Review: The Adventures of Tintin – The Secret Of The Unicorn 3D

Oct 30, 2011

Written by: Dee Pilgrim

Herge’s adventures of Tintin are a national institution in his native Belgium, so what better way to judge just how successful Steven Spielberg’s CGI animated version of Tintin and The Secret Of The Unicorn than to take a Belgian along to see it.

The result? A massive thumbs up to a thoroughly entertaining, good old fashioned boy’s own romp. Some viewers may be put off initially by the seeming blandness of the animated faces, but keep watching and soon this becomes irrelevant because the level of detail within each frame of this film is astonishing.

The opening scene is of Tintin walking through a flea market in a large city square, where every item of bric-a-brac on every stall is lovingly drawn; from mirrors to books to the glass-encased model of the sailing ship, The Unicorn, which our young reporter (voiced by Jamie Bell with just the right amount of schoolboy enthusiasm) picks up for a bargain price.

This is the start of his adventure as a lot of other people want to get their hands on the model too and soon Tintin is dodging bullets, flying in seaplanes, driving motorcycles, and outwitting the bad guys in his quest to get to the bottom of why the model is so important. Along the way he is both aided and hindered by the alcohol-befuddled Captain Haddock (another sterling bit of motion capture and voice acting from Andy Serkis) while being pursued by the enigmatic Mr Sakharine (Daniel Craig).

There are some stand-out action sequences reminiscent of the early days of Indiana Jones (a seaplane crashing into desert dunes, a motorcycle and sidecar almost bringing about the destruction of a whole city) which really will have you on the edge of your seat, while the drunken bletherings of salty seadog Cap’n Haddock add plenty of humour to proceedings.

At 107 minutes the film is a romp from beginning to end and will leave you impatient to see the next episode of Tintin’s adventures, for make no mistake this is one franchise that will run and run.

Author: Dee Pilgrim

Dee always knew she wanted to make her living from writing and so trained as a journalist before working for a variety of music and women’s titles including Sounds, Company, Cosmopolitan, Ms London, New Woman, and Girl About Town. After going freelance she concentrated on celebrity interviews and film, theatre, music and restaurant reviews. Her love of film goes back to her very first cinema experience at the age of five when her mother took her to see Bambi. She cried. At one time she was the Film Editor for NOW magazine and also the secretary for the film section of the Critics’ Circle and the celebrity coordinator for its annual film awards’ event. She has written a number of books for teenagers through Trotman Publishing, including five Real Life Guides to vocational careers (including Carpentry, Plumbing and Catering), and also three books on Real Life Issues (Money, Bereavement and Self Harm). Her favourite film is still Bladerunner.