The Golden Globe award for best animated film first appeared at the 64th Golden Globe Awards in 2007, given to the 2006 film ”Cars”. Every year since then a Pixar film has won, with awards going to Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up and Toy Story 3. However, this year the award has gone to the controversial film that the Oscars weren’t even going to recognize as an animated film: ”The Adventures of Tintin: the Secret of the Unicorn”. I’m a huge Pixar fan, but after having followed this movie for so many years, it’s great to see it win such a great award. Spielberg, Jackson, the actors, the animators, and every single person that worked on the movie did an absolutely great job and the work paid off. Hergé would be proud that after so many low quality Tintin movies, the world has seen a Tintin movie that actually won a Golden Globe Award. Congratulations!

It’s interesting to note that every movie that has ever won this award also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, with the exception of Cars, which of all films lost to Happy Feet, a film that, like Tintin, used motion capture. So far Tintin has received 6 nominations from the Directors Guild in the four categories devoted to animated film, with three of the five in the Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Motion Picture category. Tintin stands a very good chance of winning an award this February.

As Spielberg took the award, he made sure to recognize all of the main actors as more than just the voices of Tintin and his friends. He finished recognizing Andy Serkis as ”the man of a thousand digital faces”.

Here’s the video of Spielberg receiving the award.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7hUpry7_YZs

Sources: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/culture/6265469/Tintin-wins-Golden-Globe-for-best-animated-feature-film http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Globe_Award_for_Best_Animated_Feature_Film

I was sitting looking at Tintin stuff on the internet and suddenly realized that the fat lady in the phone booth that takes shelter from the rain never made it in the movie! I guess she wasn’t really needed if she wasn’t missed until now, and I’m not sure were it would have fit in since Tintin never needs to ”call the captain”, but I still kind of hope that it’s a deleted scene somewhere on the DVD. If not, I would really appreciate it Jackson and Horowitz if you would please include that section somewhere in Tintin 2…
I wonder if the scene was deliberately cut out because there is really only a couple females in the whole movie with a name, and while that is completely true to Herge’s works it still might have bothered some people for the only other girl in the whole movie that Tintin talks to after Mrs Finch to be a stereotypical fat lady with her dog ”Fifi”.
Anyway, I guarantee I will laugh hard if it makes it into the next script…

For those of you who may have found this through google or some other way and are not a regular follower of this site, I can assure you that while you will find many, many reviews of ”The Adventures of Tintin” on the internet, you will find very few written by somebody who has been an avid Tintin fan for years to the extent that he has been following every last piece of information available about the progress of this movie since it was first announced almost five years ago that Spielberg was going to pick up his old project and finally make a Tintin movie. Here you will find two such reviews. One is Chris’ review, the guy who started this blog and wrote everything until his schedule got busy and allowed me to write posts. Shortly after the movie premiered over in Europe he wrote a great review for both the Tintin fan and the man who’s never heard of him until now alike. I recommend you check it out here

The other such review of course is mine. I’m probably the biggest American Tintin fan you’ll ever meet. For those of you clueless people out there, Tintin is a very well known comic the Belgian George Remi (pen name Herge) drew from the late 1920s to the 70s. Tintin is a reporter that always finds himself on incredible adventures with his faithful white fox terrier, Snowy. He’s never been popular in the USA, but just about every other country in the world has heard of him. If you think that’s an exaggeration, check out how well Tintin did in the box offices over seas. I’ve been looking forward to seeing this movie much more than I’ve ever looked forward to see any other movie in my life. Did it live up to my expectations? In a world where movie tickets are expensive, is it worth your cash? What if you’re not a Tintin fan? Will you enjoy it?

I hate spoilers as much as you do so need not worry about reading any here. First of all, if you are new to Tintin you will not be lost. The movie does a terrific job of introducing the movie’s main characters. If you are a fan, you will recognise all of them as the characters you know, not as some horribly distorted version of them Hollywood threw together. Everybody making this movie went to great lengths to make sure that the original stories and artwork were respected as much as possible. The movie actually combines two Tintin albums, ”The crab with the golden claws” and ”The Secret of the Unicorn (there’s also a little bit of ”Red Rackhams treasure” in there, but not much), but you’d never know they weren’t one fluent storyline if you’ve never read the books because they are so magnificently blended together. As a matter of fact, while there are certain things that surely only a Tintin fan will appreciate when they watch the film, there are some things only somebody who is not at all familiar with the storyline will experience fully. I had very few problems while I was watching the movie, but one of them was really my own fault: I know the story of ”The Secret of the Unicorn” like the back of my hand. As a result I already knew almost everything that Tintin discovers little by little throughout the film. At some points I thought that the mystery side of the movie had been a bit overdramatized and that Tintin was taking just a little too long to put all the pieces together (quite literally), but again, the answer to the mystery is obvious once you already know the secret. But even when I knew what was coming, I still thoroughly enjoyed the film. There are lots of hilarious lines in the film, many straight from the books but most just clever new lines the excellent writers came up with. Don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking that actors only did the voices in this film: every movement from their bodies and faces has captured by computer, and the animators then did an excellent job of putting ”digital makeup” on. Jamie Bell did a very good job as Tintin. Some people have complained in other reviews that the movie is so action packed there is little time for Tintin’s character to be really developed. But the truth is that we know very little about Tintin, and Jamie Bell did a great job at not answering those questions for us. We don’t know who his boss is or who his parents are. We don’t really care. What we do know is that once he sets his mind to do something, he heroicly keeps going against all odds no matter where in the world danger takes him. And the movie does a wonderful job at taking us on the adventure with him.Pretty much every frame of the movie is a piece of art…You could get a sense of what I’m talking about by checking out some of the movie stills or watching the trailers, but you really won’t understand just how great it looks until you see it in the movies. Especially the city of Brussels and the port in Morocco are bright,colorful and incredibly detailed. As far as the people go, they look wonderful to me. They still look like the cartoon characters from the comics, but when you see each individual hair on their heads and the sand and the sweat on their faces as they trod through the desert, you have to remind yourself it isn’t real and congrutalute Weta for their great job. The movie is in a number of formats, but I recommend you go see it in IMAX 3D like I did (if you can find one that doesn’t have all of it’s showtimes filled up with ”Mission Impossible 4”). Chris didn’t particularly like the 3D, but I’ve always been a big fan of IMAX 3D and really enjoyed certain sections when it looked like the dust Tintin’s flashlight was hitting or the woodchips that were exploding or even Captain Haddock’s nose were really in front of my face. Aside from a few moments when the camera pans so quickly a few things seem out of focus, this is a movie that the 3D really works well in, especially on the enormous screen. However I’d say that if you see it in 2D you shouldn’t feel like you’re missing too much because the 3D is more of a fun added bonus to the movie experience.

This is a movie you can take your kids to (they’ll LOVE Snowy), but it’s not just a movie for kids. I fear that many people will go to action packed Mission Impossible 4 and miss one of the best movies that came out this year. What really made the movie for me was Andy Serkis’ brilliant performance as Captain Haddock. Haddock is absolutely hilarious. When you’re not laughing at what he’s doing, you’re laughing at his lines, and when you’re not laughing at his lines you’re probably laughing at his face. He has a Scottish accent in the film (most of us didn’t see him that way in the books) but I fell in love with this version of Haddock immediately as Serkis brought it to life before my eyes. There were times when shots Haddock and a flashback of Sir Francis alternate with a fluency that could only really be acchieved using motion capture.The Thompsons also have a great part in the film, and the only thing I regret about their parts is that I wish they had appeared more in the movie! ”Tintin 2”, which has been officially confirmed, is said to give them a larger role. Daniel Craig did an awesome job as the villain Sakharine, and it’s funny to recognise James Bond playing a villain’s part. He is not the most evil of villains, but he certainly beats (in my mind anyway) the ”Bird Brothers” that were the somewhat pathetic villains in the original stories. I disliked to some degree how Allan, who was a main villain in ”The crab with the golden claws” became more of a wimpy sidekick to Sakharine, but it did work well in the story.

For Tintin Fans (the only spoilers here will be spoilers to non-Tintin fans)

If you are a Tintin fan worried that they’ve taken the stories and thrown in too many pointless action scenes, don’t worry about it. There were really very few sections that I didn’t instantly recognise from one of the books,even when the trailers sometimes make it seem like there are more, and they were anything but annoying. Actually I was very pleased that finally Tintin was doing something new because much of the fun for me in watching the movie was seeing what fun new things the writers could come up with for Tintin to do without insulting the fans. As I said before, the storyline was very familiar to me, and it was good to see some changes to it to make the movie more exciting. The scene in Bagghar with a brilliant cameo appearance of Castafiore and the chaos that follows is actually one of my favorite parts. If Herge could see it today, I think he’d laugh. And the other new scene at the end,a final clash between Haddock and the villain,is a great way to finish their side of the story. Never once do the new scenes seem to make the characters do something against their personality, and if they slow down the story at all it’s only so you can take a moment to enjoy yourself and laugh at what’s going on.
Tintin DOES use a gun (just like he does in the books) but as far as I could tell he never once killed anybody and hardly if ever wounds somebody. He shoots at motors or ropes to get what he wants or protect himself.
Any Tintin fan would be a fool not to go see this in theaters while they still can! Herge’s artwork is apparent from the first 3 seconds of the movie, and both the style and music of the intro feels like you’re watching the beginning of ”Catch me if you can” with about 14 million tributes to the different Tintin albums thrown in. It’s fun to watch moments throughout the movie that have elements thrown in from different books. There are more easter eggs in this movie that any I’ve ever seen, and if you have a good Tintin fan that can go with you to watch the movie you’ll enjoy yourself that much more, because you’ll both be the only people in the theater that know why you’re laughing at what’s on the screen. I won’t say what it is, but there’s a magnificent tribute to ”Explorers on the moon” that I really enjoyed. I can’t wait to own this movie on blu-ray and watch it with all the pizza and popcorn I couldn’t afford when I watched it in IMAX, this time with the remote control to pause the image and read newspaper clippings, compare character’s faces with the albums or look for more references.

Conclusion

You really have to see this movie. Europe loved it for good reasons. If you don’t know who Tintin is, you don’t know what you’re missing. If you DO know who Tintin is, you would make a grave error to not watch this because you are worried about ”what they’ve done to Tintin”. Don’t worry about it, trust me. No matter who you are, this is a must see. It’s the biggest installment in Tintin’s history since Alpha-Art was published.
If I could make a suggestion for the next film it would only be that the next story not revolve as much around a mystery and more around whether or not Tintin will be able to complete his clearly defined objective at all (i.e save Calculus from the Bordurians…hint hint…) I love that heroic side of Tintin that will do anything to save a friend, and I hope to see that developed more in the next film.

Go out America, and enjoy the film. Spielberg, Jackson, Weta, and the whole massive team in the credits, I applaud your hard work. The wait was worth it.

Stephen

I almost lived out one of my worst nightmares…I looked online to find The Adventures of Tintin:The Imax Experience 3D and almost every theatre in my state wasn’t showing it. The few IMAX theatres that were showing anything are playing Mission Impossible 4…But at the last moment I found a place 30 minutes away that’s showing it on Thursday. I am SO excited. I’ve been waiting so terribly long, just like the rest of you. Honestly, it’s been a lot of fun to have something worth looking forward to. I would say I can’t wait to see the movie but…I can wait a little more.
I’m debating about whether or not to buy popcorn. Sure, I’ve waited years and years for this, but is any popcorn, no matter how good, worth ten bucks??? Wow…
By the way, here’s an awesome new TV spot. My favorite part is the beginning. Honestly, I never liked it much when Tintin said ”Great Snakes!”…but I absolutely love how Jamie Bell pulled it off.

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

Back in May 2007 I wrote the first post to what was then called TintinMovie.com. Four and half years later, I have finally seen the film. The question is, has it been worth the wait?

A Brief Review for Non-Tintin Fans

If you’ve never read a Tintin book or watched the cartoons, this bit of the review is for you.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is fun film for all the family with a good mix of action and humor. Much of the comedy is slapstick which has a broad appeal but there are a few more adult gags sprinkled around. The plot is simple enough for all but the smallest of children to grasp and the film rattles through it with little time spent on introspection or character development before diving into the next action sequence. Though some of those action sequences, especially the chase through Bagghar, are overly complicated.

The animation, including the motion capture, is fantastic and I completely forgot that what I was watching was not real. The cityscapes, both of Brussels and Bagghar, are wonderfully detailed and the character’s faces are expressive. At times, Tintin’s face had a slightly spooky, unreal quality and Captain Haddock’s head did not seem in proportion to his body but not in a way that detracted from the film. More disappointing was the 3D. This was the first 3D film I’ve seen and I won’t bother again. Occasionally the effects did enhance the film but more often than not they got in the way by drawing your attention to them rather than the characters and I would recommend seeing the film in 2D.

Another disappointment was the music by John Williams. There is nothing wrong with the music and it does it’s job well, however it lacks that knockout punch. There is no “Indi’s Theme” or “Emporer’s Theme” that you will be whistling as you leave the cinema.

Apart from these minor quibbles, Tintin is a good film and a great way to spend a couple hours for both adults and children.

A Longer Review for Tintin Fans

The film is great. It honours and respects the original books without being limited by them. Adapting three books into one story (Crab with the Golden Claws, Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure), has given the Spielberg and Jackson the space to take the best from the books and fit it into the very different medium of film.

Spoiler Warning

I’m going to assume that everyone has read the three books concerned but I won’t reveal anything specific to the film.

The storyline is 50% taken from Secret of the Unicorn and 30% from Crab with the Golden Claws. Only a tiny part comes from Red Rackham’s Treasure and the rest is new for the film. The two main source books are skillfully weaved together and work brilliantly. I suspect we have the skill of Steven Moffat to thank for this. Many of the key scenes from these books appear in the film – from Tintin buying the model Unicorn; Tintin & Haddock’s first meeting; the life boat and the seaplane; lost in the desert; and Thompson & Thomson in arabic dress. Often the visuals are identical to Herge’s originals and capture the full page illustrations from the book.

Where the film is weaker is where the plot does not follow the books. Particularly the sequence in Bagghar. Here it turns into an over-the-top Indiana Jones action sequence with a lot in common with a James Bond style chase from the 80s or 90s. It is beautifully done and amusing but seems out-of-place and redundent. The final showdown between Haddock and Sakharine is similarly on a large scale but it has a point in the film and also nicely echos Francis Haddock’s and Red Rackham’s sword fight.

The central characters of Tintin, Snowy and Haddock are true to the books. Haddock is a drunk and at times a coward and an idiot. Snowy is resourceful, loyal and as keen as Haddock to get at the whisky. Whilst Tintin is the perfect (almost too perfect) boy scout – honourable, smart and brave. The minor characters, such as Allan, are also consistent with the books and the cameo by Bianca Castafiore and Haddock’s reaction to her singing is excellent.

The Tintin Fan’s Film

From the opening sequence (which is fantastic and screamed out as a tribute to Saul Bass) to the last moments of the film, the movie is stuffed with Tintin references. I must confess I spent a lot of time just keeping an eye out for nods to the source material. Certain scenes, such as Omar Ben Salaad’s palace, are packed with them but there are many more subtle ones (watch out for the cans of food that Tintin has to dodge on the docks). Several times I was the only one laughing in the cinema as I spotted references*.

An early scene has the camera panning around Tintin’s study where newspaper clippings of some of his greatest adventures can be seen. Interestingly, they seem to place The Secret of the Unicorn in the correct chronologically point, i.e. none of his later adventures were featured (though I need to see the film again to be sure).

It will be obvious to any Tintin fan, from the first 30 seconds, that this film is made by people who love and respect the original. This is not a shameless plundering of a culture icon for financial gain but a real attempt to capture Tintin’s magic on the big screen. Whilst it is not a perfect or ideal adaptation of Herge’s work, it is damn close.

Chris T.

* At one point, there is a shark hanging from the ceiling. I’m sure this crops up in one book but I cannot place it. Can anyone help me out?

Nobody can read a Tintin album without marveling at the beauty of Hergé’s style. Every album is more than just a comic book: it’s a work of art. And aren’t you glad Weta kept that in mind? How many movies based on a comic book are made with the specific intention of staying true to the original artwork from the book? And what’s more, how many times do fans of such a movie get a book that explains how the animators pulled it off?

That’s what Weta and Harpercollins will give us, and I must admit this one has me more excited then the sticker books…from voxy.co.nz:

From early concept illustrations to final shots from the film and everything in between, this book gives fans a rare glimpse of the creativity that goes into making a film like this a reality. The book even includes special pieces of artwork produced exclusively for this book.

The Art of The Adventures of Tintin features forewords from Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. Oscar winners Joe Letteri and Richard Taylor also share their insights into the film-making experience in their introductions for this outstanding book.

Moulinsart, the official organisation that looks after the world of Tintin, has contributed an introductory chapter on the comic’s creator Georges Remi, aka Hergé, and has kindly provided examples of his inspirational artwork for reproduction in the book.

We can also expect some fascinating interviews with the guys at Weta.

Chris Guise, the author of The Art of The Adventures of Tintin, provides a unique perspective on the film, both as a lifelong Tintin fan and as the lead conceptual designer on the film. Guise interviewed many of his colleagues about the production of the movie and lets them tell their stories and inspiration behind their work in their own words.

That’s a must-have for any Tintin movie fan if I ever saw one…or in this case read about one. When can we actually get a look at it?

The Art of The Adventures of Tintin will be published by HarperCollins Publishers in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand simultaneously on 13 October in two exciting formats: a visually dynamic 200-page hardcover book and a ground-breaking digital e-book. The e-book will include wonderful additional imagery, special audio commentary from the film makers, character animations and extra content.

Whoa! Special commentaries and characters animations? Awesome! But hold on, back up a second. Did that say it would launch the book in October everywhere from America to New Zealand? The movie doesn’t even come out in these places until 2 months later! That’s awesome news! I suppose they just realized that since it’s available as an e-book they might as well let fans world-wide buy it at the same time. Still, it would be awesome if more Tintin movie merchandise becomes available in the US and other countries that don’t get the movie until December that early. The US will know who Tintin is!

One more thing: here’s a picture of the book’s cover. To be completely honest, I don’t like it much. It doesn’t look very natural, and and in my opinion we’ve seen Tintin look better. A lot may be the fault of the lighting or the bright colors. I’m not really sure. It actually has grown a little on me since I started writing this paragraph when I gave it a third and fourth look. I’m not sure what to think of it. But resting on the fact that I know from other shots that Tintin looks incredible, I’m sure that everything inside the book will be well worth it.

Sources: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/culture/5176211/Jackson-writes-foreward-for-Tintin-book http://www.voxy.co.nz/entertainment/weta-and-harpercollins-publishers-announce-release-new-tintin-book/5/92848

Good find Proman and ”Tintin Fan”! I can honestly say I found out about this at the same time you did, but only because I’m becoming obsessed with news and Google ”Tintin news” every 30 minutes…

Here’s  the new Tintin Video game trailer and a unique introduction from Spielberg and Jackson:

So far we have only seen images from the console version of the game, but it’s clear now that all versions of the game are to be platform games. But unlike my original impression of this idea, it turns out that may be the perfect way to make a Tintin game.

If the Tintin Teaser trailer largely revolved around showing us characters, this trailer shows us the world Tintin will be working in. And from the concept art shown to us during the introduction the result is a mix between Hergé’s style and all kinds of locations. Among the familiar locations would be Labrador Road, Morocco, or the Karaboudjan, but there are also pictures of a dark cave and Haddock walking in a large room full of ruins and old archways that don’t really match anything in the books. Jacskon himself tells us that a lot of what we’ll see in the game is not even from the movie. So don’t go grabbing every frame you see and coming up with a theory on how it could fit into the story of the movie just yet.

While maintaining Hergé’s style, the concept art and the game itself has its own cartoon style as well. Morocco reminds me of Prince of Persia (actually another popular platform game by Ubisoft). Some other parts remind me of Assassins Creed. The following wooden platforms for example:

In the actual trailer, this section reminded me enormously of Spielberg’s ”Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”. It seems ironic that after Indy borrowed from Tintin without even knowing he existed, all these years later Tintin takes a little something back from Indy:

Of course this may all just be coincidence…Anyway, one certain coincidence is the bizarre resemblance between Tintin on the roof of a mansion and the opening of another animated film based off of a book starring a young adventurous boy: Disney’s Peter Pan.

Humor aside, now it’s time to talk about the info revealed that really interests us Tintin Movie fans. Actually, there is a lot of great stuff in this video. For starters, unlike the teaser trailer, I believe the background music in this video is really from the John Williams score. I love it. It fits perfectly with Tintin and Haddock. I will definitely be buying that when it comes out.

Many of us were surprised to find one of the Bird Brothers in the video. If he were somewhere else in a cameo appearance I might wonder if he was only in the video game, but they chose to put him right at the beginning of the video. Why would they do that if he’s not a real character in the film? It’s still odd because he’s not cast. But there he is. Interesting that the one place we see him is where we would not expect to see him. His line in the trailer traditionally belonged to Barnaby. The poor character with barely two lines in the album before he’s shot down gets one of his main scenes cut out? Maybe just for the game?:

Even the man at the market stand is from the book.

Among other information that reveals stuff about the film, parts of the trailer reveal Haddock’s voice, more of Allan’s, and lots of the Karaboudjan. To the disgust of those of you who hate a ”violent” Tintin, he is seen gunning down at least one motorcycle driver with a massive pistol. There’s an interesting part where Tintin and Haddock are running away from the sinking Karaboudjan. I’m assuming that’s only for the game, because it seems to contradict what we know from the teaser trailer about people being mad that Tintin escaped from the ship. In this version, they may simply grab the seaplane and get out of there.

Focusing on the game itself, Jackson and Spielberg describe the game as being ”for the family” and not just one person sucked into a game, so it sounds like this kind of game will be perfect for those fortunate enough to have a good friend or brother to play with. Each character will have a special ability (a la Lego Star Wars) only he can do. A very interesting section of the intro is when Spielberg says ”the video game changes constantly depending on the choices you make”. If done right, that sounds like it could be a very cool feature. They also insist on the fact that this game will go beyond the Tintin film and let you explore throughout Tintin’s universe. I am already getting excited about this game. It will clearly be way better than any other Tintin game ever made. But then again, that wasn’t a very high bar to raise. My one worry is that the game may be very nice to look at and very fun to play, but may not be very difficult to complete. Whether the actual game play will appeal to us or not, we will just have to see.  But I have no real reason why they wouldn’t. After all, a family game is a family game. So far it looks incredible.

Here are a few shots from the game that weren’t in the trailer:

Now there’s Tintin’s classic pose we all know and love!

Marlinspike?

Finally, Spielberg added one interesting piece of information. He said ”I got to put on the glasses and play a level and that was REALLY thrilling!” Will this game be in 3D?  It wouldn’t mean much for me, since I don’t have a 3D television set yet and it’s not in my plans to get one in the near future…but if it were in 3D, that would still be pretty cool.

Source: http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/image.asp?ids=23_16032_30453&img=artwork/na-lqfl/tintin-1.jpg http://www.n-europe.com/news.php?nid=15575

Which one would you give it?

In a very interesting article here we find how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is forced to once again reconsider how they should treat films created using ”motion capture”. In 2010, AMPAS refused to recognize films created using this technique as eligible for the ”Best Animated Film” award, stating in their rules that “Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique.” But now Spielberg is calling his new movie an animated film. Whose going to say he’s wrong? And if it isn’t an animated film, what is it?

We’ve seen movies created using only motion-capture such as the Polar Express or A Christmas Carol. But people are quickly realizing that Tintin is about to outdo them, and any other motion-capture movie ever made. I’m not looking to offend any fans of those films. I myself enjoy several of them. But none of them have crashing airplanes or sailing pirate ships. None of them have Spielberg or Jackson working on them.  None of them have been based off of an original artistic source that thousands of people around the globe read and love. As the trailer put it, this is something we’ve ”never seen before”. And somebody’s going to want to give it an award.

It’s not fair to call it a live-action film. Sure, we must remember it was shot very similar to how you would shoot a live-action film. But it just isn’t one. The locations, the sets, the props, and even Snowy himself are all computer-generated. That’s animation. But according to some you can’t call it ”true” animation either. Companies like Pixar don’t think it’s fair for them to go through all the time and effort to animate their character’s movement from scratch just so that somebody else can scan a person to do the job for them. They made that clear in the credits for Ratatouille:  ”Our Quality Assurance Guarantee: 100% Genuine Animation! No motion capture or any other performance shortcuts were used in the production of this film.” AMPAS officially has decided to share their view on the subject.

I see where Pixar is coming from. But Spielberg isn’t just scanning people in to make an animated film that’s easier to animate. He’s using motion-capture technology to stay true to Hergé’s artwork while still allowing himself to direct and shoot the movie like he would any other movie. For all you guys on YouTube complaining about how the film should have simply been done like a Pixar film, or even for you guys who think it should have been a live-action film, THAT is the reason Spielberg made this movie the way he did. It wasn’t because he was taking a ”shortcut”. Nor was it because he wanted to be able to control all the elements, put his real film cameras into storage and shoot the rest of his movies through a computer. It was because this was the only way that  it would still REALLY look like the Tintin Hergé drew that allowed Spielberg to still use real actors, and really take the shots himself,  and direct the film like he has always directed.

Will AMPAS take this into consideration when the Oscars are given out? I hope so. Personally, I don’t care what they call the award.  What matters for me is that they give it to them.

Sources: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/awards/2011/05/for-oscar-purposes-is-spielbergs-tintin-animated.html

http://www.digitalacting.com/2010/07/13/new-oscar-rules-deem-motion-capture-not-an-animation-technique/