Tintin Wins The Seal Of Approval

 This is an article from my local newspaper. As I'm sure most of you are aware Steven Spielberg has been in NZ using Peter Jackson's studio to make this Tintin adaptation. I have seen the trailer twice now in the last six weeks and if I do say so myself it looks impressive! It has been quite a while since Spielberg has made anything of note. I think he has been off the boil now for quite a number of years. Maybe Tintin and Warhorse ( whose trailer I saw today ) will see him back to true form. I must admit to be being seriously excited by the prospect of this. It has been in the works for years and it has finally, finally happened. The only other film coming on the horizon that has me as excited is the prospect of the next Bond film. Anyway enough of my ramblings to the article, as I'm sure that is what you came for!!

 Thundering typhoons! Steven Spielberg has won the seal of approval of Tintin's native land and that's no mean feat. In Tintin's home city of Brussels, movie journalists got a sneak preview of The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn this week, and knives were sharpened in case it turned out that some Hollywood mogul had barged in and desecrated perhaps Europe's greatest cartoon character ever.

 Have no fear. By the end of the film, the critics were as beguiled by it as Tintin's sidekick Captain Haddock by a bottle of whisky. " Bull's eye, " headlined the Dutch-speaking De Standaard newspaper. " A pure jewel " the Francophile Le Soir had on its front page, showing that the ever-bickering linguistic groups in this culturally divided nation had found a rare issue on which they could agree. Director Spielberg will attend the October 22 world premiere in person, knowing the critics have rolled out the red carpet.

 The Adventures of Tintin co-produced by Sir Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame, aspires to become a Christmas blockbuster in the United states. But like the fearless young reporter that Tintin is, the movie seeks out the road less travelled to success. Instead of launching in the United states, it takes on the world first, counting on releases in Europe, Asia and the Middle east to create enough of a buzz among American fans for whom the magic word Tintin is often still an unknown quantity.

 In France, Le Figaro magazine has already called it " the most anticipated movie of  2011 ". The cartoon books have been translated into 70-plus languages from Chinese to Armenian, with English and Spanish thrown in, and sold in the tens of millions of copies. But only in Belgium has it been ingrained in the DNA of most youngsters since the 1950s. It has left cartoonist Herge, who died in 1983, as a national treasure.

 And from the movie's start, Spielberg makes a solemn bow to Belgium and the artist, setting the opening scene at a bric-a-brac market where Herge is a boardwalk artist drawing many of the real characters from his two dozen books. The roughly drawn sketches are the perfect transition to the movie's world of performance capture technology, in which digital renderings are made of performances by live actors, with computer imagery added to create a combination of live action layered with digital animation. " Did I capture something of the likeness, " the computerised Herge asks the model.

 The emphatic yes applies to Spielberg's scene-setting as well. Most amazing of all, the spirit of the yellowing pages with fading colours of old Tintin albums that so many Belgians have stocked in cellars and attics travels exceedingly well through time into 21st century bits and bytes. " The American has fully grasped the Herge grammar, " said Le Soir. Those Hollywood types recreated 1940s Belgium to such an extent that De Standaard critic wrote in admiration that " the sidewalks and facades of Brussels are recognisable ". Spielberg does stick fully to one line running through all the Tintin cartoons : the movie has no romantic interest.

 I have read two differing dates for its release here in NZ. Either I5th or 26th December. As I stated I'm looking forward to it. Maybe with the undoubted success this is going to be we may see the same technique used on that other brilliant European cartoon creation Asterisk!! Even though not yet released wikipedia has a page that is well worth a look at.

 Click here for a visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Tintin:_Secret_of_the_Unicorn