Until now, for most of the Americans, the name "Tintin" didn't mean that much, but when Steven Spielberg new movie will be released at the end of the year this might change a bit. Actually, America is probably the country in the world where The Adventures of Tintin is the less known. But come in Europe and ask anyone if they know the hero and they'll look at you and say: are you kidding? i know him almost since i was born, everyone here knows Tintin!
And not since yesterday, but at least since 60 years! Actually, i think that Tintin, a globe trotter reporter, was more popular - specially in Europe - than Mickey was since the 1950's or even before. What is really amazing in fact is how the Adventures of Tintin never succeeded to be popular in America! There is a lot of good reasons for that and i could spend a lot of time explaining them but instead i'd like to come back to the Spielberg adaptation, incredibly awaited in Europe as everyone is looking to see how Spielberg will succeed to do a movie from this immensely popular comic book series, almost impossible to adapt.
Mind you, in the 1960's two live action movies were done and an animation studio was created in Belgium to produce animated movies of Europe's most beloved comic book hero. Considering the era these movies were not bad but the problem with an adaptation of Tintin is that the dozens of millions of readers who've read his stories have their own mental image of Tintin as well as the others characters of the stories. And because Hergé - the creator of Tintin - was a genius - definitely a genius, really - each character have so much humanity and that doesn't help when you try to do a movie out of the Adventures of Tintin.
The good point is that it's two highly talented directors who've decided to do the impossible: Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. Right now, three movies are planned, the first one is directed by Spielberg, the second one will be done by Peter Jackson and we still wait for the director's name of the third one. Spielberg movie will be based on the "Secret of the Unicorn" album, but as Steven wanted to introduce the others main characters, the beginning of the movie will be inspired by another album called "The Crab with the Golden Claws".
Spielberg got the rights from Hergé widow in 1984 - why it took so long to him to do the movie is a long and interesting story that you can read HERE - and he thought that a live action movie was not maybe the best way to adapt Tintin. Instead he choose to do the movie in motion capture computer animation - the same techniqe used by Robert Zemeckis for his "Scrooge" last year or more recently "Mars needs Moms". Although i am not a big fan of the Zemeckis movies i think Spielberg did probably the right choice. It will be interesting to see the result next December.
Recently, a first trailer was released and i must say that it looks not bad at all. Interesting, really. So, have a look at this first Tintin trailer - until the end if you want to discover the "digital face" of Tintin - and let me know what you think of it.
I, personally, can't wait to watch the whole movie next December to see if Spielberg has succeeded to find the right "spirit of innocence" for Tintin and each of the beloved characters.
Pictures and video: copyright Sony Pictures
