I’m not sure if those of you fortunate enough to live in a country Tintin is already showing and own a Nintendo 3DS have already had a chance to play this or not, but regardless here is a fun trailer for all of us with some Nintendo 3DS footage of the game.
The game looks like it will be very similar to how it is played on a TV, and the obvious advantage to buying the game for this console is that you get the 3D without an expensive TV none of us have the money for. If anybody is able to buy both versions of the game and compare them in an interesting review, I’d love to read it in the comments and perhaps post it in a future post. I don’t own a 3DS, but I will be getting the Wii version as soon as it hits the nearest Gamestop.

http://www.gamingexaminer.com/videos-and-trailers/

Cool find, Caleb! Thanks!

I gave these babies a pretty bad review when they came out, but there are those of us that collect Tintin stuff simply for the sake of collecting…and as hideous as the Haddock is, the very cute Snowy does almost make up for it. Whether you love them or loathe them, here they are on Amazon to buy. Thankfully, they really aren’t that expensive.
http://www.amazon.com/TY-Beanie-Babies-Adventures-CAPTAIN/dp/B005REKO3C/ref=pd_sim_sbs_t_3

If you are a dedicated, serious Tintin fan most of these questions should not be that hard (Tintinophiles like myself have it easy). But even the man who plays the boy reporter himself doesn’t know always have all of the answers. And Nick Frost and Simon Pegg…they’re just having too much fun making answers up. At least the screenwriters do pretty well.
In these men’s credit, there is a difference between being a Tintin FAN and being a Tintin freak like many of us are (I myself am not ashamed of it in the slightest). And Bell, I have to agree with you, especially since I’m American, it did always seem a bit strange to me on those few occasions when Tintin said ”crumbs!” I’m curious French people, what does he say in the original? (while I’m asking, what’s the original thing Tintin said in french I assume instead of ”great snakes”?).

Hello everybody! It’s been a few days since I last posted, but I’ve been on vacation. Also, about the only ”news” to post are videos, and I’ve been having some dificulty embeding the videos. However, you really should see them, so here are the links. One of them is particularly interesting as it compares original panels from the books with scenes from the movie. There’s no embarassment here on the advertisers part…they know it looks very close to the original art and want people to see it. Also, for those of you unfortunate souls like myself who have not yet seen the film, you can get your first flashing glimpse of Castafiore (blink and you’ll miss it) in one of these videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgndbSYCrh4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGU-PnOFKgE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwwmKgvry48

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3hVSn6D7A4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKxy-dGVyRU

John William’s long awaited Tintin soundtrack is finally up on itunes. I’m going to be very disciplined and wait until I see the movie to hear the theme for the first time, especially because I know William’s style and often times much of his music is best when accompanied with the images onscreen. But I most certainly will get this soundtrack, sooner or later. If you’re interested, you can get the whole thing on itunes for 8 pounds here.

I know it’s very easy to do in today’s modern age, and there’s probably even a way to do it ”legally”, but if you really want to get this soundtrack I recommend that you pay for it, it’s only 8 pounds. Perhaps you want to wait even for it to come out on a nice CD you can keep with the rest of your Tintin stuff and pass on to your kids. When that comes out I’ll make sure to post about it.

Good find, Trix!

source: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-adventures-of-tintin/id472784154

For years I’ve wanted to see a Lego Tintin. From what I can tell so far, the movie has not triggered nearly as many action figures and model toys as some other major action movies have in the past, and I thought maybe even more might be made for the sake of collectors. Instead we got Weta’s incredible but rather pricy collector’s figures and the plastoy figures, and recently the McDonald’s toys I am still hoping make it to the USA. It’s safe to say Lego isn’t making anything Tintin for this movie, but I keep hoping for the next one. In the meantime, these japanese ”nanoblocks” are rather interesting, actually based off of  the albums. I’ve only been able to find them online at very,very high prices, but they are cool, there’s no doubt about that.

Source: http://bitsnpieces-sg.blogspot.com/2011/11/nanoblock-tin-tin-collections.html

Of course some of you have seen the entire movie by now, but some of us still have to wait until December. It’s really rather fun to enjoy one more month of waiting…it’s almost like waiting for Christmas day…you want it to come, but you will miss the waiting when it’s over. It has been a while though since I posted any ”new footage”. The funny thing about this cool TV spot is that it’s doing just what we always knew the American advertising campaign for Tintin would do. The whole point of letting the USA see it a few months later was so that they could quote what critics have said over those two months and tell of the movie’s success overseas.

Now I haven’t actually seen the movie yet so I can’t be completely fair, but I know some fans were a bit upset that Tintin looked like he was becoming more Indy than Tintin. I think there have been differing views on that statement, but it is true that even in the albums they had much in common, and Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones are two sagas that are very popular in the USA (I happen to be a pretty big fan of them myself, actually). So I’ll give the advertisers credit, that one quote in the TV spot might just be what it takes to convince many Americans that have never heard of Tintin in their life that this is actually an action-adventure film for everybody, not just some kids movie with some cool parts. That and simply how amazing this TV spot looks…

Good find lalunafellis!

Source: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=84178

For those of you newbies to Tintin, he is such an icon that the Vatican’s official newspaper actually just recently wrote an article on him. Specifically, on the debate that’s been going on in court on whether or not to ban ”Tintin in the Congo” for racism. Now, one might think that just because of the Vatican’s very nature the article would certainly be defending those poor congolese people of the past that were portrayed far from accurately. But the author actually took the time to look at the facts of the article and has chosen to vigorously defend Tintin as his movie comes out around the world, stating that Tintin has been a good example of Catholic values throughout the ages. The article must be remembered and pulled out in the future to hopefully silence all of those foolish people that talk of Tintin being racist, gay, nazi,…you fill in the blank. The article is especially upset that Tintin in the congo has, in the UK, been ”wrapped up like a pornographic magazine and consigned to the adults-only section” of British book shops.

Like an excellent lawyer in Belgium at the moment arguing that the book is simply showing stereotypes from the time of Hergé, ”L’Observatore Romano” also holds to the obvious fact that ”Tintin in the Congo” is simply a reflection of its time, the fruit of a man who had never seen what Belgium was really doing there and only had false stereotypes to go on. We know how much effort Hergé put into researching his future albums, so it would be unfair to characterize hardly any of his other albums based on this one album. Furthermore, the African people, while certainly shown as unintelligent and naive people, are not even portrayed as villains in the story, but rather the gangsters Tintin deals with there. Tintin has nothing against these people and neither did Hergé. There is really nothing in the book that would lead anybody except the most sensitive of Congolese person to truly be offended by the book, and then that guy would probably just see how his people were drawn on the front and find some other comic to read (or take Moulinsart to court…). As the Vatican put it, ”The comic book was published in the 1930s, and for that reason expresses the values of the era – but can it really perturb young Britons of today, raised as they are on the Internet, video games and fish and chips?”

The Vatican praises Tintin’s character, calling him ”an angel” helping widows and orphans…Tintin is said to be driven by ”a sacred moral imperative – to save the innocent and conquer evil….Tintin is a Western knight of modern times, an unstained heart in an invulnerable body.” It’s great to see people still defending Tintin in the press. ”Le Soir” was a Catholic newspaper when Tintin was around, yet another reason that the Vatican would be pleased with kids reading Tintin. I myself am not catholic, but I certainly support kids reading about Tintin’s heroic virtues rather than all of the junk out there for them to read.

Interestingly enough, while the Vatican sings Tintin’s praises, one zealous worker in Lebanon tried to cover up Spielberg’s name from a Tintin poster. Circuit Empire, in charge of cinemas in Lebanon, commented that ”He knew that Spielberg was blacklisted and he took it upon himself to black out his name,” pointing out that this was not some movement of several men but just one worker. The name was quickly uncovered and the posters are still seen today. Of course this was nothing against Tintin, but it’s funny to watch how different countries react to big American films like this and how it affects Tintin’s release. I found it interesting they also commented that technically according to the strict laws in Lebanon Tintin should be banned, but due to the popular black market selling films the law would be impossible to implement and people are allowed to see it on the big screens.  There’s a unique piece of Tintin trivia you can remember and tell other Tintin friends in the future…

Sources: http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/246045/20111109/vatican-banning-tintin-book-politically-correct-lunacy.htm

               http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10765314

Tintin has recently expanded to the rest of Europe and the Middle East, and has once again been received with open arms. According to ”Box Office Mojo”, Tintin has brought in an extra 40.8 million dollars between the 45 territories, which added to what the movie had already received comes to about 125.3 million dollars over the past 2 weeks! After years and years of work, the results are literally paying off:

(…the movie opened to a…) solid second place start in Russia ($5.9 million). However, its top market was once again France, where it plummeted 64 percent to $7.8 million after its enormous opening last weekend. It held extremely well in Spain (easing 12 percent to $6.15 million), and it also added $3.6 million in Germany and $3.3 million in the United Kingdom. Finally, the movie was up 25 percent to $2.5 million in author Herge’s native Belgium. Next weekend, Tintin is set to expand in to a handful of smaller Asian markets like India, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

We have no reason to think the movie won’t continue to do well in the remaining countries. Today Europe, tomorrow the world! And finally, the USA in December…grumble grumble grumble….

Source: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3303&p=.htm

There’s a fun interview with Anthony Horowitz that covers Tintin towards the end. Of course there’s no news on the next adventure yet, but it’s still interesting to hear incredibly famous people like Horowitz talk about Tintin.

source: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/ComicMovieBuzz/news/?a=49377