My review of "The Adventures of Tintin"

This film is not a complete home run but almost there. I used to read the Tintin comic books when I was a kid, I wasn't quite obsessed with them but I can see why people were. The Tintin stories have some really great plots, as does this movie. Even if you don't know much about Tintin, I like the way they have set up the characters for the audience, you don't really have to know the characters before watching this film as most of them are explained and introduced to us quite well.

Surprisingly, it's directed by Steven Spielberg, it happens to be his first animated film. The cool thing about this whole thing is that Steven Spielberg has actually been a fan of Tintin since the 1980's and the creator of Tintin, Hergé was actually a fan of Steven Spielberg's. Hergé once stated that he's sure that only Spielberg can do Tintin justice, if it were to be turned into a film. It's just a shame he didn't get to see this film.. Although much that Steven Spielberg touches becomes gold, this is no exception but it could have become platinum.

Let me explain, this is not a bad movie, not at all. It is very entertaining, has quite an interesting plot but.. 1. It feels quite rushed at times. 2. I would rather have a live action film, which Steven Spielberg actually wanted to do at a point, I think as the visionary that Spielberg is, he could pull off anything, especially that. Imagine a live action Tintin but a little more modern, like Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes". 3. I think the animation is distracting.. I mean, the animation is great, yet it isn't. It's kind of hard to explain, but at times, you'll see how amazingly well it is done and sometimes it just looks very corny. Sometimes you see how the characters hair blows in the wind and sometimes their movements are just quite wooden. It's quite a shame because there's this one scene where sand turns into water and that has to be one of the most visually beautiful things I've ever seen. If only the animation would have been that great all the time, like in "Rango", flawless from beginning to end.

The voice acting is great, Jamie Bell does a great Tintin. It's great to have Simon Pegg and Nick Frost together again as "Thompson and Thompson". Daniel Craig is surprisingly good as a voice actor. Andy Serkis is brilliant as always as Captain Haddock. He's the only truly irreplaceable thing about this film.

It's still an incredible film and it's quite a thrill ride. It should have easily been nominated for an Oscar in the category of "Best Animated Film of the Year", it was snubbed. But I'm very happy lesser known animated films got attention in that category, "A Cat in Paris" and "Chico & Rita".

It's a little too childish at times but then again we all started to read Tintin as kids or teenagers, not as adults. So I'm happy it has stayed quite true to the comic book. Animation or live action film, I'm absolutely convinced that Hergé would have been proud of you, Mr. Spielberg.

My rating: 7,5/10