Coming off the massive success of 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, filmmaker Steven Spielberg was at the top of his game. He was reading glorious reviews from all around the world until a certain French newspaper review puzzled him. Unable to read French, he was trying to comprehend the meaning of the word “Tintin”, which was used several times in the article. With a translator, Spielberg discovered that the review was comparing the character of Indiana Jones and his globe-trotting adventures with a well-known European character named Tintin. He immediately asked to see what this Tintin was and was given several comic books of “The Adventures of Tintin”. These issues were also in French, but Spielberg fell in love with the artwork. He admired how even though he didn’t understand the language, the artwork could still tell the story for him.
Seeing a possibility of making an “Indiana Jones for kids”, Spielberg contacted Tintin’s creator Hergé. Because of Hergé’s declining health, Spielberg could not meet with him face-to-face, so they spoke only by phone. Spielberg detailed his enthusiasm for making a film adaptation of Hergé’s works but Hergé had his doubts. He had already tried to make an animated Tintin film by sending a letter to Walt Disney himself and received no response (there was never any confirmation that Disney read the letter). There were low-budget live-action Tintin films but they were not up to Hergé’s expectations. However, Spielberg intrigued him. Clearly, this was a man who got the clear idea of the character, expressed a love for the world depicted and would be true to the tone of the stories. Hergé gave Spielberg his blessing. Within months, Hergé passed away.
Spielberg began development of a Tintin film in 1983, planning to have Jack Nicholson play the irascible yet lovable drunkard Captain Haddock. Then, Spielberg realized something drastic: how could a real dog believably portray Tintin’s faithful companion Snowy? Snowy is meant to be a lot smarter than the average dog and would need to be able to express more thought. Faced with this prospect, Spielberg shelved Tintin until he met an up-and-coming New Zealand filmmaker named Peter Jackson. They met for the first time literally on stage at the Academy Awards when Spielberg handed Jackson the Oscar for Best Picture (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King). When he wasn’t watching the 1933 classic King Kong (which had a massive effect on him), Jackson had grown up reading the Tintin books. He too loved the artwork and understood the social satire and commentary within the adventures. After executive producing Jackson’s drama The Lovely Bones, Spielberg asked him if his effects company, WETA Digital, could make a digital Snowy for a live-action Tintin movie. Jackson shot test footage of himself “auditioning” for the role of Captain Haddock (in full costume) while being constantly upstaged by a dancing CG Snowy. Although Spielberg loved it, Jackson suggested that by making the film in performance capture (ala Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and King Kong in King Kong). Spielberg was initially wary – he had executive produced animated films like The Land Before Time, An American Tail and We’re Back!: A Dinosaur’s Story but never made one himself. To do an animated film, he would have to get rid of his beloved celluloid film. However, he was drawn to the technology because, as he said, “it would allow me to become more of a painter than ever before”.
Because of their collaboration and the amount of money it would take to make the film, Spielberg and Jackson had to bring together two studios -- Paramount (with Nickelodeon Movies, furthering Spielberg’s claim that Tintin was “Indiana Jones for kids”) and Columbia -- and shot the film in nearly 30 days (Jackson himself was there only for approximately 2 of those days; he oversaw the remainder of production in New Zealand at WETA Digital). Because Spielberg was an American making a Tintin film, he wanted the film to have a uniquely European voice so he hired three British screenwriters: Steven Moffat (show-runner of “Doctor Who”), Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead) and Joe Cornish (the much-praised Attack the Block). When Jackson finishes his two Hobbit films, he is supposedly ready to move into production of Tintin 2 and then Jackson and Spielberg are supposed to team up and co-direct Tintin 3, at which time the center of the Earth will crack open, the seas will boil and mountains will speak.
Tintin (Jamie Bell) is an intrepid young reporter who always gets himself into massive adventures by simply chasing a good story. He and his loyal dog, Snowy, are out shopping at a flea market when Tintin spies a model ship for sale. Immediately after purchasing it, Tintin is accosted by two individuals for possession of it, but he refuses to give it up. When he goes home, he uncovers a hidden scroll inside the ship that leads him to discovering the legend of the Unicorn (the real version of the model ship he purchased) and the hidden treasure it carried. Tintin gives the evidence to bumbling investigators, Thompson (Simon Pegg) and Thomson (Nick Frost). However, Tintin has put himself in the middle of a quest headed by the evil Sakharine (Daniel Craig) and is kidnapped and thrown onboard the captured ship of Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), himself a prisoner. Haddock and Tintin team up to escape the ship and Sakharine’s clutches. Once free, Tintin realizes that Haddock is the last surviving descendent of the captain of the Unicorn. The scroll that Tintin has refers to a mystery that only Haddock himself can solve, but unfortunately is too reliant on alcohol and whiskey to keep his memory straight. Tintin, Haddock and Snowy travel the globe literally by plane, by sea and by land in order to stay one step ahead of Sakharine, unravel the mystery of the Unicorn and uncover the Haddock treasure.
In one movie, Steven Spielberg has shown a better handle of performance capture than Robert Zemeckis has in three (it hurts to say). Zemeckis used performance capture to reinvent stories we all know. Spielberg uses performance capture to bring to life ambitious artwork and also move the camera around in ways that would be impossible in live-action. This is Spielberg’s most visually insane movie; in a good way. There is a whole entire action sequence that mirrors the bike chase in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but practically does it all in one take and involves a tank, a dam and chasing a hawk. It’s incredibly massive and complex but visually exciting to watch. It’s good to see that Andy Serkis, who has been getting massive (and much deserved) praise after his performance as Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, has a more playful role here as Captain Haddock. His delivery is quite funny and his movements are fantastic. He also gives a great monologue to Tintin about not letting failure define who you are.
Many have claimed that this is Spielberg’s “apology movie”, after the dismal fan reception of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. They like that Spielberg has teamed with Peter Jackson rather than the “evil” George Lucas. While I would agree that this film is better than Crystal Skull, Indiana Jones as a character is larger than just one movie. He’s certainly a better character emotionally than Tintin. Tintin is a bit bland, running mostly on enthusiasm. We don’t know a thing about him, how he became a reporter, who his family is. We’re just introduced to him, although the nice Catch Me If You Can-esque title sequence tries to explain visually what he does and the type of adventures he’s pulled into. Granted, you could say the same thing about Indy in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but he’s given a much broader scope. Harrison Ford is charming (back in the day when he wasn’t Mr. Grumpy Gills), intelligent and tough. I know it’s not quite fair to try to compare a legend like Ford to an up-and-coming actor like Jamie Bell, but if people are making the Indiana Jones connections they need to set the record straight.
Still, Tintin is quite an enjoyable film. It’s certainly Spielberg’s most genuinely fun film in quite a while. It’s good to hear John Williams back in action who apparently only does scores for Spielberg and Lucas nowadays. After the disastrous results of Mars Needs Moms, it took a master to make a much derided evolving technology get some respect from the film community (not to mention WETA’s work on Rise of the Planet of the Apes). I can’t wait to see more from the team of Spielberg and Jackson.
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