THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN

Though not for alcoholics, Tintin is an old-fashioned popcorn adventure that stays true to the spirit the popular series of comics.

Not many American kids are familiar with Tintin. My brother and I, however, were introduced to the cool, colorful, magazine-sized graphic adventures when we went to visit our grandparents in Denmark. Visually rich, and always full of globe-trotting adventures to sometimes fictional, but often real places, Tintin's boy journalist was always the one to sleuth out a mystery. And his super-dog Snowy? What a GOOD dog!

A big-screen adaptation seemed relatively safe with Steven Spielberg attached. And with Spielberg's trademark wink an nod, the movie opens with ginger-headed Tintin (voiced with squeaky-clean gumption by Jamie Bell) getting his portrait drawn at an outdoor bustling London market. Fans will hoot when the portrait is revealed to be the familiar line-drawing of Tintin of the books (a cartoon portrait of a CGI cartoon? reality bends...). The adventure starts right away (in this case the story is "The Secret of the Unicorn"), when Tintin buys a model ship from the market, which is immediately noticed by a slithery guy named Ivanovich Sakharine (Daniel Craig).

The model of The Unicorn, a tall ship which famously went down because of a pirate attack. Tintin needs to know why the ship is so important that a man like Sakharine was willing to pay whatever it takes, simply for a model boat. When the model is stolen from Tintin's apartment, and Tintin himself is kidnapped and thrown on a cargo ship, the race to solve the mystery gets thrown into high gear. But the movie really gets fun when Tintin joins up with uber-drunkard Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis, again showing he is the king of character actors), whose family lineage may be the key to solving the secret of The Unicorn. Haddock is a hoot, can only truly function when he is drunk—really, really drunk—and seriously seems to consume nothing but alcohol. It is actually kind of a surprise he doesn't spontaneously combust from over-saturation! Haddock is totally played for laughs, and is indeed the best thing about the movie... so if you are at all sensitive to alcoholism, or if you are a recovering alcoholic yourself, you may best stay away from this film. And I'm only half-kidding.

It is actually quite astonishing how CGI animation looks these days. Though the most "normal" looking character (Tintin himself) kind of looks the most flatly creepy (too-perfect teeth, and eyes that are still not quite right), the more cartoony types are fun, rich, and expressive (even Snowy!). There is much in Tintin that looks like it could have been pulled from an elaborate action sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark or some other live-action adventure film. The pace is non-stop, and is always visually fantastic. I especially enjoyed a fantastical sequence of two 1600s tall ships, both on fire, getting their masts entangled in a wild storm, as their cannons continue to shoot at each other and their sailors hopped from one ship to another. Fabulous!

I say grab that bowl of popcorn and enjoy The Adventures of Tintin. The Tintin series of comics has always had a cross-generational appeal. In the same way, I think people of all ages with enjoy this animated, globe-trotting adventure.