Spielberg finds his inner boy in ‘The Adventures of Tintin’

Steven Spielberg has always been attracted to finding the small, clever ways to tell big, often overwhelming stories. Whether it’s seeing the fin stick out of the choppy ocean water for the first time or the small light glowing at the tip of an alien finger, he has placed his characters in unprecedented situations, always letting them use their inner humanity and familial spirit as buoys against the pending storm.

In The Adventures of Tintin, a raucous animated film that lives up to its title, the famous director continues his streak of effective storytelling that always comes back to the small things in life, no matter the scope of the story.

What makes the 107-minute movie so gutsy is that it’s not an origins tale. We don’t learn about Tintin as a child. We don’t explore his parental situation. We don’t even question why he’s a newspaper reporter at such a young, indefinable age. The movie begins with action, ends with action and rarely lets up before the credits roll. It’s almost as if the audience is flipping through another adventure in the Tintin comic book series, popularized by Belgian artist Hergé (real name: Georges Prosper Remi).

This bold in-medias-res storytelling means that the audience is unable to take a breath for much of the film, but it also strips the movie of any unnecessary exposition.

Helping our young reporter with his latest case is his trusty dog, Snowy, and a salty man of the sea, Captain Haddock (voiced by Andy Serkis, the god of motion-capture animation). The three find themselves knee-deep in an international escapade involving the buried treasure of a sunken pirate ship.

Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell) wants the story for his newspaper, while Haddock has an ancestral tie to a mariner on the sunken ship.

Of course, finding the gold coins isn’t easy. This is a high-stakes and high-seas adventure, after all. Ivanovich Sakharine (voiced by Daniel Craig) also wants the treasure, and he’s willing to stop at nothing to find it.

There are subplots involving secret messages wrapped in the masts of model ships, but the convoluted details become secondary to the nonstop action. This is a movie incapable of pressing the Pause button. Within a few minutes, the characters are stranded at sea, rollicking toward the Sahara Desert in a propeller plane and trying to capture a falcon in mid-flight. There’s a lot of destruction with few worries about who may foot the bill.

The animation is exquisitely rendered. Spielberg and his team have created a unique visual style that accentuates the emotions of each character in their intricate facial movements. Haddock is a bumbling klutz who waxes romantic about his maritime experience; his face is characteristically haggard and jolly. Sakharine is a slimy villain with riches on his mind; his face is pointy and almost diabolical in nature.

Tintin has an innocent, wrinkle-free facade, but don’t let that fool you. This boy reporter can parry with the best of them. He’s as comfortable in the shadowy aisles of a library conducting research as he is rappelling down a rope wielding a gun.

In fact, the largest surprise about The Adventures of Tintin is how grown-up it feels. In the past, Spielberg changed handguns over to walkie-talkies for the cinematic reboot of E.T. In this animated feature, just about everyone has a gun, knife or cane and knows how to expertly use it.

The script by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish is decidedly British and high-minded. I heard “troglodyte” mentioned a few times and Haddock’s alcoholism is dealt with head-on, as if the kids in the audience will know the definition of detox. This one may be that rare family flick that is enjoyed more by parents than children.

Whether or not the action-packed film wins over audiences, there’s no denying that The Adventures of Tintin fits nicely into Spielberg’s canon. Even with the animation, the director is able to stage classic-looking scenes that are brilliantly executed. It’s a big story, but there’s a focus on the small tidbits.

There’s one sequence where the workers on a ship slowly roll back and forth as they slumber on the undulating boat.

Another scene finds Tintin’s iconic upturned bangs sticking out of the water, almost looking like a shark fin. Was I the only one half-expecting to hear … bah-dum, bah-dum, bah-dum?

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

 

• The Adventures of Tintin

• Directed by Steven Spielberg

• Written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish

• Featuring the voices of Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, Cary Elwes and Nick Frost

• Running time: 107 minutes

• Rated PG for adventure action violence, some drunkenness and brief smoking

• Rating: