THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN (Steven Spielberg). Opens Wednesday (December 21). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNNN
Steven Spielberg’s debut animated feature, The Adventures Of Tintin, is the first “performance capture” movie that doesn’t look like it’s populated by walleyed zombies. More importantly, it’s a ripping adventure that introduces French cartoonist Hergé’s boy journalist, his faithful terrier, Snowy, and the boozy but noble Captain Haddock to a new generation of viewers.
Based primarily on the adventure titled The Secret Of The Unicorn, the movie shows us how Tintin (played by Billy Elliot’s Jamie Bell) first meets Haddock (Andy Serkis, who pioneered performance capture as Gollum in The Lord Of The Rings) while chasing a story involving model ships, a shady fellow (Daniel Craig, whose character resembles a crankier than usual Kelsey Grammer) and pirate gold.
Really, though, the mystery is just an excuse for Spielberg to craft a series of amazingly ambitious action sequences, one of which is as complex as the great truck chase in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, but without the restrictions (and safety concerns) of a physical shoot. Which means the “camera” can spin above, below and all around the chase as it plays out, with John Williams’s rousing score and some impressive 3-D effects adding extra punch.
It’s thrilling – and, incidentally, a much more satisfying follow-up to Spielberg’s original Indiana Jones trilogy than that thing with the crystal skulls.
