Most of us have probably heard the news by now about Disney’s latest mega-flop, Mars Needs Moms. While movies like Tangled continue to make a good profit, this film did very poorly.  The film was made using motion-capture technology…that’s right,the same technique Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn will be made with. Lots of pages have been going on and on about how this might mean Tintin will do poorly as well. But is that really a fair statement?

Is the world really sick and tired of motion-capture?  There are diverse opinions on whether motion capture has ever really been the best choice over animation and whether it has ever really worked. I think it has simply had it’s ups and downs, but many seem to really complain about it. Common complaints about motion-capture technology are the lack of life in the characters eyes and what is known as ”The uncanny valley effect” , a technical name for that kind of gross feeling you get when you look at a robot or animation that seems like it’s trying a bit to hard to look like a human and instead just winds up looking creepy.  I don’t want to debate the controversial issue of how good or bad previous mo-cap movies have looked in the past or whether people’s complaints on the subject are justified or not. But I would like to try to show that Tintin probably WON’T have any of these problems.

I’ll take advantage of this opportunity to post the 3 long overdue HD images revealed months ago in empire’s article,that we only had scans of. Addressing the ”Uncanny valley” effect, I would like to point out that this normally happens because the animation is trying to make a computer generated images look too much like a person. This is not the case with Tintin. Look at the images below. They’re packed with detail, but also look enough like a cartoon to avoid the ”Uncanny valley” effect. The Thompson’s noses,for example,make them look more like the characters from the book then real people. After all,that was the whole reason Spielberg chose motion-capture for the film in the first place!  The idea is not to reproduce real people in a digital world,but to reproduce Hergé’s friendly lovable cartoon characters.

It is really impossible to tell what will happen with the eyes since we have not seen anything in motion,but I think that the expression on Silk in the image below looks incredibly devious, and Barnaby’s face looks very nice as well. The eyes look pretty good to me so far.  These images are huge,so right click on them and open them in a new tab to see them in their full digital glory.

Here Barnaby looks like he is either asking for help or in pain. I really like the lighting in this shot and the way they brought Barnaby to life. Go grab your copy of ”The Secret of the Unicorn” and compare the two. They are really similar,even if this exact scene never takes place in the book. A perfect example of a combination between staying true to the book and taking some liberties with the story.

This shot looks more like a cartoon then any of the others. The white border in this shot around the characters actually worries me a bit,as it has Chris. But in any case,it is not your traditional motion-capture appearance problem. Hopefully in motion we will be able to understand the odd lighting better. The sand dunes look awesome though. I can’t wait to see this on an imax screen.

So,to wrap this up, we will have to see if the world is ready to give motion-cap at least one more chance, but there has never been a better reason to do so. Anyway,the release date is so far away,I doubt many people will even give Mars Needs Moms a thought when they see the Tintin movie. Are the makers of Tintin scared?  Not at all.  Jamie Bell himself is even confident that the film is going to blow us all away when we see it and outdo any other motion capture film we’ve seen. The star said in an interview: “I don’t think motion-capture has ever met with the right material yet, and Tintin is perfect because we needed control of the world.” Whether he went a little bit overboard with that statement or not, only time will tell. One thing is certain: what we see in the trailer will be VERY important. I think it would be best for them to include some pretty impressive shots in the trailer rather than save it all for the premiere. The Tintin movie,especially in America, will need an important advertising campaign. But we are  talking Spielberg and Jackson here! I believe any possible troubled Tintin fans may rest assured that people will go to see this movie.

With their huge roles in the new Sci-fi film ”Paul” and the media’s renewed interest in getting a few words from them, it was inevitable that Tintin come up in an interview once again sooner or later. They made some comments on what it was like to work on set with Spielberg. Ironically this fits in well with my last post on what Spielberg had to say about working with the motion-capture set (which I later realized was literally year old news).

The stars talked about working on set with Steven:

“Steven, he did a lot of his own camera work,” Frost said. “He’d get a movement he really liked, punch the air and do a little dance. It’s intoxicating. You want to perform for him. You want to be around that kind of enthusiasm.”

They also talked about Spielberg’s new experience with the digital technology:

It was like he had a new train set,” Pegg said.”There was a genuine sense of novelty to him.”

They had a bit to say about Peter Jackson as well. Even though he mainly watched from a monitor in New Zealand,he had his part in the now finished shooting stage of the movie:

“Peter would do a bunch of rewrites at night while we were asleep,” Frost said, “and then we’d come in in the morning and be given the script.”

The stars  both worked in Motion-capture suits, and told us about that experience as well:

“It was like rehearsing a play, like when you’re a kid and you’re pretending that thing over there could be the Millennium Falcon,” Frost said. “You have to concentrate. Peter Jackson is on the monitor, Kathy Kennedy is there producing. Daniel Craig — who looks amazing in a motion capture suit, by the way — is there. It’s like a big idiot’s dream.”

I know little about Nick and Simon since I personally haven’t seen any of their work,but from what I do know I get the comforting feeling that they work very well together and both have a tremendous sense of humor.  I am looking forward to seeing them as ”Thomson and Thompson”.

Also,I don’t know if anybody else already knew this info,but I don’t remember hearing anything about Kathy Kennedy producing the film.

Source: http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/03/14/tintin-simon-pegg-and-nick-frost-tells-tales-from-steven-spielbergs-new-tech-set/

Collider.com has an interesting article with Steven Spielberg on the film and the decision to use motion capture.  Here are the highlights:

“It was based on my respect for the art of Hergé and wanting to get as close to that art as I could… Hergé wrote about fictional people in a real world, not in a fantasy universe. It was the real universe he was working with, and he used National Geographic to research his adventure stories. It just seemed that live action would be too stylized for an audience to relate to. You’d have to have costumes that are a little outrageous when you see actors wearing them. The costumes seem to fit better when the medium chosen is a digital one.”

Spielberg and his crew used the latest in motion capture technology, with over 100 cameras films taking each shot,picking up every last bit of movement. Spielberg had a bit to say about this:

“I just adored it. It made me more like a painter than ever before. I got a chance to do so many jobs that I don’t often do as a director. You get to paint with this device that puts you into a virtual world, and allows you to make your shots and block all the actors with a small hand-held device only three times as large as an Xbox game controller… When Captain Haddock runs across the volume, the cameras capture all the information of his physical and emotional moves. So as Andy Serkis runs across the stage, there’s Captain Haddock on the monitor, in full anime, running along the streets of Belgium. Not only are the actors represented in real time, they enter into a three-dimensional world.”

Spielberg than made a curious remark about the emotional side of the film. Spielberg is very experienced in bringing out the emotion in his films, and but I’m dying to see what that will mean for the Tintin Movie.  Here Spielberg praises Jamie Bell’s performance. After all,it’s not all directing but acting as well. Don’t let the futuristic outfits and computer generated final results fool you: there is a huge amount of work put into the acting in a motion capture film. On this subject Spielberg remarked:

“[The on-screen portrayal of Tintin] will be Jamie Bell’s complete physical and emotional performance.  If Tintin makes you feel something, it’s Jamie Bell’s soul you’re sensing.”

I literally cannot wait to see a trailer. I find myself screaming around the house saying ”I need to see a trailer NOW!” (well… OK, maybe I don’t, but I want to).  In my opinion,  it may very well be the most important movie trailer in the history of computer-generated movies,  and will certainly be the most important trailer for a motion capture film.

Special thanks to Mike Dutton for finding this information. There are some other articles at collider.com worth a visit you can find a link to at the end of their article. Hopefully there will be important news soon.

Since many of you don’t know much about me,I’ll tell you now that I am extremely optimistic,and my optimism duplicates when it comes to Tintin and the Tintin Movie. I hold news and gossip  innocent until proven guilty and I make sure to find a silver lining for every cloud. Above all,I keep my hopes high.  But I will confess if there was one thing related to this movie that I do not have high hopes for it would be it’s video game. However I would be delighted to be proven wrong.

The following may or may not be some of the first info we have had in a long time about the upcoming Ubisoft Tintin game. It may not even have ANYTHING to do with it. Time will tell. According to what I have found online,4 months before E3 a worker at Ubisoft montpelier leaked out some info about upcoming titles. I’m assuming there were more along with this picture,but this is the image of interest:

Early 2010 fits in with our first info about the making of a Tintin game.  If the title ”to be announced” really is the Tintin game,we can expect more information half way through this year. I’m hoping against hope we will have a trailer by then too. But how do we even know the game has anything to do with Tintin?

The following sketches,also found from people working at Ubisoft, could be a clue. Take a very close look at this picture:

In the top right corner of the image the word ”Dupont” can be read. I’d say it’s fairly clear. Clearer at least than whatever it says at the bottom left (I can make out Tindte ,a circled X,and either Alahli,Abahli or Alalili. I can’t find anything online that would give me more clues as to what those words mean.)

But the key is Dupont. Dupont is the French name for one of the Thompson twosome.  It would be a pretty big coincidence for that name to show up in a sketch for a video game being made my Ubisoft that mas not Tintin…so it is very possible that the sketches above really are of the Tintin Videogame. It’s like Alpha-art all over again.

What do we learn from these images?

Well for one thing we can gather from the first image that the game will be an adventure/platform game. Platform games have not been popular for a long time,especially for systems that you plug into your TV. Of course there is the notable exception of a few Nintendo titles,but even these really only bring back nostalgia from their predecessors with new looks and twists. Most people today enjoy the freedom of being able to move the camera from side to side and do more things in the game’s worlds than what the average platform game allows. However,there is one system that continues to come out with platform games frequently: the Nintendo DS. Months ago a rumor came out that this game will only come out for the DS and the Wii. Though I still don’t believe it,we can be fairly sure a DS game will come out. And anybody who has played on a Nintendo DS knows you just can’t make the same kind of game for it as you could for an Xbox 360. They are two drastically different things.

Hence it would not surprise me if they made different versions with different genres. It is not uncommon for a DS version to be totally different from other versions. I am guessing Ubisoft will only make the game a Platform game for the Nintendo DS. It is possible it be that way for all systems,but I would say that’s highly unlikely, especially since this is a movie based game. Since the sketches are obviously of a platform game,that probably means that they only apply to the DS version.

We can gather from these pictures that there will be doors that open and close, levers, and elevated parts of the floor to climb up or jump down to. We also see two characters in the same level in almost every sketch with a stick figure in it. I’m willing to bet they are Thomson and Thompson,adding to the possibility that this could be an early sketch. A drawing to the far right on the bottom looks like a character will be flung by somebody (or will throw something at somebody).  The abbreviations  at the top may stand for ”Navigate”,”Block” and the obvious ”Fight”.

Sadly,I predict that while this may be a fun game,even a great game,it most likely won’t have much to do with Tintin. Moving from left to right while searching for things,opening doors and fighting through enemies are all classics used in platform games,but have little to do with Tintin. It’s hard to see a game like Super Mario Bros without koopas or mushrooms.  But unless the movie adds a lot of new stuff they will have to add enemies for this game that just aren’t in the story. However, the extreme alternative is Tintin in Tibet,regarded by many to be a terribly boring game in which there is quite literally nothing to do but jump and dodge. Lots of things to dodge,nobody to ever hit. You actually wish Tintin was violent by the time you finish the game! Finding an intermediate stage between the two is no easy task. It may never have been their intention from the first place. And again,that is NOT necessarily a bad thing when it comes to the xperience.

I’ll definitely play it and will then decide if the game is worth it or not. Just because Tintin gets a little bit more like the hero of a platform game does not mean the game will be bad. As for what we can expect for the TV and PC,we will have to wait.

Thanks to Britto for finding this and posting this info on her blog http://www.tintimportintim.com/search?updated-max=2011-02-27T08%3A00%3A00-03%3A00&max-results=5 which I read the best I can with Google translator.

In a recent interview with Michael Kahn,the man in charge or editing ”Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn”, Michael informed us that the Tintin Movie will be edited ”just like any other film”. Michael has been editing for Spielberg since ”Close Encounters of the Third Kind” in 1976 and this year celebrates his 75th birthday. He has edited such action packed classics as Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park,and Saving Private Ryan.

The Tintin movie is the first movie Michael has ever edited for Spielberg using Avid (a digital way to edit movies) instead of the Moviola, an old fashion tool used to edit movies invented way back in 1924. But Michael assures us that the editing process of the movie is still the same. He said the videos still needed a few touch ups in the background and such since the shots themselves weren’t finished, but that would not affect the actual editing of the movie. The Tintin Movie will be put together just like any other film would.

Right now you might be asking yourself  ”So what? Why wouldn’t it be?” But actually this is important. Although there are now many more 3D movies then there were even just a few years back,it is still not uncommon to see movies where the directors constantly try to impress the audience by throwing things out of the screen…especially in films created by computer.  Granted the effect is a lot of fun,but not if it slows down the story of the movie. But when it comes to Tintin not only are the directors directing the movie like they would any other film, but even the editing process is the same as other Spielberg films. Not only can we have faith that Spielberg will not tie up the story of the Tintin Movie because he,for instance,keeps shooting the Unicorn’s cannonballs at the screen or something like that (that would be completely out of character for him). We can even have faith that Kahn will make decisions on what seconds of the movie to keep or get rid of based on what is best for the story and flow of the movie and what Spielberg has always expected from him, not on what ”looks cool in 3D”. Both men are professionals with many many years of experience. We could not have hoped for a better crew working on this movie.

I enjoy editing home videos and such things in my spare time and I know that editing is a very precise and time consuming job. I admit I had never heard of Michael Kahn before,but I now have a respect towards him and anybody else who has been editing such great work for so many years. He certainly deserves it. Special thanks to Proman for finding this information,and to all of you who find leads and videos. Keep up the good work!

Sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjdOG-w0Zz4

picture found on http://www.edgarwrighthere.com/2011/02/21/michael-kahns-ace-lifetime-achievement-award-tribute-reel/

This is an overdue post that keeps getting distracted by more recent news. Regardless of it being month old news , I believe it’s good news for those of us looking forward to see ”The Secret of The Unicorn” on the big screen. The screen just got a whole lot bigger.

Imax will be digitally re-mastering the upcoming movie up converting it to  the superior quality image and sound experience Imax as well as transforming it into Imax 3D.  I personally am a fan of Imax, but after doing some research online I discovered that not all share my opinion. I do not go to Imax often but the experiences I have had with it, especially in 3D, have been very good. What are the benefits and disadvantages of seeing the potential best film of 2011 on an IMAX screen?

Cons

Over the last few weeks I’ve read up on what people have to say about watching films in IMAX. There are a considerably large amount of complaints against it,and unfortunately, most are directed at films that were not originally shot using IMAX film.

The biggest complaint about watching the big IMAX screen is, ironically, that the screen is too big!  Nearly all viewers say it is much better to sit towards the back or in the dead center,or you could find yourself turning your head a lot. Don’t make the mistake of sitting in the front row. I always sit close to the back,near the middle of the row.

Another complaint is that IMAX 3D tires your eyes. Some will say this is true,other’s won’t. Personally I love the effect of things flying out from the screen and the illusion that things are closer or farther away than they really are. But the effect is not for everybody. Know your own limits on what kind of 3D is better for you. You may want to see it in good old fashioned 2D.  Again,seating is key: your eyes will do better if you aren’t watching the 3D from row number 3.

Some complain about the low quality of movies converted to IMAX that were shot on regular film,saying they are too blurry or grainy. For the most part people agree that the best IMAX movies are those that were MADE to be IMAX movies. I do not believe that Tintin will have this problem because of it’s digital nature. I’m no expert,but it should be much easier to upgrade a digital movie compared to upgrading a movie shot on film. An example of a digital film that was just released for IMAX is Disney’s new movie ”Tangled”. I have not seen this movie in IMAX so I have no idea what it’s like, and to be completely honest, I don’t plan to. The same process will be used on Pixar’s upcoming film ”Cars 2”

And then there is the age old problem that IMAX is expensive. Depending on where you go,it can be more than some would be willing to pay. But come on! We’ve been waiting forever for this movie! I’m willing to save a few dollars now to pay for the best experience possible. Now…is IMAX really the bext experience?

Pros

While some don’t like it, many will agree that it is very impressive to watch a movie on the IMAX screen.   The standard IMAX screen is  22 × 16.1 m,but can be larger! Rather than the screen being in the center of the wall, the screen practically IS the wall. This adds to the illusion that you are actually in the movie rather than just a mere witness of the events.  I think seeing the movie in Imax will pay off when it comes to watching those wide shots of the Sahara dessert or of the Unicorn sailing across the sea. It is truly an incredible experience to watch a movie on an IMAX screen.

The 3D makes the effect that much better. Imax has been offering an excellent 3D for years and continues to offer one of the best 3D experiences. Imax is known for making things look like they are popping out of the screen due to the screen’s huge size.

The IMAX sound experience culminates the effect. I have heard no complaints whatsoever about the incredible quality of the sound,the perfect synchronization with the image frame by frame,and the excellent positioning of the surround sound that especially helps make the 3D effect more believable. Keeping in mind that John Williams is doing the soundtrack for the Tintin Movie,I recommend watching the movie where you will be able to hear the experience best.

You still have time to decide how you will watch the movie. But best I can tell, watching the Secret of the Unicorn in IMAX Digital 3D will be more than worth it. I’ve been waiting for this movie for over 2 years now,and I am very excited that it will be available on one of the best experiences in the movie business,if not the best experience. I am constantly amazed at how well this movie is coming along. Tintin movie news just keeps getting better and better. I hope the fans will be pleased.

sources: http://www.imax.com/movies/m/the-adventures-of-tintin-the-secret-of-the-unicorn-an-imax-3d-experience/

image found on: http://www.giftsandfreeadvice.com/free_advice/imax-screen-size-by-theater-list-real-imax-and-fake-imax-screens/

Finally we have the first images of Tintin Movie merchandise. For months now we’ve wondered about possible toys and figures. This is our first glance.

Although you won’t find this on their site anymore, Toys News put up a post on their website with the following picture. The following is cut and pasted from the post. Take a GOOD look at this photo.

Meccano will create model replicas of three of the vehicles from the Tintin movie, due for release in the UK on October 26th 2011. The licence has been agreed for the UK, France and Benelux countries.

The famous comic book hero is about to come to life again in the first of a trilogy, ‘The Adventures of Tintin and the Secret of the Unicorn’. Directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson, the film uses synthetic imaging and motion capture to replicate the look of the original artwork.

The film depicts Tintin’s (Jamie Bell) first encounter with Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) and the discovery of a clue to the treasure of his ancestor Sir Francis Haddock. Daniel Craig plays Red Rackham, the pirate who attacks the Unicorn.

Meccano has paid close attention to the detail of the replica vehicles from the film, creating three models from its traditional metal nuts and bolts construction.

The models include a 4×4 vehicle (290 pieces); a Seaplane (340 pieces) and the Unicorn sailing ship (630 pieces). The models are due for release in the UK in September.

The replicas are suitable for children from eight years-old, but will equally appeal to older Tintin enthusiasts.

At first I could hardly believe these were real. Something about the whole thing just seemed wrong. All the images on the box are the same images shown in Empire magazine. Does Meccano really only have those images to go on? However it’s possible they will come up with a more complete cover later. But these may really be the finished products. I think we should consider that the picture of Tintin on the cover of Empire magazine months back was not a slightly unfinished picture just made for a magazine,but actually a one hundred percent finished product that will appear on a myriad of merchandise from now on. I don’t see them all using the same picture,but if Meccano stays with that cover,you can bet the official movie based toy line will use something like it.

And now to the question we are all wondering: what in the name of Khemed is the Thompson’s red jeep doing in this picture?  Just in case any of you out there don’t know all of the Tintin album’s vehicles by heart, the red jeep recreated by Meccano appeared in Tintin in The Land of Black Gold…and has NOTHING so far as we can tell to do with any of the stories revealed so far to be in the film. Remember when Thompson and Thomson drive into the city fast asleep with their hair growing in all different colors? Either yet another album is going to be mixed into the story somehow with The Crab with the Golden Claws, or only the jeep itself will be.

A third possibility would be that Meccano just wanted to create a third vehicle for it’s toy line and borrowed one from a different Tintin book. As much as I would love to see something like that happen in the future with other merchandise rather than companies limiting themselves to only what is seen in the film,I don’t find that likely here because the jeep really doesn’t have that prominent of a role. The moon rocket or the jet from flight 714 would make more sense. The red jeep must be somewhere in the film. Why? How? Only time will tell. Due to the similarities between Khemed and Morocco,and the picture on the box in the Sahara, I do think that for now we can assume it will show towards the beginning of the movie.

It surprises me that Meccano would include the jeep at all,even if I had already known it was in the film. Granted,it’s cool to see ANY Tintin vehicle taken to the toy shelves,but the red jeep from Tintin? I have a hard time seeing little kids begging and crying to their grandmothers to buy them ”Tintin’s jeep”.  If I were a kid it wouldn’t have me jumping off the walls in excitement if I saw it in a catalog.

Having said that,what kid WOULDN’T want a toy Unicorn to play with or a model of it to build after seeing the movie?  I see that selling very well.  The seaplane is also very nice. All three models look very much like the book’s drawings. I like the looks of all three. I may even buy them. If I don’t it will only be because I’m buying something else made off the movie I like better. And I believe there will be a lot of options to choose from. Out of all the Multimodels Meccano has for sale, NONE of them are versions of something out of a movie. Meccano could have picked to copy something from a racing movie or something like that,but they chose Tintin. This is significant. If the companies that rarely or never base their toys of movies are getting the rights to Tintin,what can we expect from those that almost stay in business solely making toys off of new movies? I am seriously hoping a Lego Tintin will come out. They have already done Indiana Jones,Star Wars,etc If Meccano can do Tintin,Lego could easily do their own version. I would just love to build a Lego Marlinspike Hall or Unicorn ship. Hey! If any of you readers have contacts at Lego,I’m telling you it would be a great idea! Seriously! It would sell!

This was not what I expected to find as our first photo of Tintin merchandise,but I guarantee it won’t be the last. I anxiously look forward to seeing what else comes out. It’s only a matter of time before you will be able to find your own pullback Unicorn in a Happy Meal.

Special thanks to Britto for this info! Keep up the great work you guys!

Sources: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=pt-BR&langpair=pt|en&u=http://www.tintimportintim.com/2011/02/meccano-cria-linha-de-brinquedos-de.html

and the now empty http://www.toynews-online.biz/news/33487/Meccano-to-create-Tintin-line from which the above was pasted.

It’s not surprising with his big role in The Eagle and Tintin being the most anticipated of his next upcoming films that multiple reporters would interview Jamie Bell on Tintin. The following is the third interview I’ve found that has a section on his role in The Secret of The Unicorn. Some of this will sound similar to the other two interviews and there is almost no new information,but it’s fun to read none the less. The most interesting thing for me is the part at the end where he talks about Tintin’s voice.

Let’s talk about Tintin. Obviously, Spielberg is a director who’s in total command of his form, but here, he was working with technology he’s never used before. Could you see him figuring it out on set?
Oh, absolutely. He’d be like, “What does this do? Oh wow, it does that? I wish I could do that in the real world, I wish I could take out a lamppost and move it to the side of the street!” The simplistic things about motion capture that you can do with just the flick of a button are kind of amazing, but also, the use of light and color … for a filmmaker who’s incredibly visionary, I think it’s exciting because it gives him so many more options. The palette is endless, it’s infinite, and I think he definitely got a kick out of that. I think he said it made him more like a painter than he’d ever been before.

The look of the film is very painterly, just from the stills that have been released. Have you seen it in motion?
I’ve seen bits and pieces, yeah. It looks great. We call them “Tintin-ologists,” and as one of those people who’s really into it, it’s incredibly exciting. To see these characters come to life is something you’ve been waiting for your whole life, and when it’s you doing it … It’s actually got the vibe of a Hitchcockian film, a kind of noir film in a young person’s action-adventure film. It’s really great.

I’m assuming your friend Andy Serkis gave you advice on motion capture.
On everything. He’s the guru of that technology.

What’s the key thing you need to know if you’re doing it?
Just to overarticulate. He calls it “breaking through the technology,” and I like that idea because it means that you break through it and claim it for yourself. You don’t let it do the work for you, you attack it aggressively and control it. Look, if there’s anyone to listen to when it comes to motion capture, it’s that guy, so to have him next to me throughout felt great.

How do you know if you’re doing a good job?
You don’t. You trust your director, and I obviously have a great trust with Steven Spielberg. You’re in really good hands. There are some very specific beats with an action-adventure film, and you have to hit those moments of “I found a clue!” where you’re about to go into another adventure in the story. So the acting is still kind of the same, you’re still hitting these beats and those emotional peaks and lows. And you have to trust your animators, because that’s where the real work is done.

What’s your Tintin voice like?
Tintin is a native of Belgium, and we obviously couldn’t do it in French, although I would have loved to. So we kind of found an English sound that won’t distract people so much. You know, it’s very easy to upset people quickly when you’re taking on such a beloved character, so we want to remain as neutral as possible and not go too, too strongly in another direction. If Tintin had an American accent, I’m sure the rest of the world would be very upset!