The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg and Daniel Craig
Releasing in cinemas: 26 December 2011
Rated: PG
Spielberg
at his swashbuckling best
Steven
Spielberg has been a bit quiet of late; but now unleashes two features
– on the same day – in the live-action drama War Horse and
this animated boy’s-own adventure featuring the redoubtable Tintin.
It’s perhaps a little strange to see a cartoon character from a series
of books by a relatively unknown Belgian author getting the Hollywood
big-screen treatment; but it only takes a few minutes of The Secret of the Unicorn to see it
was a wise move.
This is classic storytelling. If you sat down and made
out a list of things that might appeal to an audience comprised mainly
of boys, this film has pretty much all of them. There’s a plucky young
hero, a mystery, ships and pirates, an epic journey, and even a
smattering of the supernatural. In fact, when you look at it that way,
those are the elements around which the story of, say, Jason and the
Argonauts was built.
But back to the present, and Spielberg has delivered a marvellous
melange of a movie, showcasing not just what wonders modern CGI
techniques can bring to a tale like this, but also just how vital a
strong screenplay really is.
The film opens sedately enough with Tintin (Jamie Bell) buying a
ship-in-a-bottle at a street market. However, the appearance of the
smarmy Ivanovich Sakharine (Daniel Craig), a break-in at Tintin’s
apartment, a mysterious clue hidden in the model and a shooting, signal
that this is no ordinary toy ship. Just how valuable it is only begins
to become clear after Tintin is kidnapped by Sakharine’s men and
imprisoned on an aging cargo ship. It turns out he’s not the only
prisoner, for Sakharine has also corralled the ship’s master, Captain
Haddock (Andy Serkis). This is a real stroke of good fortune, because
the clue Tintin found refers directly to the Haddock family. The good
captain’s fondness for hard liquor however has rendered restraints
unnecessary. With the aid of Tintin’s trust dog Snowy, they manage to
escape Sakharine’s clutches. But for how long? And how will they solve
the mystery?
It’s all completely far-fetched of course, but
that’s the essence of
the genre. Indeed, it’s the fact it’s improbable what makes it so
appealing. The shadow of Indiana Jones hangs over the film; and while
the comparison is dangerous, it’s certainly invited. While aficionados
may quibble over whether this film reaches those lofty heights (at
least, those of the first two Indy movies), this is definitely superior
to the jaded Pirates of the Caribbean
franchise.
The CGI rendering is pretty much impeccable, and shows just how far the
technology has come in just a few years. The film was actually shot
using motion-capture, then digitised. The result is a remarkable
melding of the ‘real’ and the ‘animated’ in a way that surpasses even
James Cameron’s Avatar (sorry
fan boys). It also does justice to Hergé’s original comic books; with
three of the original comic book stories being combined in the plot
(watch for the sly homage to Hergé at the start of the film). Spielberg
has apparently been working on this project since at least 1984; and
you’d have to wonder whether he could have achieved it at that time
without the benefit of today’s technology.
The cast deliver consistently strong performances across the board.
Jamie Bell (Jane Eyre) is
brilliant as the hero, even if he is entirely digitised and speaks with
a British (rather than French/Walloon) accent. Andy Serkis (Burke and Hare) hauls out his best
broad Scottish brogue to give life to Captain Haddock. As you might
expect, he also gets many of the best and funniest lines in the film.
Daniel Craig (Quantum of Solace)
plays against type as the slimy Sakharine, and is one of the few main
characters who bears little physical resemblance to his character.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Shaun of
the Dead) team up once more to play the bumbling pair of police
detectives, Thomson and Thompson.
Ideally timed for school holiday audiences, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of
the Unicorn is one of those rare films that will truly engage
both kids and adults. OK, I have to admit that parents may struggle to
get 8 year old girls to go along to this; but for most everyone else,
this is a wonderful adventure of pure escapism.
David Edwards