We’ve been hearing about The Adventures of TinTin: Secret of the Unicorn (directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Peter Jackson) for what feels like decades, and finally, the first teaser is here. Based on the beloved Belgian comic strip I’d never heard of before this, the 3D, motion-capture project “stars” Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jamie Bell, and Cary Elwes. As far as I’m concerned, the most interesting thing about it is that Edgar Wright co-wrote the script (with Steven Moffat and Joe Cornish). Seriously, did you guys see Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s last movies? Anyway, now that the first footage is here, it sure looks… uh… motion-capturey. Although it may have broken the record for most dramatic music ever set to footage of a guy staring at a toy boat.
[HD Available at Apple]
Here’s Jackson’s explanation for using motion-capture to Empire Magazine back in November:
“With live action you’re going to have actors pretending to be Captain Haddock and Tintin,” says Peter Jackson. “You’d be casting people to look like them. It’s not really going to feel like the Tintin Hergé drew. It’s going to be somewhat different. With CGI we can bring Hergé’s world to life, keep the stylised caricatured faces, keep everything looking like Hergé’s artwork, but make it photo-real.” [Empire]
Photo-real? Not quite. Mannequin real, maybe. Real doll real. In any case, if you’re worried about live action not looking like the cartoons, motion-capture seems like a weird solution. Just draw the things. No one has ever complained about a cartoon’s acting.
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Robert Zemeckis called he wants his creepy doll people back.
Noone has ever complained about a cartoon’s acting.
I don’t know. I wasn’t really feeling the pain and despair of the character when Akemi was brutally raped by The Overfiend in Urotsukidōji. It could be just because I was furiously… uhhh… doing the dishes at the time.
Peter Jackson is right if they had done it live action all two of the people who know what Tintin is would be disappointed if the actors didn’t looks right.
Peter Jackson is an idiot b/c that reasoning never stopped him from casting Rudy as the fat hobbit, did it?
I get it, Peter. If I saw a freaky Tintin looking ginger I’d be more likely to hit it with a shovel then cast it as well.
Wow, English language much?
Peter Jackson decided motion capture was the only way he could get performances more lifeless than Marky Mark in The Lovely Bones.
Blatant steal from Kurt Sutter (writer and show-runner of Sons of Anarchy) regarding Arnie schtupping his domestic staffer…
PUMPING IRONER!
*Kicks self for not thinking of it when thread was still live*
I think I speak for most Americans when I say, “Ooh, goody, more Belgian cartoons I’ve never heard of before!”
little-known Danish cartoon filmed in mo-cap < pissing on a stack of cash
Sorry, I meant Belgian cartoon. If they started animating Danish cartoons, the Muslim world would erupt in violence.
Oh smurf, I HAVE smurfed a Belgian cartoon before. I smurf those little blue bastards.
True story: Tintin graphic novels required me to explain drunkeness, whiskey, and opium dens to my 7 year old. I’d like to bust a mo-cap in Herge’s ass.
**eyes well up for knowing who the author of Tintin was**
This looks totally stop-motioney because you were born in 1989 and probably have seen a total of no stop motion animation films in your life.
motion capture ≠ stop motion
Thanks for playing, though.
Who are you addressing? Who ever said it looked like stop motion?
When it comes to choosing which Belgian cultural icons to explore on film, many directors usually waffle.
Tin Tin is sailing that ship right into the goddamn uncanny valley.
Doh!
Say how long can we avoid uncanny valley anyway?
Agreed that making this photorealistic was the wrong decision, this doesn’t convey Herge to me at all. i was expecting a lot flatter, reduced palette stuff. Herge’s brilliance was in his mastery of line and composition.
Who has heard of Hergé you ask?
Pretty much everyone who has any sort of culture. (european people)
More than anything I’m just plain bored with this teaser. Not sure what I’m supposed to be excited about.
Oh right, and I’m going to trust the fucks who like Jerry Lewis and David Hasselhoff.
I don’t see much groundbreaking here. Cartoons of TinTin came out twenty years ago (this very same adventure is on Youtube).
Be fair Vincenzo, we’re also mad about Shyamalan. So yeah.
(And lueBal makes a good point.)
Tintin is huge everywhere but America. Or that’s what I hear, anyway. MAybe nonAmerican filmdrunkards can verify. I’m American so I never even heard of Tintin until this movie was announced.
I grew up loving TINTIN books. They’re awesome. But I think Sir Steven made a mistake not making this live-action.
Belgium’s only good for three things – French Fries, Van Damme, and Chocolate. Give me a 3-D movie about all of the above, and I’m there.
How has nobody heard of Tintin?
Very well known in Europe guess it must never have been brought to America. Check out the cartoons as well, excellent.