Tintin

http://members.rott.chello.nl/e.visser25/Tintinboy3.jpg

in the Chateau Tintin

I've never been to Chateau Cheverny, no...

Has anyone ever read the final, unfinished book, Tintin And Alph-Art?

The best Tintins are the Red Rackham books and the Inca books (the eclipse bit oh dear me) and The Calculus Affair of course - in fact they nearly all have something to recommend them. Particular favourite is the Castafiore Emerald, adventure comics' answer to Waiting For Godot (and extremely funny).

http://members.rott.chello.nl/e.visser25/BobbieDuikerspak2.jpg

fashion victim to the moon

bobbie = snowy in other tongues

(i think i may have told ile this b4 btw)

tibet!! seven crystal balls!!

the moon ones were great!

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/prad/1politique.htm

Dud: I read last week that Dreamworks is planning a Tintin movie.

I reread Flight 714 when I was in my parents attic the other day. It was good but too short.

The Spielberg live action Tintin does sound like a poor idea. Has anyone seen the live action one they made in the 60s?

http://members.rott.chello.nl/e.visser25/BobbieTibet2.jpg

Just re-read the first of the Mooon books, the changing moods of Trifonius are hilarious (Haddock calling him ignorant).

http://members.rott.chello.nl/e.visser25/HaddockPapagaai1.jpg

No, I'm sure 'Breaking Free' would be my favourite Tintin book if I owned it. I had the chance once, but I went and bought some Biff instead. Analise the politics of my comic habit thereby.

Tintin's dreams have been a big inspiration to me, particularly in 'The Crab With The Golden Claws' where Captain Haddock becomes highly frightening...

Just got back from Paris, where Tintin still retains a formidable presence, and re-discovered my love for the books. The wife and I actually bought two posters to frame for what will be our child's bedroom (specifically the covers of Land of Black Gold and Tintin & the Picaros. I wanted Flight 714...always my favorite one....but she said it was a bit too dark & scary for a child's room, alas).

It's striking how the art evolves from the early ones like The Blue Lotus and The Broken Ear to later ones like the afore-mentioned Moon volumes, where the detail is painstakingly rich.

Tintin is coming to London. Big exhibition next spring at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

Why the Maritime Museum? The Captain Haddock link, of course.

I don't know where Chang fits in, he's something of a cipher. Like Tintin, he has no real personality, Tintin in Tibet isn't really about Chang at all. Chang's some kind of quest for the mirror-image.

Chang turned me on to specialist magazines

Yes, it's a well-known story. All the Tintin albums before "Blue Lotus" have very stereotypical/colonialist/orientalist depictions of the people of other nationality. But when Herge was doing Blue Lotus, he was introduced to a Chinese student called Chang, who taught him a lot about China and the Chinese, which completely changed Herge's attitude towards non-European ethnic groups. Blue Lotus was actually such an accurate description of China's situation in the thirties, that it was even discussed in the Belgian parliament. After that, Herge always did research on the parts of the world he was going send Tintin to, treating Third World people with proper respect.

Whether there is *another* place where he has also already said it before I do not know.

By the way, I had a similar feeling about it - as I may or may not have already said somewhere or nowhere.

the infamous Momus cameo

http://www.interlog.com/~suzu/g_haddoc.jpg

That list in full: (you have to love "Addle-pated lumps of anthracite")

Abecedarians
Abominable Snowman
Aborigine
Addle-pated lumps of anthracite
Alcoholic
Anachronisms
Anacoluthon
Antediluvian bulldozer
Anthracite
Anthropithecus
Anthropophagus
Arabesque
Arabian-nightmare
Artichokes
Autocrats
Aztecs
Baboon
Baby-snatcher
Bagpipes
Bandits
Barefaced-liar
Bashibazouks
Bath-tub admiral
Beast
Beetle
Belemnite
Big-head
Bird-brain
Blackamoor
Black-beetle
Blackbird
Blackguards
Body-snatchers
Bonehead
Bootleggers
Borgia
Bougainvillea
Brat
Breathalyser
Brigand
Brontosaurus
Buccaneer
Bully
Cachinnating-cockatoo
Cannibals
Carpathian
Carpathian-bashibazouks
Carpet-sellers
Caterpillars
Centipede
Cercopithecuses
Cheeky
Coconut
Coelacanth
Coleoptera
Corsair
Cowards
Crab-apples
Cro-magnon
Crooks
Cut-throat
Cyclotron
Cyrano
Dictatorial-duck-billed-platypus
Dipsomaniac
Dizzards
Dogs
Donkey
Doryphores
Duck-billed-platypus
Dunderheaded coconuts
Dynamiter
Earthworms
Ectoplasms
Egoists
Ethelreds
Fancy-dress Fatima
Fancy-dress freebooters
Fat-faces
Fat-headed-fire-raisers
Filibusters
Flying saucer
Freshwater-swabs
Fuzzy-wuzzy
Gallows bird
Gallows-fodder
Gangsters
Gibbering ghost
Goat
Goggles
Goosecaps
Great flat-footed grizzly
Guano-gatherer
Guttersnipes
Gyroscope
Harlequin
Heretic
Highwayman
Hijackers
Hooligans
Hydrocarbon
Iconoclast
Ignoramus
Ill-mannered savages
Insolent porcupine
Invertebrate
Jabbernawl
Jackass
Jack-in-a-box
Jack-pudding
Jellied eel
Jellyfish
Jokers
Kleptomaniacs
Ku-Klux-Klan
Land lubbers
Lily-livered bandicoots
Liquorice
Little pest
Logarithm
Lubberly scum
Macrocephalic baboon
Mameluke
Marmot
Megacycle
Megalomaniac
Mineral-water-drinkers
Miserable blundering barbecued blister
Misguided missile
Mister Mule
Molecule of mildew
Monkey
Monster
Morons
Mountebanks
Musical morons
Nanny-goat
Nincompoop
Ninepins
Nitwit
Numskulls
Nyctalops
Odd-toed-ungulate
Old drunkard
Old witch
Orangoutang
Ostrogoth
Pachyrhizus
Paranoiac
Parasite
Patagonian-savages
Phylloxera
Picaroons
Pickled herring
Pirate
Pithecanthropic pickpocket
Pithecanthropuses
Pockmark
Politician
Poltroons
Polygraphs
Polynesian
Profiteers
Psychopath
Puffed-up-Punchinello
Punch-and-Judy-men
Purple jellyfish
Pyrographers
Pyromaniac
Quadrupeds
Rapscallion
Rats
Rattle-trap
Road-hogs
Rogue
Rubbernecks
Ruffian
Ruminants
Savages
Scallywags
Scamp
Scarecrow
Scoundrels
Sea-gherkins
Sea-lice
Shipwrecker
Slave-trader
Slot-machine
Slubberdegullions
Steamrollers
Stool pigeon
Swine
Sycophant
Tartar-twister
Technocrat
Teddy-bear
Terrapins
Terrorists
Thug
Thundering typhoon
Toads
Toffee-noses
Torturer
Traitor
Tramps
Troglodytes
Twister
Vagabonds
Vampire
Vandal
Vegetarian
Vermicelli
Viper
Visigoth
Vivisectionists
Vulture
Weevils
Wildcat
Wreckers
Wretch
Zapotecs

(There's a small dictionary published in Belgium which explains every word Captain Haddock has ever used. It's been translated to Finnish, don't know about English.)

A bashi-bazouk (in Turkish basibozuk, meaning leaderless) was an irregular mounted mercenary soldier of the Ottoman army. The bashi-bazouk were notorious for being brutal and indisciplined. They were recruited from homeless, vagrants, criminals, slaves and prisoners of war. Foreign mercenaries and volunteers could also be hired to the corps.

Has anybody managed to get down to the exhibition at the National Maritime museum yet? I've been meaning to... but havent got around to it yet. Still it's on for quite a while I believe

More answers please!

Tintin motion-capture trilogy by Spielberg, Peter Jackson and a director to be named later:

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/may/20/spielberg-and-jackson-will-each-direct-a-film-in/

;_;

The reproductions are lifelike, "faithfully replicating Herge's original designs, but not rendering them as cartoons, or the familiar looking computer-animated characters," Jackson said. "Instead, we're making them look photo realistic, the fibers of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair."

This sounds terrible!

I thinks good that they're making it as an animation, but why does it have to be 3D? Is it impossible to make a 2D animation in Hollywood anymore? Herge's famous "democracy of surfaces" style would fit 2D so much better.

Re: the weird dream sequences - Herge always loved surrealism and modern art (hence the theme of the last unfinished Tintin story), and that was the only way he could sneak it in a relatively realistic comic.

Thinking about Herge's personal contradictions makes the whole series quite an interesting read. At the beginning of the series he was stauntly right-wing and Christian (Tintin originally appeared in a children's supplement of a Catholic newspaper), but as time went on he became more progressive and embraced all sorts of new age ideas, so in the last book Tintin's wearing a peace sign, plus there's ufology, Tibetian Buddhism etc. (Of course there was lots of "oriental" exoticism already in the early stories, but that seems more like cliched stuff to make a children's story more exciting.) Already in the American adventure Herge makes a pro-Native American comment, in the episode where the Indians are driven off their land after oil has been found there (though this might have been something that was added to the redrawn edition, I haven't read the original). Yet, according to times, the early stories feature mostly racist stereotypes of native people, up until Blue Lotus. Blue Lotus can be seen as a progressive work compared to the attitudes of the time, and after that Herge clearly tried to depict various non-European cultures with respect (the best example being the Incas in Seven Crystal Balls / Prisoners of the Sun), yet a certain paternalistic attitude pops up in the series right down to the end. The most obvious example of this is how the slaves are depicted in the Red Sea adventure, and even in the last story the Picaros can't defeat their alcoholism and go into battle without the help of white men.

Anthony Lane on Tintin in this week's New Yorker. Not on the internet, though :-/

omg 3D tintin sounds like the nauseating drinky crow animation cranked up 1000x

Re: the weird dream sequences - Herge always loved surrealism and modern art (hence the theme of the last unfinished Tintin story), and that was the only way he could sneak it in a relatively realistic comic.

Tintin a "relatively realistic comic"? Come on!

relatively

talking dogs, dog

It's hardly kitchen sink realism, is it? Quite apart from the talking dog, I can think of hundreds of surreal moments that don't happen within a dream.

Has anybody read Tom McCarthy's Tintin and the Secret of Literature? If so, what did you think?

Did Hergé die of AIDS?

http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/20070522.WWW000000352_herge_pourrait_etre_mort_du_sida.html

I meant "relatively realistic" in style, not necessary in content. The dreamn sequences are a clear break in the visual style of the series. I'd still say, though, that despite some supernatural elements and screwball comedy Tintin stories remain relatively realistic as compared to many other kids' comics.

Whoops, I meant "slapstick comedy", not screwball.

Well, if you mean visual style, there's obviously a clear Hergé style but it's not realistic. Look at the way he draws faces, noses etc. And the flat, cubist surfaces. But whatever.

relatively

That Figaro article is ridiculous!

The article is OK-ish, but the biographer's basing his wild assumption that on precious little other than, perhaps, a desire to stir up some free publicity.

why is Tintin called Tim in German?

I could have answered that if he'd been called Tim in Glasgow.

Why is Milou called Snowy in English?

Might the fact that his fur was white have had something to do with it?

Yes, but why is he called Stuppi in German then? eh?

Why is Milou called Snowy in English? Why is Tryphon Tournesol called Cuthbert Calculus and why are Dupond & Dupont called Thomson & Thompson? I guess various translators have thought that the original French names are too difficult for kids, so they've changed them into names that are easier to prononounce for English-speaking or German-speaking kids or whatever. If I remember correctly, someone mentioned that the English translations of Tintin are even "localized" so that they supposedly take place in Britain, not Belgium.

The Finnish translations are kinda weird in this sense, because they've only localized the names of Tintin (he's called "Tintti", which sound more like a Finnish name) and Calculus, but all the other names are kept in their original form. And they do take place in Belgium. I remember that as a kid I only learned to pronounce names like "Milou" and "Dupond" correctly when I heard a radio play version of Tintin.

(xxx-post)

If I remember correctly, someone mentioned that the English translations of Tintin are even "localized" so that they supposedly take place in Britain, not Belgium.

In The Black Island, he crosses the Channel to get to England.

Much more urgent and key than any of this: why is Tintin suddenly American and Captain Haddock Irish in the crap Halas & Batchelor Tintin cartoon series?

What nationality is Haddock supposed to be in the original French versions? English? It's a bit confused really; he has an English name but a château in Belgium...

A man of the sea is from everywhere and nowhere.

Yeah, that is kinda weird. His name is Archibald Haddock, which sounds very English. Maybe Sir Francis Haddock, his ancestor in the Unicorn story, was an Englishman working for the Belgian navy, and was thus awarded the castle, even though he was not Belgian? Though Haddock seems to live in Brussels already before he moves to the castle. It's never told where he lived before he met Tintin though.

Unlikely as there was no belgium then. He would have had to have been fighting for the spanish, which is not likely.

If he had been british.

Of course one has to remember that the Halas & Batchelor Beatles cartoons had John Lennon sounding like Terry-Thomas and George Harrison like Peter Lorre.

Why isn't it likely? Did the Spanish own the area around Brussels back then?

(xx-post)

The Low Countries were a Spanish dominion, back in the day

Okay, but why couldn't an Englishman have been working for their navy?

By the time Tintin meets Haddock, I think it's become pretty vague as to where Tintin actually lives. Belgium/Brussels are never mentioned. I don't think the château is ever specifically located in Belgium. (I may be wrong, it's many years since I last looked at a Tintin book.)

Is Milou a typical dog name in French (and likewise for Struppi in German)?

Thomas Sangster as Tin Tin?

xpost don't think Milou is a common French dog's name. Apparently Milou was the name of Hergé's ex-girlfriend!

(or so I read in an Hergé biography published a few years back)

It's not 'Tin Tin' it's 'Tintin'. Sorry, that's a bit of a bugbear of mine.

That kid looks slightly too young - I've always imagined Tintin to be about 21.

Yeah, I agree that he's a bit too young. Don't know when they'll actually start making the film though, I guess he has time to grow.

Oh sorry, the article says they'll start filming it next fall... The word "filming" sounds weird though - wasn't this supposed to be a computer animation?

I think it's going to motion captured and the cgi creations heavily based on the actors' performances, Gollum and King Kong style.

I really can't see any way how a 3D Tintin would not suck. Why not do it in traditional animation, that'd be much more faithful to Herge's style. Or is traditional animation totally obsolete these days?

It's just a poor idea generally. The books are perfect, and there's no need to translate them to a visual medium as they are in one already (see also: Watchmen).

I dunno, I think there is a definite excitement in seeing you favourite characters move and speak on the screen. And it is possible to make comic adaptations that are faithful enough to the original, yet also take advantage of the things you can do in a different medium; I think movies like Persepolis or the Corto Maltese one did that very well.

Why not do it like a scanner darkly?

And it is possible to make comic adaptations that are faithful enough to the original, yet also take advantage of the things you can do in a different medium; I think movies like Persepolis or the Corto Maltese one did that very well.

I'm not saying comics should never be adapted for screen, I just think Tintin is one that achieves everything it sets out to do in its original form, so why bother.

Because lots of people go to the cinema or watch DVDs but never read comics.

Well, yeah, but so do Corto Maltese and Persepolis, and yet the movie versions are ver enjoyable. Just because something is perfect in one medium doesn't mean that it can't be good in another medium.

(x-post)

holy sweet jesus, the Tintin film is being made by THAT PRICK SPIELBERG???? The horror.

since starting to read my first Tintin book the other day I have become very prorietorial towards him.

It's funny, I have this vague memory of a previous live action Tintin adaptation, but IMDB suggests I have been at the crack again.

DV:

http://www.free-tintin.net/dessins/orange_g.jpg

Which is your first Tintin, out of interest?

I mean, it's not like any good book or comic needs a movie adaptation, but the movie versions can still provide extra enjoyment, and in the best case they can offer an interesting alternate take on the original, with the benefits of the new medium used to make it more interesting.

(xx-post)

I get your perfectly reasonable points, Tuomas. I just feel quite protective of Tintin and I don't see why any kid wouldn't want to read the books. And it's different from, say, the Spider-Man movies, which distilled forty years of often pretty flawed material into shiny new packages, and which part of the thrill of watching was actually seeing Spidey swing through New York. The original Herge art is so well-rendered that the action is about as kinetic and exciting as a movie version could be anyway.

Chap - maybe I saw some of that on TV once.

The two I am reading at the moment are:

Le Lotus Bleu (to practice my French) & König Ottokars Zepter (to practice German). I am enjoying le Lotus Bleu more, but that is because my French is better than my German. The Shanghai setting helps too.

Universal to Spielberg/Jackson: 'No.'

Crumbs!

But seriously, if I were Speilberg, I'd dump a few million into marketing the Tintin books to Americans and then see what happens, but hey.

I could tell him who to talk to for that.

Forbidden Planet had a Tintin display for a while a few months ago. Tintin rules.

AiCN:

1) Jamie Bell, one of the most gifted actors of his generation, will be playing Tintin.

2) Daniel Craig has been cast as "the nefarious" pirate Red Rackham.

3) Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish are now credited as screenwriters along with DOCTOR WHO's Steven Moffat.

4) As we reported earlier this month, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are Thomson and Thompson.

5) The rest of the cast (Toby Jones, Gad Elmaleh, Andy Serkis and Mackenzie Crook).

The first film in the (planned) series will be THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN (one of Hergé's favorites). It is set for theatrical release in 2011. Steven Spielberg will direct the first installment, while Peter Jackson will take the reins for the second entry. The third film is currently without a helmer, but I'm sure Spielberg's pal Brian De Palma would relish a crack at this material.

I'm no Tintin fan or anything, but I'm intregued by this trilogy of films. Jamie Bell's a good choice, imo.

December 23, 2011: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i028eb3d8ad76358b500ecd76cce20b22

what a weird collection of names

Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish wrote the screenplay.

that IS a weird collection of people.

I just found out the movie is animated, not live action. I'm disappointed.

that IS a weird collection of people.

"three English TV writers of a similar age" isn't that weird

Man can you guys imagine how awesome America would have been if it had Haddock in it

Every time this thread gets revived I think Tombot means the continent, before I realise

I just found out the movie is animated, not live action. I'm disappointed.

Really, why? I think making an animated adaptation is much better way staying true to the original than trying to find actors who could portray those characters. I wish they'd do that more often with comic book adaptations, animated movies like Persepolis or Corto Maltese were definitely better than most live action adaptations. My only grievance is that it's gonna be computer animated, when traditional 2d animation would make much more sense considering Herge's style.

"much better way of staying true"

what would be the point of doing it 2D style like the old cartoon series?

I dunno, because the comic is in 2D? Because Herge's famous "clear line" and "democracy of surfaces" work better in 2D? Of course they can try to reinvent his style to make it work with computer animation, but I can see that going horribly wrong.

I don't really see why traditional 2D animation should be discarded just because it's "old". There's stuff you can do much better with traditional animation than with computer animation.

surface democracy is not really a characteristic worth trying to retain in animation generally. i can understand the reluctance to try and merge such an old character/world with modern animation techniques tho. but if that's the biggest fundamental problem with the project then I guess I'm OK with it (i love the writers involved so expect a decent story, script etc.). it will probably be good but not really Tintin.

http://www.spaceinvading.com/entry/project_id/The_Herg%C3%A9_Museum200906031244098796

saw that in Time. Didn't have as many cool pictures though.

http://periscopestudio.com/wp-content/uploads/predatorvstintin1sm.jpg

http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/31498872

Hmm...

http://io9.com/5678314/check-out-the-first-images-from-steven-spielbergs-tintin-movie

still pretty excited for this tbh

I didn't know this was motion capture. Those pictures are creepy imo.

It's Snowy's little evil eyes that are the worst.

I despise motion capture, but I love Tintin and Steven Moffat so...

i mean, this looks really ugly, but i trust spielberg and jackson both, even though i maybe shouldnt, so

I am sure it will be a delightful and finely crafted romp, those pics are just giving me flashbacks to Zemeckis's "Beowulf."

i will reserve judgment until i see the animation in motion. if they move like the creepy tom hanks in polar express then i will be writing to my mp.

ps. Tintin movie trilogy speculation thread

Let's all watch this and this instead.

I want this to be awesome, but yeah, the dead-eye animation gives me a little pause. I don't know why I didn't know that's what it was

Looks like they're mixing and matching different bits from different books, as that boat scene is from The Crab With the Golden Claws.

I wasn't expecting *this*.

Haddock looks unfortunate, Tintin looks like one of those kids from the old French live-action films. They could have saved some money there.

I know it's come up on ILComics, but no mention of Charles Burns' X'ed Out, which is very much Tintin in Interzone?

I'm not too freaked out by these screenshots. Honestly looking forward to both this and "Captain America" much more than another turgid Batman flick.

It won't look or feel like Tintin obviously but who knows - maybe it will be something interesting of itself.

Hoping for some good action at least. Spielberg can do that.

I wasn't too freaked out by the screenshots until I imagined them moving, whereupon I broke out in a cold sweat and burnt all my Tintin books to keep warm

http://i.imgur.com/CXfYW.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/TyDuk.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ndQH7.png

I think it looks good.

That's better than those first stills, but I agree that it will take moving footage to make a definitive judgement call re: "cool" vs. "Poser 7 incest porn"

love all these images except for the one of captain haddock (not sure why they released that, tbh). the others are nicely stylized, dreamlike. not herge, but pointing more towards interesting than awful.

I've got a good feeling about this.

The films also draws its plot from three Tintin books: The Crab with the Golden Claws (which details Tintin's first meeting with Captain Haddock) and The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure (which follow the duo's quest to dredge up pirate loot).

that's a good trio to start with. i dunno. i've been and remain highly skeptical of the whole enterprise, but would be happy to be wrong.

http://www.empireonline.com/images/image_index/hw800/51373.jpg

fuck a 3d

looking forward to hating on this

I'm looking forward to a fun movie for the whole family!

that too

Another entry for teal & orange.xls.

oh dear

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/theadventuresoftintin/

yeah, was holding out hope, but...

Trailer amazes for its ability to hide faces:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3Xwta_XIJo

That looks hideous and completely failing to get anything that makes Herge great, just as I have always expected </morbz>

Why does it all have to be so grand? That trailer music is like the fucking 1812 overture, are we all dumb or something?

Check it out kids! Big brassy orchestra, shiny effects, teal and orange teal and orange teal and orange teal and

Tintin & The Teal Oranges

This looks fucking dire

looks like this film manages to incorporate every single living thing i despise about the cinema lately.

kinda funny how reluctant they seem to be wrt letting us see people in the trailer, as if they know all too well viewers (who are't kids) are gonna hate how they look

this looks horrible. can't believe we have to suffer through three of these.

even if i can get past the way it looks, there's not really anything in spielberg's collected works that makes me think he's the guy to translate herge's inimitable tone to the movies.

there's not really anything in spielberg's collected works that makes me think he's the guy to translate herge's inimitable tone to the movies.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 7:37 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

really? i kind of cant think of a director whod be better-suited, at least not for early/mid-period tintin! spielbergs probably the best living director of fun-for-the-whole-family mystery-adventures, plus both he and herge are very funny

anyway i think this looks like it could be pretty fun! the motion-capture is a thousand times better than like christmas carol or whatever

yeah the look doesn't worry me. i know it's a trailer, but the tone of the trailer does.

spielberg will be relieved to know that i am withholding judgment until i see the film.

i would be less worried if spielberg hadnt screwed up indiana jones so recently

i'm not convinced anything looks so bad about it. it's just kind of 'eh'. what's so offensive to you all?

peter jackson is more of a concern i think.

spielberg is at least capable of doing a good job.

remy i think its just how the characters look. the scenery, lighting etc. is all fine tho perhaps too concerned with photo-reality when it could be aiming for a flatter but still intricate look more faithful to the comics?

Yeah, it's a little mystifying that they're went CGI but decided not to recreate the look of the comics. Why not just have it be live-action in that case?

Herge p much invented an entire cartooning school out of whole cloth - the look of this (inc scenery lighting etc) utterly fails to understand anything about it.

(the tone of the trailer is deaf to Herge too, but who knows* how representative that is)

*come on, it's fucking Spielberg, of course it's accurate. oh, oops.

i can see this thread is going to be fun for the next few months

the books are perfect, so really why bother?

ONE BILLION DOLLARS!

― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, May 15, 2007 2:36 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this ^ is my favourite post so far but "*come on, it's fucking Spielberg" is a new contender.

i think the only way i could enjoy this is if i try to ignore the fact that it's supposed to be tintin. this is one of the first times i can recall hollywood remaking something that was really important to me, and now i know how all those watchmen fans felt. not having read the comic book, i thoroughly enjoyed the movie on its own merits, because the comparison to how well it portrayed the book wasn't a point of running criticism to me like it was to so many people.

sic otm

Hopefully War Horse is good.

yeah the look doesn't worry me. i know it's a trailer, but the tone of the trailer does.

― caek, Tuesday, May 17, 2011 7:56 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

ditto.

the look would be impossible to capture w/o going old-school hand drawn animation, imo, so i think it's fine to take another tack. but i don't think "bombastic" when i think tintin, you know

i can see this thread is going to be fun for the next few months

― ban drake (the rapper) (max), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 9:28 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

lol otm

re: the tone, this is the American trailer and they're trying to sell it to an audience that's pretty much entirely ignorant about the property... if you notice, there arent exactly like huge explosions or fight scenes in it, meaning its probably one of those trailers that tries to disguise what its really like with 'action' cutting.

i guess the hardcore Herge stans were always gonna be pissed about this, but there's a lot of talented people involved and it looks good even if its not all OMG LIGNE CLAIRE and shit and i think it could be fun & cool http://i.imgur.com/5NHke.gif

the look would be impossible to capture w/o going old-school hand drawn animation, imo, so i think it's fine to take another tack.

FWIW, I thought that the Dick Tracy movie (for all of its faults) did a great job of keeping a consistent look that was reminiscent of comics but allowed the actors to actually, y'know, act. I'm not ready to pass of final judgement here, but it sure looks like ZemeckisVision.

Not looking forward to this.

guys it was one minute of whats going to be at least a two-hour movie

if you notice, there arent exactly like huge explosions or fight scenes in it, meaning its probably one of those trailers that tries to disguise what its really like with 'action' cutting.

this is a fair point. like many others, it's not just the look of the trailer i object to (dire), but the tone. it makes tintin look clunky, ponderous and dull. otoh, it is just a trailer, not the film itself. it's clearly trying to whet an audiences appetite with a series of brief, mysterious fragments, but, it seems to me, failing. i do like the final "shot" of tintin's face looking in the little round window, which at least promises a substantial improvement on the likes of the polar express.

we'll get a big, long, slam-bang trailer before long. i guess i'll reserve pre-judgment til then.

another way to look at it is to say: this mini-trailer aims to calibrate audience expectations, so that people will react appropriately when the "real" trailer comes along and not spend so much time freaking about about whether or not the look is appropriate.

Yeah, doesn't seem to have the spirit of Herge in the slightest. His storytelling style was so much deadpan than Spielberg's, and Tintin was always so much more stoic than a Spielberg character.

That 'we can't turn back... not now... not now' is way off... The real Tintin would just get on with shit.

Who wants a live action Tintin to begin with, no matter how well executed it is? Why does everything have to be made into a film?

A lavishly done hand-drawn animation thing I could see the point of.

Yeah, that would be ideal.

YES. i want a tintin that looks like the comic and does proper tintin-type things. FAT TYRES. HIGHLY INTRICATE LATTICES. it would not be hard. they have machines now...

The Canadian TV one is pretty damn good.

This

Herge p much invented an entire cartooning school out of whole cloth - the look of this (inc scenery lighting etc) utterly fails to understand anything about it.

The Canadian TV one is pretty damn good.

Eh, it had the right idea but looked kind of cheap and didn't really get the humour.

guys its a one-minute trailer for a two-hour movie

no! its garbage!!! *flips over table*

remember your reaction to "Where the Wild Things Are" trailer? ; )
xp

yeah that was a two minute trailer so

Even given the benefit of the doubt, it kind of blows my mind that motion capture hasn't come any farther than "Polar Express" or "Beowulf." Is this shit in 3-D, too? Was James Cameron too busy to consult on this?

Naturally it's in 3D. It's using the performance capture tech that Camron developed for Avatar so he's there in spirit.

Cameron's breakthrough may have been in realizing that human/CGi hybrid was the way to go, since these robo-eyed CGI people don't bring anything but baggage.

But this looks like a shit computer game compared to Avatar?

Beowulf mocanimation was 1000x better than (the TV ads for) Polar Express. Not to defend this or anything.

this ^ is my favourite post so far but "*come on, it's fucking Spielberg" is a new contender.

100% of his films are bullshit chest-swelling emo wank with strings iirc (also he hasn't made a good movie in almost thirty years, but that wasn't my point)

i disagree

if you dont think Jurassic Park's a great movie then just sm DAMN h

But this looks like a shit computer game compared to Avatar?

― Fear Moldova and the Nation of Leaners (seandalai), Wednesday, May 18, 2011 7:38 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

honestly, i dont know how you can tell right now - they're hiding the people so much

*nods in agreement*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEj3UsAl0K8

so!

that preview is not going to reassure anyone who was skeptical about the teaser

haddock is scottish?

i dont know. im still going to see it! i think it might be good! but yeah it might be horrible.

oh dear

yes, i think haddock is supposed to be scottish. that's what i'd always imagined at least. don't know if that's based on known background or just how he talks though.

no catchphrases in this trailer ("great snakes", "thundering typhoons") it seems

that preview is not going to reassure anyone who was skeptical about the teaser

it's true, that looks completely fucktarded

the soundtrack is the absolute worst though

BOOM!

BOOM BOOM!

DEEDLEY-DAH........BOOM!

john williams at his best

and of course Haddock isn't meant to be Scottish, Marlinspike/Moulinsart was a family home.

looks like Moffat is taking Loch Lomond whiskey and his own propensity for Scots characters and giving himself leeway. also INTRODUCING himself as Archibald? wtf gtfo imo.

looks pretty fun, you guys gotta loosen up

looks like total dogshit, you gotta read some Herge

or buy a house on Rotoscope Lane in the Uncanny Valley if you LOVE IT SO MUCH THERE

xpost Agree! Looks like fun. Also, I have never read a Tintin book in my life and this makes me want to.

i think it looks cool, but the soulless mannequin faces are going to be problematic if they're trying to do a fun romp filled with larger-than-life personalities (ive never read any Tintin so im just assuming thats what its like). aside from the faces i think visually it looks fine.

of course Haddock isn't meant to be Scottish

Damn straight, there's not a page of the books that even suggests he is. It might not be so bad if Serkis hadn't gone for what sounds like a tribute to the "scottish" voice Mike Myers has spent the last two decades working on. I really like Spielberg and most of the people involved in this, so will probably watch, but the trailer didn't provide a shred of excitement.

looks fine, but then I am not a savage adaptation pedant

Graham Linehan is playing Haddock, if that wasn't a known thing.

it's true, that looks completely fucktarded

yeah, but i'll still see it, cuz i want to believe a tintin movie could work out. have loved herge since i was very small.

always assumed that most of the main tintin characters were belgian or french. somewhat annoyed by the decision to brit (and scot) them them up, but i suppose it makes sense, given that this wasn't ever going to be a french-language film. and even as a kid, i did always picture thomson & thomson as british, due to the bowler hats and canes.

there is an "anticipate" thread for the movie, btw, in which discussion of the film & trailers has been active for some time...

xp So did I, but in French they're Dupont et Dupond, whereas Haddock has always been Haddock, so maybe he was supposed to be British? Certainly don't remember a Scottish link (other than the whisky), though.

Graham Linehan is playing Haddock, if that wasn't a known thing.

?

As for Haddock's nationality, there's considerable debate about this online it seems and the closest thing to a clue is that Herge's wife said he should be named after a "sad english fish"

^ yeah, noticed ref to this on tintin's wiki page. herge variously suggests that haddock is belgian, english and french.

in the english translation and to me (english) he comes across as scottish

and given his nationality seems to be unknown i don't see what the problem is with picking that one for the film, when there is the transformers 4 vibe and the creepy faces to complain about

always assumed his nationality was "sailor"

He always had an English accent in my head, then again most characters in books do.

Seems like Calculus and the shark submarine probably won't be in it.

crumbs

"BOOM one day your car goes BOOM"

Haha, me and my friend used to sing that song all the time when we were about 8.

Big question, is this movie going to have the heat-crazed Captain mistaking Tinitn's head for a bottle of wine?

Haddock's nationality was discussed upthread:

What nationality is Haddock supposed to be in the original French versions? English? It's a bit confused really; he has an English name but a château in Belgium...

― Zelda Zonk, 27. maaliskuuta 2008 17:28 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

A man of the sea is from everywhere and nowhere.

― Ed, 27. maaliskuuta 2008 17:30 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yeah, that is kinda weird. His name is Archibald Haddock, which sounds very English. Maybe Sir Francis Haddock, his ancestor in the Unicorn story, was an Englishman working for the Belgian navy, and was thus awarded the castle, even though he was not Belgian? Though Haddock seems to live in Brussels already before he moves to the castle. It's never told where he lived before he met Tintin though.

― Tuomas, 27. maaliskuuta 2008 17:34 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Unlikely as there was no belgium then. He would have had to have been fighting for the spanish, which is not likely.

― Ed, 27. maaliskuuta 2008 17:36 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

If he had been british.

― Ed, 27. maaliskuuta 2008 17:37 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Of course one has to remember that the Halas & Batchelor Beatles cartoons had John Lennon sounding like Terry-Thomas and George Harrison like Peter Lorre.

― Dingbod Kesterson, 27. maaliskuuta 2008 17:37 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Why isn't it likely? Did the Spanish own the area around Brussels back then?

(xx-post)

― Tuomas, 27. maaliskuuta 2008 17:38 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The Low Countries were a Spanish dominion, back in the day

― Zelda Zonk, 27. maaliskuuta 2008 17:43 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Okay, but why couldn't an Englishman have been working for their navy?

― Tuomas, 27. maaliskuuta 2008 17:43 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

By the time Tintin meets Haddock, I think it's become pretty vague as to where Tintin actually lives. Belgium/Brussels are never mentioned. I don't think the château is ever specifically located in Belgium. (I may be wrong, it's many years since I last looked at a Tintin book.)

― Zelda Zonk, 27. maaliskuuta 2008 17:50 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I think it makes sense that Haddock is originally from Britain ("Archibald Haddock" doesn't sound like a Belgian name at all), but a sailor he's a cosmopolitan fellow, and has decided to settle in Belgium... Perhaps he moves to Belgium only after meeting Tintin in The Crab with the Golden Claws, we don't know where he lived before that story. And after the events of Red Rackham's Treasure he obviously has every reason to stay in Belgium.

If you want to speculate this a bit further, perhaps the reason he stays in Belgium is that he has become lovers with Tintin? After Red Rackham's Treasure they're explicitly shown living together in Moulinsart, and neither Tintin nor Haddock shows any interest in women throughout the whole series.

And I still think Sir Francis Haddock might've been an Englishman working for the Spanish Navy, and he received Moulinsart as a gift from the Spanish Crown. That explains why a Briton has a family castle in Belgium. After Sir Francis died his family became poor (they never found his treasure, obviously) and had to move to Scotland, and that's why Captain Haddock is Scottish. Theory complete.

Or maybe Sir Francis Haddock was working for the British Crown and simply acquired Moulinsart through other means? Maybe he just fancied buying a castle in the Low Countries?

An interesting quote from a thread on another board:

In a newspaper article they had an interview with the Swedish translator, and he said some interesting things:

All of his sea friends have English names: Chester and Allan Thompson (well, he's not really a friend, but whatever).

The Unicorn had rum onboard. French ships during that period did not stock rum, while English ones did.

The cannons on The Unicorn were tied in an English fashion.

Hadoque used English spelling on the seacharts: eg. W for West instead of O for French Ouest.

Basically, the only evidence that suggests Haddock and his family are Belgian is Moulinsart, and like I said, that could be explained in many ways.

I guess in my mind he always had a kind of generic Sea Captain style voice, watched the old cartoon as a kid and this might have contributed too. Anyway, he still sounds wrong Scottish, this aint Trawlermen ffs.

Graham Linehan is playing Haddock, if that wasn't a known thing.

He's said this on twitter, think it was a joke on him looking a bit like Haddock though. Everything else I've seen lists Serkis.

Definitely Serkis.

this looks ace! guys

I see they got a rocket launcher in there.
Nicely teal coloured ocean too, goes well with the orange plane.

Rong accent for Haddock but I'm still rocking up for the midnight debut screening.

So looks like the hometown critics like it:

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/10/13/business-financial-impact-eu-belgium-tintin-apos-s-premiere_8733245.html

This movie will le flop.

The only sense in which I'm anticipating it is morbid curiosity, and I'm like the biggest Tintin fan there is.

I figure most big Tintin fans have a wary attitude towards this

This was an absolute blast. I'm no aficionado of the books, so I can't tell you how a Tintin fan will feel about the film, though, to me, it felt less of a straight adaptation and more like a big, broad Spielberg adventure movie (his '80s Indy movies more than the Crystal Skull, fortunately). It is a bit breathless and pin-ball like, but some of the set pieces are fantastic - the chase through the streets of Morocco at the end is insane!
As for the CG/motion capture, I was relieved the faces weren't creepy as I feared they might be from watching the trailer and looking at stills of the film, in fact the faces are generally really really good - though Tintin's smooth, rather blank features mean that his are the closest to uncanny valley. Overall though, it's some of the best I've seen.
The film plays fairly young - enough to keep the kids at the busy screen I saw it at entertained anyway (Snowy seemed to be the favourite)(with the kids)(Haddock with the adults) - but I had a lot of fun with it.

early returns:

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/afi-fest-2011-spielberg-jacksons-tintin

lol at tom mccarthy

it doesnt surprise me he hates the movie--his take on tintin is pretty far removed from the "boys adventure" side that (i assume) is spielberg's

I've seen this twice now, it's great fun.

I just saw this tonight and loved it! I only saw it in 2D though, and for a change thinking it would have been worthwhile seeing in 3D. Man some of those chase scenes were FUN!

That big chase scene in 3D was ridiculously great.

I think I'm going to try going again to a 3D showing.

im just sayin that i love tintin

bro3Die

yeah, I really enjoyed this. a bit too long but good fun. especially since most reviews (including people here) said it was awful !

i loved it; the purist in me was weirded out that they pegged on the end of the subsequent book instead of "Find out next week in: Red Rackham's Treasure!"

US reviews were generally praiseful, as our childhood reading never ventured east of Roald Dahl.

iirc Norway is East of Belgium, Morbs-- oh wait, Dahl repatriated, I forgot! But is that so! Tintin wasn't a thing in USA? I got my fave Tintin books for my American nieces for Christmas (the moon ones) and they seemed confused and bored by them

Tintin was a thing when I was growing up ('80s), but I lived in a college town so maybe...

I fumbled through it in French at first-- half my family is Quebecois. Reading "Destination Moon" in English for the first time at age 9 was a game changer

Did the movie flop? I hope not, I'd love to see Spielburg do more of them

Appears to have been a good enough hit. Jackson is supposed to direct the next one.

Made a mint abroad, $60 M or so thus far in North America.

Tintin has been referenced a couple times on The Simpsons but, y'know, Harvard kids.

damn skippy

it's a travesty that I haven't seen this yet

Not nominated for the animated Oscar, lol animators.

i kinda dug this. the thing i was most curious about going in was what spielberg's visual imagination would look like when untethered from the physical limitations of reality - pretty impressive, as it turns out.

ive never read any tintin so i didnt go in with any baggage there. it was kinda fun and weird trying to puzzle what exactly is up with that Tintin kid. he looks like a small child, but he appears to be emancipated, and also is a journalist who never does any reporting? its a weird situation he's got going on. i dug that they didnt try to sanitize captain haddock's drinking, stuff like that helps preserve the feel that its an authentic boys own adventure from another era.

the characters though, man, they're pretty stale huh? that was the big problem for me. i couldn't care about anything that happened, and i was really restless for the last third of the movie. i didn't really have a problem with the movie's look, i thought the lighting was great and it hit me during the scenes taking place on haddock's ship that the usage of shadows and colors and stuff reminded me of the covers of sweat mags from the 50s. at the same time, i wondered if the mocap faces were what was distancing me from the action... just watching these cartoon dudes flip and bounce around and stuff, there's no tension, and i cant really identify any humanity in the main characters faces to keep me grounded

im curious what the ILC crowd thought of it

by "stale," do you mean "archetypal"? I was pretty satisfied w/ the renderings of Haddock and the Thompsons.

maybe both. i half think that i would've been more accepting of 'archetypal' characters if i was watching real human faces delivering the perfs, but maybe the whole thing would've been unspeakably goofy in live action - plus none of the set pieces would've worked.

i did think serkis was a little too hammy as haddock, also.

he's a drunken sea captain!

Really enjoyed this and thought it looked great. Wastotally sold when I saw Snowy come to "life".

I finally saw the movie, and thought it was... okay. For most of it I thought it was a totally enjoyable romp, but IMO the ending kinda wasted the promises of the high adventure that the first part gave (and which the original comic managed to deliver). I can see why they needed to cut the marine treasure hunt bits of Red Rackham's Treasure, but losing that and replacing it with pointlessly long chase sequences and the corny action-movie crane fight finale made the movie lose some of the "boys' own sea adventure" magic the comic had.

Also, in the movie it didn't felt like Tintin and Haddock had earned the treasure, because they hadn't gone through the whole long journey that mimicked Hadoque's original one, like they did the comic book. Even though in both the comic and the movie the treasure is eventually found by what is almost a deus ex machina solution, in the former it felt like the protagonists were rewarded for their tenacity, whereas in the latter all they need to do is get the coordinates. Sure, the movie tried to justify them earning the treasure by adding the extra "only a true Haddock can find it" bit to Hadoque's puzzle, but that didn't ring true because you wouldn't really have needed to be a Haddock to discover the solution, all you needed was a good knowledge of geography. In the comic the treasure is not something meant only for a descendant of Hadoque, but something that anyone who's willing to go through the whole adventure could discover.

Also, even though the Uncanny Valley effect in the movie wasn't as distracting as I had feared, it was pretty distracting. In many shots you could almost imagine watching a live action movie, and then you got pulled back by seeing images of these grotesque people who seem almost realistic, but have one or two characteristics (big noses, big ears, uncannily smooth skin, small eyes, etc) that make them look disturbingly unreal. I can't figure out any reason why they came up with these kind of aesthetic choices for the character models. If they wanted the movie to look realistic, why not just do it in live-action (or combine real actors with CGI backgrounds)? If they want to it to look like a cartoon, why make the characters look almost-but-not-quite like real humans? Pixar and other CGI movie-makers seem to have figured out that you can combine relatively realistic backgrounds with more cartoonish characters to both avoid Uncally Valley and give the characters a more personalized look, so why did Spielberg and Jackson want take this route? Obviously, Herge fans were bound to be disappointed by the designs, but is there actually any segment of viewers that would find these grotesque characters better-looking than ones that would have been less realistic and more cartoonish?

Musee Herge is worth a day of anyone's time. Left with a burning desire to re-read all of Tintin straight away, but in objective terms it's one of the most astonishing display collections of original art ever assembled.

jealous!!

i want to go so bad! we'll be in paris for a week in july, but i don't know about spending an entire day just going to see this museum... i'm sure i'll go one day, though. plus, it was designed by my other favorite cartoonist, joost swarte.

Bear in mind it's 90 minutes outside of Brussels as well, although you can cut about 20 minutes out of that if you're willing/able to change trains on the way. Not open on Mondays either, like everything in Belgium.

nice one aldo. only time i've seen any substantial displays of Herge originals was at an exhibition at the Greenwich Maritime Museum, nearly ten years ago - all the pages had a nautical theme which was fair enough, but a bit limiting.

a friend who went with me was taken aback a bit by how much of the finished artwork, especially in the later volumes, was not directly from Herge's hand, was the work of assistants. herge's pencilled roughs were...rough...but it seemed to me that the storytelling was all there, the basic position of the characters, their place in the frame, their expressions and gestures.

That's kind of what I took from it as well. Like you, I've seen a huge amount of US comics art and so am used to seeing blue everywhere but the inks (such as the frankly astonishing Destination Moon cover) appear to be on more or less pristine pencils, with just a couple of bits of tippex on it. Compared to the roughs, which are a frantic mess of lines from which a shape eventually emerges or a collage of sketches which end up getting used elsewhere.

As you say though, the storytelling and composition is absolutely there in Herge's hand and although the rest of his studio more than probably deserve recognition in the same way that Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson do, say, the fact that everybody know it was a studio arguably makes him more like Eisner or Miyazaki. Which is probably a pair of comparisons he'd enjoy.

If you time your journeys properly and get off at Gare du Nord on the way back you can do it and CBBD in a day without it feeling too rushed.

Already have a visit to Musee Herge pencilled in for an European itinerary early next year; terribly excited about this!