The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn - Thoughts

A few months ago I noticed an HD trailer for The Adventures of Tintin become available, and was instantly thrilled that Tintin was making a revival. The trailer was fun and between then and now, I patiently waited for the release of the movie. Having been a fan of the books, and having read every single one, the appreciation and anticipation was a given. In this episode, The Secret of the Unicorn, Tintin comes into possession of a model ship, and what begins there innocently enough involves Tintin in an adventure to find the sunken ship. During his pursuit of the story behind the model, Tintin and Snowy meet captain Haddock for the first time.

There are very few remakes and revivals that live up to the hype or stay true to the original. The Adventures of Tintin will have to be one of the few exceptions to that generalization. Not only was it great to be able to see all the old characters in a motion picture, but the mystery/humor element of the books had also been successfully transitioned to the big screen. Pace was just right, being a perfect balance between slightly slower mystery situations, and ultra fast paced adventure chase sequences. In terms of audience appeal, The Adventures of Tintin will pretty much work for all ages, with an exception of very young children perhaps. Those who have read the books will instantly relate to it, and those who are seeing it for the first time will be introduced to something that they can love and look forward o more of. In short, you just cannot go wrong with The Adventures of Tintin.

All of the characters are CGI, and the character models are pretty impressive and true to the books. Thanks to impressive motion capture techniques, all the characters look and feel very real; expressions being outstanding. Needless to say, Tintin is the lead character and the driving force in the plot. His pursuit to push on is what keeps the narrative running. I personally felt that Captain Haddock had more personality in the books, but I may have concluded that based on reading several books and not just one. So to be fair, for just the first episode, this is possibly an accurate portrayal. For large part, in The Secret of the Unicorn, Haddocks role is mostly comic, providing constant humor to the ongoing narrative. The Inspectors Thompson and Thompson are truly a treat. The first scene that I saw them brought a big smile to my face, filled with memories of the books.

Considering I wasn’t willing to wait for the DVD release, I watched The Adventures of Tintin in the theatre in 3D. The colors and visual were wonderfully done, with each of the scene seeming like it were out of the comic. Video remained clear, and even the usual dark tone associated to 3D movies was very minimal if at all noticeable. The use of 3D was good; with all the scenes having a good sense of depth and perspective. Worth mention were the funny opening credits which themselves were in 3D.  Sound was presented by means of a 5.1 surround soundtrack. Dialog was clear, and sounds effects were decent. Surround stage usage was minimal, but sufficient. 

My Recommendation: Watch It + (Bringing the book to life; Tintin better than ever!)