The Adventures of Tintin (Spielberg, 2011)

[Spinal]

Why are you opposed to the protagonist having a personality?

[Grouchy]

Why are you opposed to the protagonist having a personality?

Because the protagonist is Tintin and he doesn't have a personality.

[Spinal]

Because the protagonist is Tintin and he doesn't have a personality.

Ah, so you're not interested in explaining yourself. Got it.

[Morris Schæffer]

Grouchy, I'm not sure that mentioning that Bond movie as a poor example strengthens your argument. Surely, there is logic in the decision to attempt something different with Bond after five movies? Indeed, those final moments are amongst the best of the bond franchise. This is also what Casino Royale attempted and I would say pulled off with moderate succes. What about videogame adaptations? Their celluloid counterparts are frequently as boring and vapid as their pixelized versions. Should we place them on the highest pedestal for the wonderfully uninteresting protagonists that they are?

[Grouchy]

Ah, so you're not interested in explaining yourself. Got it.

What? It was an explanation.

[Grouchy]

Grouchy, I'm not sure that mentioning that Bond movie as a poor example strengthens your argument. Surely, there is logic in the decision to attempt something different with Bond after five movies? Indeed, those final moments are amongst the best of the bond franchise. This is also what Casino Royale attempted and I would say pulled off with moderate succes. What about videogame adaptations? Their celluloid counterparts are frequently as boring and vapid as their pixelized versions. Should we place them on the highest pedestal for the wonderfully uninteresting protagonists that they are?

I didn't mention OHMSS as a poor example of anything - I love that movie. What I was trying to provide with Bond is an example of a character who can't really change too much without becoming something else. I mean, you can't have a canon movie with Bond battling capitalism. Or a canon movie of Superman where his rocket lands in India instead of the US. You can have those things as parodies, Elseworlds, whatever, but you can't have them as the real thing.

Well, same with Tintin - he's a reporter who loves adventure. That's exactly as much as Hergé wanted to reveal about the character. If you make a feature film about Tintin and you give him conflicts, traumas, a past, whatever, you destroy the character. It's doomed to fail because it's not Tintin anymore, so what's the point in making it at all?

Your videogame example sounds good, but I don't think it's valid because most videogames don't have fully developed dramatic storytelling. When they're adapted to film the writers are expected to flesh out the story. Of course, there are exceptions, but action videogames such as Resident Evil don't really feature complex characters.

[Morris Schæffer]

Well, same with Tintin - he's a reporter who loves adventure. That's exactly as much as Hergé wanted to reveal about the character. If you make a feature film about Tintin and you give him conflicts, traumas, a past, whatever, you destroy the character. It's doomed to fail because it's not Tintin anymore, so what's the point in making it at all?

Well, he'd still be a reporter who loves adventuring and depth doesn't mean the movie would suddenly have to go all Tsarkovsky or Bergman, but I'm going to stop the discussion here. Not because you piss me of, but because I'm not even sure this blank slate is the chief reason why I thought Tintin was merely a very enjoyable romp and nothing more.

[number8]

There are literally books written by essayists and literary critics analyzing the meaning of Herge's deliberate blank slate characterization of Tintin and the mystery behind his inhumanity. I should think that millions of fans would flip a lid if he's suddenly given one, and it would be seen as classic Hollywood-ing, I guess. Like Ron Howard explaining why The Grinch hated Christmas.

From a book review of Tom McCarthy's Tintin and the Secret of Literature:

Tintin was a word before it was a name; it means “nothing,” and the phrase faire tintin loosely means “to go without.” Hergé’s boy reporter does not bear this name by accident: “Tintin,” McCarthy says, “is pure negative, the whiteness of the whale, the sexlessness of the unconsummated marriage. . . . Tintin both offers and withholds.” Indeed, for all his crime-solving prowess, there is something strangely absent about Tintin, something strangely unyielding. He does not age, he has no sexuality, no desires of any sort, no past, no family, no first name. The mystery of Tintin has been in plain view all along: It is Tintin himself, and the secret of his mystery is that it has no solution. “Guardian of the silence at the heart of noise,” McCarthy writes,

[Spinal]

What? It was an explanation.

"Tintin has no personality. That's the way it is."
"Wouldn't it be better if he did?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because he's Tintin."

All right then.

[number8]

One of the most interesting critiques I've read of the movie is one that references the Tintin chapter in Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. McCloud said that a huge part of the draw of the Tintin comics is that Herge would photoreference the shit out of the backgrounds. The exotic locales that Tintin visits are all rendered realistically in very high details, but the characters are drawn simplistically and in clear lines, with faces that have very little details, giving a contrasting effect that McCloud theorizes, along with Tintin's blandness, make them nothing but placeholders for adventurous readers to insert themselves in those picturesque landscapes in place of characters that McCloud says are more "iconic." The film, however, renders the characters just as photorealistically, so they blend into the backgrounds, thus eliminating Herge's contrasting effect.

[Grouchy]

"Tintin has no personality. That's the way it is."
"Wouldn't it be better if he did?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because he's Tintin."

All right then.

Well, it's an explanation. You just didn't understand it.

I've always remembered that chapter in the Scott McCloud book but, until now, I hadn't thought about how it related to the film.

[Morris Schæffer]

Nice post 8!

[Spinal]

Well, it's an explanation. You just didn't understand it.

Because you have no interest in conversation. Just smug dismissals. So, well done, I guess.

[Grouchy]

Because you have no interest in conversation. Just smug dismissals. So, well done, I guess.

No, no. It's a perfectly sound explanation, like number8 has showed with his quotes.

[Qrazy]

Here you go Spinal. A Tintin with spunk.

[youtube]xZ4RzQXi-x4[/youtube]

[Spinal]

I guess they pushed him too far.

[baby doll]

Accepting that Tintin is purposefully bland, does that mean everything else was bland on purpose as well?

[Morris Schæffer]

This looks edgy as well, but I don't think it's real.

[StanleyK]

This is certainly a very enjoyable film. It's witty and funny and the action is spectacularly orchestrated (some sequences I feel are Spielberg's most ambitious in quite some time). I don't feel it was particularly memorable- I must echo complaints about characters not being very compelling and the film being ultimately slight- but it's entertaining without once insulting my intelligence and I felt satisfied at the end.

[KK2.0]

went to the IMAX today hoping to catch this before it leaves theaters, to my surprise it was packed. hate to sit at the front rows but there was no choice.

yes, it's very enjoyable, despite never reading any of Herge's books i was aware of how it was supposed to be and it didn't bothered me, I think Spielberg sucessfully captured the charm of the characters, Serkis was a great choice for Haddock, he fits these over the top roles perfectly. Despite the non stop action, I love how spielberg adds little details like the scene which the Dupont bros meet the pickpocket guy, focusing on each characters' hands first. But the action also had it's highlights, some setpieces were stunning, the pirate ship attack put a smile on my face, so over the top. The ending was a bit strange though, i think the final showdown was a tad disappointing and the epilogue seemed rushed.

I'm glad the film is doing well overseas, i want Peter Jackson's version asap.

edit: Let me put this better, I want his version right after the Hobbit films.

[Watashi]

I just watched the episodes of the cartoon that the movie was based on, and uh... it's pretty bad.

[Grouchy]

I just watched the episodes of the cartoon that the movie was based on, and uh... it's pretty bad.

Eh, the movie is not based on a cartoon.

[Morris Schæffer]

Eh, the movie is not based on a cartoon.

Well, not strictly speaking, but don't the stories correlate? I mean, the cartoons must be based on the books after all right?

[[ETM]]

The cartoons are like the first two Potter movies.

[Grouchy]

Well, not strictly speaking, but don't the stories correlate? I mean, the cartoons must be based on the books after all right?

Yes, obviously. Watashi must be talking about this TV series.

They did every story except for Tintin in the Congo.