Until now, for most of the Americans, the name "Tintin" didn't mean that much, but when Steven Spielberg new movie will be released at the end of the year this might change a bit. Actually, America is probably the country in the world where The Adventures of Tintin is the less known. But come in Europe and ask anyone if they know the hero and they'll look at you and say: are you kidding? i know him almost since i was born, everyone here knows Tintin!
And not since yesterday, but at least since 60 years! Actually, i think that Tintin, a globe trotter reporter, was more popular - specially in Europe - than Mickey was since the 1950's or even before. What is really amazing in fact is how the Adventures of Tintin never succeeded to be popular in America! There is a lot of good reasons for that and i could spend a lot of time explaining them but instead i'd like to come back to the Spielberg adaptation, incredibly awaited in Europe as everyone is looking to see how Spielberg will succeed to do a movie from this immensely popular comic book series, almost impossible to adapt.
Mind you, in the 1960's two live action movies were done and an animation studio was created in Belgium to produce animated movies of Europe's most beloved comic book hero. Considering the era these movies were not bad but the problem with an adaptation of Tintin is that the dozens of millions of readers who've read his stories have their own mental image of Tintin as well as the others characters of the stories. And because Hergé - the creator of Tintin - was a genius - definitely a genius, really - each character have so much humanity and that doesn't help when you try to do a movie out of the Adventures of Tintin.
The good point is that it's two highly talented directors who've decided to do the impossible: Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson. Right now, three movies are planned, the first one is directed by Spielberg, the second one will be done by Peter Jackson and we still wait for the director's name of the third one. Spielberg movie will be based on the "Secret of the Unicorn" album, but as Steven wanted to introduce the others main characters, the beginning of the movie will be inspired by another album called "The Crab with the Golden Claws".
Spielberg got the rights from Hergé widow in 1984 - why it took so long to him to do the movie is a long and interesting story that you can read HERE - and he thought that a live action movie was not maybe the best way to adapt Tintin. Instead he choose to do the movie in motion capture computer animation - the same techniqe used by Robert Zemeckis for his "Scrooge" last year or more recently "Mars needs Moms". Although i am not a big fan of the Zemeckis movies i think Spielberg did probably the right choice. It will be interesting to see the result next December.
Recently, a first trailer was released and i must say that it looks not bad at all. Interesting, really. So, have a look at this first Tintin trailer - until the end if you want to discover the "digital face" of Tintin - and let me know what you think of it.
I, personally, can't wait to watch the whole movie next December to see if Spielberg has succeeded to find the right "spirit of innocence" for Tintin and each of the beloved characters.
Pictures and video: copyright Sony Pictures
Honestly, I think he should be ashamed !
ReplyDeleteAs you said, Tintin really is a EUROPEAN cultural masterpiece and making it an AMERICAN blockbuster will, I think, depreciate it so much...
As always, this is all a greedy money profitable action.
And you proved it by revealing that Spielberg bought the rights in 1984 from Hergé's widow, ONE YEAR after his death !!!
Spielberg smelled the opportunity of making a lot of money and more than probably pressured Hergé's wife to sell while she was still affected by the loss of her husband... Disgraceful !
And frankly, the aesthetic of this new movie just look bad ! Look at Tintin's face, it's not even similar to the real drawn one ! Or even Haddock's one or the Dupondt ! (eng. Thompsons)
The only thing I'm hopping is that people who don't know the comic will reed it after seeing the movie because I bet you, it will never be even 5% as good as it !
I thought Motion Capturing had been outlawed after Mars needs Moms?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely phenomonal animation. Really can't wait for this one or Super 8. Anything Speilberg is great.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Motion Capturing was the problem in Mars needs Moms, I could point a lot of issues, but just to begin with, anyone with a small notion of marketing knows that a title with "moms" in it is not appealing to boys.
ReplyDeleteAbout the movie, I'm really looking forward to seeing it, I used to read Tintin and Asterix a lot when I was younger, and I'm a big fan of both.
The movie looks great, and the two directors taking part in the project could not be better.
I particularly love Peter Jackson's movies, from Bad Taste and Dead Alive (I'm a "B" horror movie fan) to the King Kong remake, that should be the role model for all directors planning on doing remakes.
SP, if you take the time to read the story on the Wikipedia link you'll see that if Spielberg is doing it it's not for a question of money. Steven don't really needs money and his discussions about getting the rights began before Hergé's death. He just love like you and me the adventures of Tintin and so do Peter Jackson and that's the main reason why they're doing it.
ReplyDeleteThat said Tintin is not easy to adapt and we'll see if the result is interesting - not in comparison to the books as it will always be something different.
The face of Tintin in the books is so simple that it was difficult to do it in 3D animation but the most important is the "spirit" of the character, if they succeed to recreate it in the 3D character then everything will be fine. Just let's give them the benefit of the doubt until the movie is released next December.
American movie? The (awesome) producer is from New Zealand and the writers and half of the cast are british (Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright!!! Two genius!!! Pegg Frost Bell Serkis Craig! What a dream team!!!!)
ReplyDeleteIn France or Belgium, I don't think we got so many artist with so much talent. And it's Spielberg, the other name for Cinema!
About the motion capture, it's not just a way to make live artificial characters. (by the way, only Snowy can be qualified as an animated character)
First, the actors can play entire scenes in one shot without interruption. In live action, the scenes are shot by fragments and it can be bothering.
Second, after the scenes are shots, the director can control avery aspect of it, place and make moves his camera any wich way he want, try whatever he want! You can't do this in live action where the camera can be very incommodating. You can't neither do this in animation where the whole movie is story-boarded before the conputer creation has begun!
It's a revolution: you can litteraly decide the movie you want to make in the post-production!!!
"This is not animation—it's live action film making in a real-time virtual world." Peter Jackson
The eyes look lifeless as usual.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think I overreacted quite much and jumped to a lot of wrong interpretations.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of Tintin released as an american super production just appeared crazy to me and I got those foolish images of the big bad americans even if they obviously have a chance to do something not TOO bad.
But I'm sorry, Tintin is like my "madeleine de Proust"...
It is almost sacred and I don't like the idea of people twisting and reinterpreting it.
Anyway, we'll see (but I'm still afraid...)
"I don't think that Motion Capturing was the problem in Mars needs Moms" - well, it was not the *only* problem (but the main one) - marketing and the word "mom" certainly were no problems. Anyone blames marketing these days, everything caters too much to boys, too much to girls, not enough to boys, not enough to girls... I used to work in marketing, and trust me: nobody knows *anything* (greater minds than I have already observed that..). Mars needs Moms was a *horrible*, appaling movie, and no marketing in the world could have sold it. I´m pretty sure Spielberg will make a better movie, but for me, motion capturing simply does not work, I find the results creepy and disgusting, and even Spielberg won´t change that (I have never been a huge fan of Jackson, and I´m not sure if he has not been replaced by sb else anyway - is that guy in the "Hobbit" promo clip really Jackson??? :-)
ReplyDeleteMotion capture, like animation and live action, is just a medium, it's not what makes a movie bad or good...
ReplyDelete