A few nights ago, we watched The Adventures of TinTin for the first time. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but had been told it was good, so we rented it from Netflix. I loved it! Our daughter described TinTin as being “like Pirates of the Caribbean meets Indiana Jones… with construction crane sword fighting and the world’s cutest dog thrown in for extra fantasticness.” Add to that a John Williams score (often reminiscent of his Harry Potter scores), production by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, Spielberg’s direction, amazing motion-capture CGI, excellent voice and motion work by Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Jamie Bell and others, and a large dollop of both humor and adventure (the movie is, after all, based on the classic graphic novels by Herge, which featured both.) The result is a movie that frequently had me smiling or laughing in delight.
TinTin is a young reporter who travels the world with his faithful dog Snowy. While in an open-air market, he buys a model of an old sailing ship, the Unicorn. TinTin finds he’s not the only one interested in the Unicorn; he turns down several offers to buy it from him before the model is stolen from his flat. Intrigued, TinTin sets out to discover the secret of the Unicorn, beginning a dizzying series of adventures involving a drunken sea captain, a family curse, a sunken treasure, a descendent bent upon revenge, a daring seaplane ride, and a wild ride down through a cliffside Morrocan city.
Spielberg and Jackson have captured the innocence and wonder of classic boy’s adventure tales and turned them into a delightful family film. If you haven’t seen it, you can rent The Adventures of TinTin from Netflix, Redbox, or Amazon Instant Video.
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| Captain Haddock, TinTin, and Snowy |
