The Adventures of TinTin

The Adventures of Tin Tin is a film directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings trilogy.  The film revolves around a young intrepid reporter named Tin Tin and his dog Snowy.  In this adventure, Tin Tin and Snowy discover a small scroll of paper inside a model ship Tin Tin purchases.  This piece of paper leads Tin Tin and Snowy on a journey to discover the treasure of Sir Francis Haddock.  TinTin is helped on this adventure by Captain Haddock and the Thompson brothers who are Interpol policemen.

The Adventures of TinTin has the tone and scope of Raiders of the Lost Ark.  I liked TinTin because regardless of how much trouble he gets in, he always has hope he’ll reach his goal and he usually does.  TinTin is in his heart an explorer of truth and he has an unbelievable amount of faith in people.  For instance, Captain Haddock, a descendant of Sir Francis Haddock, is one of the first people TinTin befriends and despite the fact that Haddock is clearly an alcoholic, TinTin supports Haddock while they venture on the journey to find the treasure.  The CGI in this film is absolutely spectacular.  Characters and objects in the film move realistically and look human.  I found myself getting lost in the beauty of all the images I was seeing rather than being completely engrossed by the characters and their story.  The detail of the Unicorn ship that Tintin and Captain Haddock are chasing after is astounding and watching the action scenes in this film took my breath away.

Spielberg works very hard to continually put the audience at the center of the action.  I never had to wonder where the story was going it was easy to follow and interesting.  This film took me to the earliest parts of my childhood and I loved watching this boy adventurer.  I thoroughly enjoyed TinTIn and if I had one complaint it would be that the pacing of the film felt slightly off to me.  The film was constantly packed with some form of adventure and I felt like it was difficult to keep up in specific scenes throughout the film.  Some scenes felt entirely too brisk for me.  I wanted the characters and their respective journeys to happen just a bit slower.

For the beginning of an animated franchise The Adventures of TinTin is a fine example of how to properly introduce a popular and beloved literary character.  Move over Indiana Jones, it looks like adventure has a new name.