I would dearly like to believe that Steven Spielberg isn't a terrible person full of bad ideas, but being presented with the trailer for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is a severe test of my faith. I'm no wholesale motion capture snob, but I don't understand how Peter Jackson or Steven Spielberg could look at what they've created and call it aesthetically pleasing.
There was very little point approaching a Tintin project this way. While the scenery looks okay, Hergésque, even, the animation and the character models are simply not up to standard. This level of work is only one step above the visual hellscape that was Mars Needs Moms, which is considered one of the biggest box office bombs of all time after inflation. If you look at the 50 second mark with Thompson and Thomson bumbling down the stairs, or the 1:50 mark where one of them hits the street light, it's clear that Spielberg has no sense of animation. These characters are being clicked and dragged, and it's not a good look.
Whoever decided that Snowy looked like a dog rather than a series of cotton buds needs to be fired, as well. It's he and Tintin, rendered breathless by Jamie Bell, that get the worst of it all. Tintin, being the title character, needs to look less dumb. It's too late for that. It was always going to be too late. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, intent on whittling away all of the good will that they've earned over the years, are uninspired thus far.
Next we have Captain Haddock, the most pleasing member of the bunch. He looks like Captain Haddock! Alas, he's been rendered into a bumbling Scot. At this point in the Tintin mythos he's a drunkard, but that's not communicated here. Due to the inexplicable thick accent, the audience is forced to assume that his stupidity is directly related to his country of origin. I know that this isn't strictly fair given that we've only got 2:24 to work with, but trailer cutters should know that first impressions count.
While I believe I will drag myself to see The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, I don't hold out much hope for it. The sense of adventure might be pointing in the right direction, but the look and the sound are entirely wrong. Had Spielberg attempted to go all the way in either direction – live action and effects driven, or computer generated – he might have ended up with something worth looking at. Secret of the Unicorn is the movie of 2011 that I'm most likely to watch with my eyes closed.
