Rachel Katz

Over the holidays, I surprised my brother by taking him to see The Adventures of Tintin. Going in, I seriously doubted that I would exit the cinema as content as I did.

Tintin is a young English journalist (different from the original comics, in which he is Belgian) with a keen sense of adventure and an eye for detail. After purchasing a rare, very intricate model of a ship called The Unicorn, our hero and his canine friend Snowy quickly become entangled in an ancient battle dating back to the 1600’s.

After being kidnapped and smuggled onto a boat, Tintin meets Captain Haddock, a Scottish, whisky-loving man whose ancestor, Sir Francis, had a vast amount of wealth. Unfortunately for the skipper, this treasure lies somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. It is up to Tintin, Snowy, and Captain Haddock to find the clues and find the location of Sir Francis’s treasure quickly, for they are not the only people scouring the world for this legendary collection.

I loved the movie. The animation was flawless, the voice actors were well-cast, and the storywas very engaging. It had enough mystery and suspenseful action sequences to keep me intrigued for the entire film. (And the crane fight was certainly an original idea!) The fact that the characters are not live action doesn’t cut any emotional ties with the audience, which I find can sometimes happen in animated features. My only complaint, and this is fairly minor, is that the film was in 3D. There were very few scenes in the movie where the 3D added much to the scene. That is not to say that it wasn’t enjoyable in 3D, it just wasn’t totally necessary.

While the credits say that the film is based on the entire Tintin series, by Belgian writer/illustrator Hergé, the movie’s story follows the plot originally outlined in The Secret of the Unicorn, which features the same characters and roughly the same plot, although the starting location switches from Brussels in the comic to a general European town in the film adaptation.

The Adventures of Tintin is a great escape for anyone wanting to go on a non-stop journey that will take you from the streets of London to the Middle East. Be prepared to perch on the edge of your seats, ladies and gents, for when asked by our hero about his thirst for adventure, Captain Haddock promises more by simply saying, “Unquenchable.”