I'm a huge Tintin fan but I must admit my heart sank when it was announced that Steven Spielberg was making a film. You can watch the trailer on the imdb website.
I'm not opposed to Spielberg's work. Often he is brilliant. But when it comes to Tintin, I'm a purist: Herge's work was special and I can't imagine it in any other form than his strips - flawed as they may be.
There is no doubt that this trailer looks thrilling - and at first glance the animation is a brilliant rendition of Herge's originals. But of course trailers always look thrilling, that's the point of them. I have two observations on this one: Tintin's voice grates in a way that is unexpected. It somehow manages to be both bland AND irritating.
Then there is the CGI. The characters look authentic at first but then you realise that it is as if they have all had a supertreatment of botox. There is something expressionless, you could almost say 'Nicole-Kidmanesque' about them.
In that sense, the animation doesn't look that different to the sort of thing we were seeing ten years ago. Great in stills, terrible in the cinema.
As for the plot: what's he done? I said, WHAT HAS HE DONE? Instead of doing the obvious, the thing all the fans would have loved, which is serve up the Unicorn stories on the big screen he has instead created some sort of mega mash up. Its the Unicorn, but it seems to have bits of the other books in there too - plus some scenes Herge never came up with (A bazooka?).
I'm disappointed. Alas.... one for the DVD perhaps...
Update: As the release of this film gets closer I've decided to hell with purity. Tintin is hugely fun and entertaining and if Spielberg has managed to recast it for a new generation, then great. I'm looking forward to this now...
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