Movie Review - "The Adventures of Tintin" 12/21/2011

This review is for the movie "The Adventures of Tintin", released December 21, 2011.

Trailer:

Criteria:

0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.

1/5 – Barely worth any time.

2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.

3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.

4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.

5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.

Viewed 5/27/2014.

Finally a family-friendly movie for me to watch!  Well, there are a few snags with this movie but that happens in all movies, right?  Can't be 100% family-friendly with what is out there unless it is like Barney or Sesame Street, right?

Anyways, this movie came out December 21, 2011.  This is an animated movie based on a comic strip.  I had never heard of the comic strip or of the characters before this came out, so I had little to go on in that aspect.

The opening credits supposedly tell about what Tintin did previously, catching bad guys and saving artifacts while working on a journalist post.  It made no sense at first to me because I hadn't heard of the characters beforehand but, during the movie, it made a lot more sense.  I was just glad that the opening credits did not have a "this is what is going to happen" kind of feel/reveal.

Plotline:

A young British journalist (like twenties or thirties?) named Tintin and his white dog Snowy buy a model ship "Triple Mast. Double Deck." of the ship The Unicorn.  The captain of the ship was Captain Haddock.  Tintin ends up getting tangled in a vengence complex between Haddock's decendant and a pirate named Red Rackham's decendant.  Everyone is looking for three copies of the model ship The Unicorn because there is a treasure map (more or less) hidden in the models' masts.

Of course, the models are not in the same place and so Tintin, Snowy, and Captain Haddock need to go on an adventure to go find the third model, while Rackham's decendant is chasing them to get it first.

SPOILERS: It all comes down to a fight between Haddock and Rackham's decendant over the scrolls.  The loser goes to jail and the winner gets to go find the treasure. :-)

Character Development:

Everyone stays the same except Captain Haddock.  Captain Haddock goes from this blundering fool obsessed with the alcohol bottle to one who is ready to stand up for his inheritance, maybe with a bottle nearby.  Closer to the end of the movie, he actually uses some bottles as weapons against Rackham's decendant - launching them at his opponent.

Content:

There is alcohol (and alcohol abuse) and smoking in the movie.  But isn't that the life of a pirate or a sea captain, sad though it is?

Also, some "violent" action but nothing graphic and gory.

I found a clip of the original comic show "The Adventures of Tintin".  If you are interested, here it is:

Comparing the 2011 movie to this 1991 comic show, I think that they did pretty darn well creating the movie.  I think that the movie was better than the show, more character development and all that, but the show was not bad (from what I can see).

I found it interesting that this was a Steven Spielberg [E.T., Saving Private Ryan, etc.], Peter Jackson [Lord of the Rings], and Steven Moffat [Doctor Who] film.  I did not see Moffat's name in the credit, though, but he was a help in the screenplay writing.

Between all three of these artists, they came up with a wonderfully moving movie that kept the viewer interested and gave the viewer a sense of wonder.  It was well made and also was almost accepted as "real" though it was an animated movie.

Rating:

5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.

4.5 - Pretty darn good movie but not 100% recommended, especially for those that have children.  Or if you do have children and want to watch this, I suggest sitting down and talking with them about alcohol and alcohol use/abuse.  Other than that, a very good movie.  Well made.