Tintin Forums

Tintin wore black socks in a few albums, actually. I was a little surprised by the black socks considering the white socks are more well known and Tintin wore a yellow shirt when he had black socks.

My initial reaction to the movie images mirrors other posts in this thread. It was one of benign disappointment. I agree that the familiar facial features of Herge's characters are not coming through. The cover image of Tintin and Snowy reminds me of the widely-varied artist renderings of Tintin & Co. that were created in 1983 in honor of Herge after his death. Though intriguing and sentimental, none were as compelling as Herge's creations.

After further reflection, the CGI renderings are making me look forward to the movie even more. Peter Jackson's King Kong won audiences over with its wonderful CGI and that movie can be enjoyed along with the 1933 original.

Perhaps differing the CGI Tintin from the book graphics is a smart thing and will keep viewers in the new movie rather than pulling us out by reminding us of the books. As long the CGI characters are likable then the differences from Herge's drawings will not matter. Of course the characters still need to be the ones we love in the books... I am hoping that Snowy's mischievous humor will come through and that Haddock's character arc will begin with him as a rampaging lush. However, the movie should be a new experience that can be enjoyed along with the books, rather than replace them. I hope that the script will deviate from the books just enough to keep us interested and that John Williams score will encompass the perfect Tintin theme.

Well said, Duke Snowy.

At a slight tangent, I’ve been wondering about this particular picture; I’ve read, in amongst commentators talking about the movie reveal in Empire, things like that this is “Tintin in his iconic pose”. Did Hergé ever draw Tintin running in this way, in the spotlight? It was used (and presumably drawn) by the animators at Ellipse-Nelvana for the T.V. series, but I don’t think of it as “iconic”. However, I may have missed something, and they might have based it on a “real” Tintin image, but I thing it’s a curious thing that this is how many see Tintin, only from T.V., not the books.


This surprises me too: I see Jackson’s King Kong as a salutary lesson in what not to do with CGI - the intention was good, but it was like going to a fine restaurant, only to have them stuff the food in your face without let up. A lot of good individual elements, but no time or way to enjoy them, and not a nice experience. It was too long, but even at that length it contained far less poetry and finesse than the original: less would have definitely been more. I truly hope that the Tintin movie isn’t just an unending series of spectacles - I want there to be heart too.

Other than that, I’m with you all the way!

I've been wondering the same thing for a while, and can't understand why they keep using that image for everything.

I think I would have liked to see the medallion with Tintin and Snowy's head, from the book cover.

Well, I got my copy just now, and I’m if anything slightly more optimistic.

There are several new images, in addition to the ones from the website, both of rendered scenes and on the motion-capture stage (including one of Jamie Bell and Mr. Spielberg on the contents page).

The feature begins with a panoramic picture of Tintin, Snowy and the Captain on the edge of the desert, and this manages to evoke Crab for me better than the cabin scene they chose as the teaser. Of all the pictures, it is the one closest to the source material.

There is another scene featuring the Thom(p)sons and Silk in the thief’s apartment; Silk might just as well be a man in make-up, as he’s only really got an out sized nose - take that away and he could be human. The Detectives, however are another kettle of fish. They are strangely distorted beings, with their eyes well above giant noses, and no jaws to speak of, and it is slightly disturbing. Not human, and all the worse for it.

Finally, there’s a night scene, of Barnaby the antiques collector who worked for the Bird Brothers, being greeted at the door by Tintin with a gun, so presumably the first image of a scene wholly invented for the film.

It makes no attempt to replicate Hergé’s most common style of night scene, where most areas are suffused with an even ”glow” for want of a better word (I know there are scenes such as the gypsy camp at night in Emerald where he used hard shadows, but it isn’t typical).

I’ll not say more, so that you can make up your own mind if you see the magazine; the article itself is good, and contains a lot of input from the directors, plus background on the series and Hergé for beginners, plus a section talking to Joe Cornish (writer), about his love of Tintin.

Ah yes, I do agree with your criticisms of Kong, however for me the positives in that movie far outweighed the negatives. My reason for referencing King Kong was with respect to the CGI character. I hope that the Tintin CGI characters will emote as much as Peter Jackson's Kong. Perhaps with Steven Spielberg directing, the over bloated movie will be avoided and "Secrets of the Unicorn" will have the heart you suggest.

Thanks for your descriptions of the Empire article. i look forward to seeing that.

I was waiting for the Empire issue to see the full set of images; having now seen them all, I don't feel particularly encouraged.

I don't really understand what style they've opted for. The image of Tintin and Snowy in the spotlight looks to be fairly realistic, with everything in proportion, but then the image of the Thompsons and Silk looks to be taken from a different film, with the weird noses as mentioned by jock. To my eyes, it looks closer to a computer game than a film - and certainly not 'photo-realistic', which is what we were promised by Spielberg and Jackson.

My biggest concern is that it doesn't look particularly 'charming'. Hergé's drawings are full of character - the people are real people, and I think they ought to be treated as such. Taking the cabin scene as a comparison, I feel there's far more happening in Hergé's drawings than in the 3D motion-capture rendering of the same scene - the drawings are more charged, there's more at stake, Haddock's emotional shift from superiority to astonishment, realisation and then complete despair all accomplished in five panels. Technically the CGI version is very well done, but it's not what I was hoping for.

I'm going to reserve judgement until there's some actual footage, but these stills, for me, leave much to be desired.

I've read your post a couple of days ago, and it stayed with me. I needed time to compose my thoughts. Also, because of personal circumstances, I could not come online.

Basically, jock123, I think you hit the nail right on the head!

I've never understood why people are ready to accept live action versions of Batman, Superman, and other various comic-book super heroes, and yet, when it comes to Tintin, it's "I can't see it as a live action". If radically different looking actors like Adam West, Michael Keaton and Christian Bale all can play Bruce Wayne, then at least one of them does not look like the comic book version, but fans accept it anyway. So, why not for Tintin?

As far as the Empire images shown on the website, the first time I saw time, it just did not feel right. The ones where Tintin and Haddock are on the capsized life-boat, waving at the plane, the water and boat looked real, but the characters looked like figurines, not real people. If anything, it reminded me of looking at a View Master image.

The one of Haddock reminded me, not of the captain, but of the Hulk from Ang Lee's disastrous movie. (I have not seen the 2nd one). It looked too computer generated, and not real. Mind you, when I went back for a second look, it sort of grew on me.

Like many others, I am waiting to see animated sequence, to see if it will change my opinion.

I've just bought the magazine and read the article myself; currently my opinion is that of optimism as well as mixed.

Nothing in particular has jumped out at me with excitement or thrills so far and the stills appear fine but could've been more in the style of Herge.

I'm not putting my hopes up right now in fear of disappointment when it comes up to the film release, so I will happily wait until October next year to create a full and fair judgement.