Crab With the Golden Claws

The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin And The Picaros (Review)

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Darren

To celebrate the release of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn in the United States later this month, I’ll be taking a look at some of nineties animated television show. Check back daily!

Note: This is our review of the animated episode, check out our review of the book here.

I have to admit, I quite like Tintin and the Picaros as the final completed entry in Hergé’s saga. I know he was, of course, working on Tintin and the Alph-Art when he passed, but I think that Hergé’s Tintin and the Picaros is a frank and honest reflection on the franchise, one that perhaps concedes that all good things must come to an end, and that the world around Tintin is not the same as it once was. So, there’s some great potential for a strong finale to the series here. However, the animated adaptation lacks a lot of the subtlety and nuance that Hergé’s original story had, leaving it feeling like a rather generic entry in the series, rather than a fitting conclusion.

Dressed for the occasion...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Captain Haddock, Crab With the Golden Claws, Hergé, Picaros, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin and the Picaros, tintin, Tintin and the Picaros, Tintin: Tintin and the Picaros, United States | Leave a comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun (Review)

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Darren

Note: This is our review of the animated episode, check out our review of the book here.

When I was younger, I used to love The Adventures of Tintin because they’d transport me to far away places, and give me a chance to see environments and cultures that I wouldn’t get to see until I was much older, if ever. As such, the period of Hergé’s writing that appealed to me the most as a younger was the fantastical segment that covered the author’s work during an immediately after the Second World War. I wasn’t old enough to appreciated the political commentary and satire of stories like The Broken Ear or King Ottokar’s Sceptre, and I was mature enough to fully enjoy the reflective nature of the stories from The Calculus Affaironwards.

A little tied up...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Calculus Affair, cigars of the pharaoh, Crab With the Golden Claws, Hergé, prisoners of the sun, the adventures of tintin: prisoners of the sun, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin, Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun, Unicorn, United States | Leave a comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: Cigars of the Pharaoh (Review)

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Darren

Note: This is our review of the animated episode, check out our review of the book here.

This is more like it. After a single twenty-three minute episode to cover Tintin in America, Cigars of the Pharaoh gets a bit more space. It’s a very faithful take on the classic story, split over two episodes to retain as much as possible. It’s a good thing, too, as I’d argue that Cigars of the Pharaoh is easily one of the best stories Hergé ever wrote, and certainly the first truly classic entry in the series. So it’s great to see the animated series kicking everything into gear.

Mapping out the show...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, cigars of the pharaoh, Crab With the Golden Claws, Hergé, Pharaoh, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin: The Cigars of the Pharaoh, tintin, tintin in america | Leave a comment »

October 2011 In Review

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Darren

I occasionally post a little section at the end of the month reviewing some of the more interesting stuff I’ve written – perhaps it might be helpful to a reader navigating the archives, but it’s really for myself, looking back from time to time. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

It was a fun month here at the m0vie blog, and one in which we gleefully got to indulge our nerdy little interests. To celebrate the release of Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, I decided to try to review all 24 of Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin. In case you want to browse the reviews, here they are:

It was also a fun month because I somehow ended up on the front page of IMDb, recommended on their hit-list for an article I wrote about my anticipation around the release of Tintin. It’s always a huge pleasure to be cited by people who you admire and respect, in a field where they are really the very big players, and I’m honestly humbled by the experience.

And then there was this…

Paul Cornell, comic book writer at DC and writer for the revived Doctor Who (and the novels that preceded it), linked to my review of his superb run on Action Comics. It’s one of the truly great modern comic book runs, and wholeheartedly recommended, but it’s just really, really cool to have Mr. Cornell acknowledge the review. At the risk of gushing, he’s a writer that I’ve been following ever since I caught a repeat of Father’s Day, which was the episode that convinced me that Doctor Who was well worth my time. So, the idea that the guy somehow innocuously clicked on to this blog made my week.

So, yep, at the risk of geeking, it was an awesome month.

Filed under: Months in Review | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Crab With the Golden Claws, Hergé, King Ottokar's Sceptre, October in Review, Red Rackham's Treasure, red sea sharks, Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn | 4 Comments »

Is Captain Haddock the Ultimate Hero of Hergé’s Tintin?

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Darren

I think it’s safe to agree that Captain Archibald Haddock was the breakout character of Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin. Introduced in The Crab With the Golden Claws, one of three adventures to form the basis of Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, Haddock has rarely been absent from the series in the time that followed. Indeed, Hergé even went back and wrote him into the end of a story (The Land of Black Gold) that he began before Haddock was even created. Haddock’s appeal seems to be incredible, with the blue-turtleneck-wearing sea-captain almost as iconic as Tintin and Snowy. Returning to the series for the first time in years, as the release of the new movie approaches, I couldn’t help but wonder if Haddock was the real hero of the series.

He'll never desert Tintin...

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Filed under: Comics, Movies | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Captain Archibald Haddock, Captain Haddock, Comics, Crab With the Golden Claws, Haddock, Hergé, Shooting Star, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: The Adventures of Tintin – The Secret of the Unicorn

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Darren

It’s Indiana Jones, but for kids! It’s fascinating that the collaboration of Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson should produce something that feels much more like the earlier Indiana Jones films than Spielberg’s most recent collaboration with George Lucas. Adapting Hergé’s The Adventures of Tintin was always going to be a challenging proposition, and it’s to the credit of everybody involved that it turned out so well. While it’s not quite perfect, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is undoubtedly Spielberg’s most entertaining family film since Jurassic Park.

Franchise launcher?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, andy serkis, Captain Archibald Haddock, captain archibold haddock, Captain Haddock, Crab With the Golden Claws, daniel craig, Hergé, peter jackson, Secret of the Unicorn, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the secret of the unicorn, tintin, tintin and red rackham's treasure, tintin and the secret of the unicorn | 7 Comments »

“You Shiver In Such An-tici-pation”: Upcoming Releases and the Waiting Game…

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Darren

It’s a bit of a defunct popular witticism that the actual purpose of the internet is not to increase global communication or facilitate and encourage the development and spread of ideas, but exists solely for pornography. I don’t think that’s necessarily true (in fact, it only accounts for 1% of the internet). Instead, I’d argue that the internet exists primarily to provide spoilers, casting calls, plot summaries, set pictures and gossip around all the upcoming releases. In an era where even fictitious characters have facebook and twitter accounts, it sometimes feels like information overload, with constant updates about the status of a given project and director and cast.

All at sea?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bloggers, Captain Haddock, Crab With the Golden Claws, critics, film discussion, green lantern, Hergé, internet, Red Rackham's Treasure, review, Secret of the Unicorn, spoilers, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin | 6 Comments »

Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (Review)

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Darren

In the lead-up to the release of The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, I’m going to be taking a look at Hergé’s celebrated comic book character, from his humble beginnings through to the incomplete post-modern finale. I hope you enjoy the ride.

The Secret of the Unicorn is the basis of the upcoming live-action adaptation of The Adventures of Tintin, as directed by Steven Spielberg. It will form the basis for the film, along with The Crab With the Golden Claws and the second part of this adventure, Red Rackham’s Treasure. While Cigars of the Pharaoh fed into The Blue Lotus and Tintin in the Congo led into Tintin in America, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure represent the first real two-part story in Hergé’s series, and you can feel the writer appreciating the opportunity to spread his adventure over two volumes of the series.

Set sail for adventure!

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, blue lotus, Captain Haddock, Crab With the Golden Claws, Hergé, red rackham, Red Rackham's Treasure, review, Secret of the Unicorn, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin and the secret of the unicorn, tintin: secret of the unicorn | 2 Comments »

Tintin: The Shooting Star (Review)

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Darren

It’s very strange to return to material you read as a child. Occasionally – as when reading King Ottokar’s Sceptre – you find a lot more than you remember. However, reading The Shooting Star, I was quite surprised to find the more surrealist elements I so strongly recalled – foreshadowed by the giant mushroom on the cover and the not-so giant spider on the telescope – were pretty much confined to the last ten pages of the adventure. Reading it again, I was incredibly impressed with the atmospheric opening scenes and the wonderful race to the fallen meteorite, both elements downplayed in my memory to giant apples and exploding mushrooms. It’s things like this that make me glad I decided to revisit the series for the occasion.

Tintin scopes out the observatory...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, belgium, Captain Haddock, Crab With the Golden Claws, Hergé, peter jackson, Shooting Star, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the shooting star, the shooting star, tintin: the shooting star, United States | Leave a comment »

Tintin: King Ottokar’s Sceptre (Review)

Posted on October 8, 2011 by Darren

It’s amazing what you can miss in enjoying your favourite stories as a child. For me, at the tender age of seven or eight, King Ottokar’s Sceptre was a thrilling tale of palace intrigue with a rather wonderful locked-room mystery at it heart. Returning to it now, it feels like quite a bit more. This is the first time, reading a Tintin book, that it feels part of a particular place or time. Even the possibly-Nazi agent from The Black Island was cast ambiguously enough that the story could have been set at any time in the relatively recent past, but King Ottokar’s Sceptre is something quite a bit different, capturing the sense of fear in Europe on the eve of warfare.