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Strong and Moving!

i must have seen a different film!!

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

While I had been vaguely aware of the cultish figure – introduced in comic-strip form – of Tintin, I never got around to sampling any of his 'work' or, for that matter, had much opportunity to do so. Of course, I have now, in the wake of Steven Spielberg's big-screen rendition…even if I did not precipitate into following this up with its own viewing! A local friend of mine, then, had also bought a DVD set of cartoons from the early 1990s (which are perhaps the character's most renowned incarnation, even if there had been a couple of live-action films in the 1960s) – but I actually went for the very first movie (using stop-motion animation and involving puppets) to be based on the exploits of Tintin.Running a little under an hour, I guess, this brings out the essence of the character and his closest associates – the cute mutt Snowy (I once had a lovely dog by that name, a former stray which was later cruelly poisoned) and the drunkard Captain Haddock. However, while we are shown how Tintin meets the latter (being unwittingly at the helm of a freighter smuggling opium out of the country, a case being investigated by the hero), no mention is made of the protagonist's own background: if Tintin is supposed to be no more than a boy, how come he is into espionage – by which I mean that he is specifically appointed to intercept this illicit operation!? Incidentally, there are a couple of other sleuths on the track of the powder – though they are called "Dupont & Dupont", the English subtitles insist on changing their surname to the American Thompson! The film follows a pretty standard pattern of detection and action (which sees the hero starting off with the cryptic titular clue, the proverbial "McGuffin" ultimately proving the true contents of a harmless-looking can of seafood, followed by his falling foul of, fleeing from and eventually defeating the villains), interspersed with comedy (especially Haddock's constant yearning for booze) and set in an exotic locale (Morocco).By the way, the character of Tintin originates from Belgium, a country that would also spawn the even more popular The Smurfs (now receiving their own, albeit modest, cinematic overhaul) – which, on the other hand, I used to watch on Italian TV and whose sole feature-film I did catch back in the day and also own (albeit dubbed in English).

This Tintin was neither Jean-Pierre Talbot nor Jamie Bell;no cartoons either ,no color ,I think that the first user saw another version.This is 1947 and it is the first attempt at an animated film starring Tintin;coincidence:it was based on "Le Crabe Aux Pinces D'or ,large bits of which Spielberg used for his own Tintin.A shoestring budget ,a short length (about 55 min) a shady producer (the writer tried to attract Disney's attention,to no avail;his works were returned to the sender).The movie was shown on December,the 21st 1947,in the presence of Hergé in Bruxelles;it was a short-lived success.It was its only day in the theater;the next day ,the movie was seized ,to soak up the shady producer's debts;the crook had flown to South America.Nothing was heard of the movie since,though it was talked about in Hergé's biopics on TV in the nineties.Finally it was released on DVD ;to clear up any misunderstanding,the cover shows Tintin,Milou and the Dupondt twins in front of a garbage can.Now for the movie :it's an animated movie with rag dolls ,in the tradition of the genre masterpiece "Le Roman De Renart" ;it is faithful to the story as a dog;only two important scenes are missing:the attack in the desert and Haddock's final and unfortunate lecture on alcohol,probably because the team was running out of money.Tintin speaks in a thin voice ,but Haddock's swears are here and the Dupondt's gaffes are not forgotten (their discreet investigation).The visions in the desert are kept (the hero being taken for a bottle of champagne);even the two nightmares are smartly introduced :on the life boat ,Tintin sleeps in a doll's bed while the captain lights a fire with the oars -in the cartoon book ,he was at the window of a house in flames -;even better is the dream in the small fort: the artists go out of their way to create a surrealist feeling (see "spellbound" two years before)a la Dali.It's a long way from "Le Crabe Aux Pinces D'or " to "the adventures of Tintin:the secret of the Unicorn".

I've seen a few movies from Tintin books, including "The Crab with Golden Claws". I'm assuming that this one that I'm reviewing is the same one that I saw when I was really young. Since only Tintin fans are even going to look up this movie, then I don't have to explain the story. But the one that I saw was in color, I read that this one was black and white, and that it came from Belgium (although I guess that they could have dubbed it). Oh well. I guess that I can only assume that it's the same movie. And I liked it even though it didn't follow the book exactly, as none of the Tintin movies did. If nothing else, it's still nice entertainment for children, with some stuff about geopolitics.