Review of The Adventures of Tintin (2011) by Cincinnatidave — 22 Dec 2011

It had great potential, and started off with a "bang", but it fell apart as the movie progressed. What a shame, because it looks gorgeous! I wanted to like it SO much, but there were too many problems to overlook.

The biggest obstacle for me was the intentional choice to render some of the characters with deadpan human-like realism, while drawing others as caricatures with exaggerated facial features...especially big noses.

Not just big, but gargantuan noses. We all just kept asking "why?" Why make the choice to draw the settings and objects to look absolutely real, and then fill it with characters that look out of place.

There is a very clever moment in the beginning when Tintin is sitting down at a street bazaar to have his picture drawn, and he marvels at how good it looks, even though it appears to be a "normal" crude cartoon drawing.

Seeing the two styles of rendering side by side only enhances the incredible accomplishment they achieved with the realistic drawings. Another puzzlement comes with Spielberg's choice to make Tintin appear as such a young boy.

He looks ten, but lives alone, carries a gun, shoots skillfully at people, has a job that he has held for quite awhile, drives, and also flies airplanes. A young man of 18 or 19 feels appropriate with his circumstances, but not a little boy.

I guess I will always question the need for a cartoon that hires "real" actors for their voices, puts them in special computer suits to capture their "real" movements, and is then drawn with such meticulous attention to detail that it looks "real".

..Why? What is the point? Why not just film it from the beginning with "real" actors and "real locations"? Looking forward to Warhorse.