition. But none of that
nonsense here. Tintin is a reporter, that's all you need to know.
That's all the comics ever told us about him. None of them ever showed
Tintin doing actual reporter work. I don't think he ever used a
typewriter, he has no boss, no workplace. Tintin just finds himself
where adventure is. Because he's a reporter. Hergé never needed more,
kudos for the guys behind this movie for keeping true to that. It will
be held against them, but that will be coming from people who don't
know the original material.
But I somehow had little worries about that, honestly. It was only
obvious they wouldn't touch the spirit of what's considered a classic
worldwide. Well, not those guys. I had more doubts about the transition
from Hergé's "Ligne Claire" type of drawing to CGI's and even more so
to the use of 3D. And that's where I was truly impressed. Not that I'm
adverse to CGIs, mind. In fact it's the cartoons that bred those doubts
in me. The varied 2D, celluloid adventures of Tintin always bugged me,
because of that transition from the seemingly simple but incredibly
dynamic looks of the books, looking so wrong when brought to animated
life. Yet the movie did a great job of shutting up the Tintin geek. It
simply looks stunning, and your mind easily jumps back and forth
between forgetting these are cartoon characters and appreciating their
transition to a 3D environment, respectful of the original designs but
literally bringing them to life.
In short, all these elements drew me to the same conclusion, Spielby
and co. managed to deal a great adaptation. One that has true respect
for the original material, and the great ambition of adding something
to it. Yes, not everything of it. "Le Crabe aux Pinces D'or" could have
deserved a whole movie. Shortcuts are taken, and as true to their
originals as they are, the characters have been redesigned. But in the
end you have a movie that can be appreciated both by fans of the comics
as well as people who have "just heard about them". It is fun, packed
with adventure and action, enjoyable at all ages. And most of all, you
can go see it without having to worry about seeing another piece of
Hollywood-flavoured perversion, a fast-foodified betrayal. If that's
what you like, note, there's been that Smurf thing, recently (another
childhood favourite). You know, that other Belgian comics adaptation
that took the little blue dudes from their tiny corner of European
medieval forest to... Modern New York? But if you have more gourmet
tastes, better bet your money on Jackson and Spielberg. Trust this true
childhood Tintin fan.
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