![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrasteEver since I heard that Steven Speilberg and Peter Jackson were making this film, I have felt a blend of anticipation and nervousness. You see, I have wanted someone to make a Tintin movie since I was a child. The Nelvana animated series was pretty good, but I have always longed for an adaption of Tintin that would, well, adapt rather than just animate. Luckily I was not disappointed.
The film condenses several different comic adventures and adds stuff, but it gets all the things I love most about Tintin right. The Thom(p)sons! Captain Haddock! SNOWY!
I think what I loved most was the level of background detail, especially the stuff that only the comic fans would get. (I could tell the two people next to me in the theater were readers, because they laughed with me at the tins of crab meat on the dock.) Attention to background detail was a hallmark of the comics, and its nice to see all the little things here.
What I was most concerned about when I heard they were doing a film adaptation was whether they would get Captain Haddock right. When I heard they were casting Andy Serkis, I relaxed, and I was right to do so. He's marvellous in this, and gets across all that glorious drunken Haddock personality. I had a moment of 'bwah?' when I first heard the accent, but Scottish seems to work for Serkis and the geography of all this is pretty vague anyway. (The English translations never really specified where exactly Haddock is meant to be from; I don't know if the Belgian originals had any more to say on the subject.) They were absolutely right to pick The Crab With the Golden Claws and The Secret of the Unicorn for the first story, since it gives us the story of how Tintin and Haddock meet and become BFFs.
I am also glad to report that the film contained sufficient Snowy. I was a bit worried about this, since screen adaptations understandably leave out his little asides, but he gets plenty to do and saves the day more the once. And is also fluffy and adorable.
I may have made high-pitched squeaking noises when they first mentioned the Milanese Nightingale. And there she was, in all her high-pitched glory! She was even relevant to the plot. I am only sorry Bianca did not get to actually meet Captain Haddock and call him entertainingly wrong things.
Today I went to the IMDB message boards and found a bunch of idiots claiming that no true fan of the comics could possibly like the movie. Then I rolled my eyes a lot and plotted to see it again next weekend. (I mean, I am cool with other people not liking things I like. Just not with declaring people who like the film fake fans!)
The only thing I am sad about is that I have to wait until at least 2014 to see a sequel, and that they are probably never going to adapt The Blue Lotus and Tintin in Tibet.
The film condenses several different comic adventures and adds stuff, but it gets all the things I love most about Tintin right. The Thom(p)sons! Captain Haddock! SNOWY!
I think what I loved most was the level of background detail, especially the stuff that only the comic fans would get. (I could tell the two people next to me in the theater were readers, because they laughed with me at the tins of crab meat on the dock.) Attention to background detail was a hallmark of the comics, and its nice to see all the little things here.
What I was most concerned about when I heard they were doing a film adaptation was whether they would get Captain Haddock right. When I heard they were casting Andy Serkis, I relaxed, and I was right to do so. He's marvellous in this, and gets across all that glorious drunken Haddock personality. I had a moment of 'bwah?' when I first heard the accent, but Scottish seems to work for Serkis and the geography of all this is pretty vague anyway. (The English translations never really specified where exactly Haddock is meant to be from; I don't know if the Belgian originals had any more to say on the subject.) They were absolutely right to pick The Crab With the Golden Claws and The Secret of the Unicorn for the first story, since it gives us the story of how Tintin and Haddock meet and become BFFs.
I am also glad to report that the film contained sufficient Snowy. I was a bit worried about this, since screen adaptations understandably leave out his little asides, but he gets plenty to do and saves the day more the once. And is also fluffy and adorable.
I may have made high-pitched squeaking noises when they first mentioned the Milanese Nightingale. And there she was, in all her high-pitched glory! She was even relevant to the plot. I am only sorry Bianca did not get to actually meet Captain Haddock and call him entertainingly wrong things.
Today I went to the IMDB message boards and found a bunch of idiots claiming that no true fan of the comics could possibly like the movie. Then I rolled my eyes a lot and plotted to see it again next weekend. (I mean, I am cool with other people not liking things I like. Just not with declaring people who like the film fake fans!)
The only thing I am sad about is that I have to wait until at least 2014 to see a sequel, and that they are probably never going to adapt The Blue Lotus and Tintin in Tibet.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-02 06:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-03 11:34 am (UTC)I was sitting there thinking 'Tintin! You are so busy looking for treasure that you have forgotten to foil a drug ring today! Interpol are going to think that you're slipping.'
And I think my favourite line in the whole thing was 'Sugar additive'. XD
Yes, that was great *g*.
I also loved Captain Haddock reacting to Bianca Castafiore's poster with 'what a dish!' Oh, Captain. You will not feel that way after you hear her sing.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-02 12:02 pm (UTC)I could see people trying with Tintin in Tibet, but it would be tough to get across the sparseness of the page and some of the features that made the comic truly excellent. With regards to the Blue Lotus... I just can't see that not being super racially awkward at best. Let's face it, the whole boy's own adventure style got pretty ridiculous when it came to "foreigners." That's not to say the comic can't be appreciated or read in its own right but to push it along would probably be a mistake. Then again, maybe with real people instead of racial cariactures it might be at least 70% less racist.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-01-03 11:59 am (UTC)Alas, no, but the opening credits are very cool nevertheless.
And is the movie as girl-free as the comics, Bianca notwithstanding?
It is indeed, which may actually be for the best. (I am not sure how anyone would go about adding female characters to a Tintin story, save with a crowbar. And I'm also not sure the kind of female characters a big budget Hollywood film version would be likely add would actually make me happy.)
I could see people trying with Tintin in Tibet, but it would be tough to get across the sparseness of the page and some of the features that made the comic truly excellent.
Yeah, it's essentially sixty-odd pages of Tintin, Haddock and Snowy climbing a mountain. I think that even if they did an adaptation they would feel compelled to have STUFF HAPPENING and BAD GUYS which would not really be in keeping with the mood. The main enemy in that story is the weather and the terrain.
With regards to the Blue Lotus... I just can't see that not being super racially awkward at best. Let's face it, the whole boy's own adventure style got pretty ridiculous when it came to "foreigners." That's not to say the comic can't be appreciated or read in its own right but to push it along would probably be a mistake. Then again, maybe with real people instead of racial cariactures it might be at least 70% less racist.
The thing with The Blue Lotus is that the Japanese characters are Yellow Peril stereotypes, and the Chinese characters are ... well, they have about as many dimensions as anyone ever does in a Tintin story. I don't know how you'd lift it out of the context in which it was written, when Japan was about to invade China.
The trouble is, though, for all the problems with adapting those two stories to the screen, they have one thing in them I really want to see: Chang! I guess they could just take Chang and stick him in whatever story they were otherwise adapting, although I don't know what he'd be doing wandering around Red Rackham's Treasure or The Calculus Affair.