Secret of the Unicorn | the m0vie blog

The Adventures of Tintin: The Seven Crystal Balls (Review)

Posted on December 11, 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’ve always had a soft spot for The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun. When I was younger, originally watching the show and reading the books, they were my favourite adventure, along with Cigars of the Pharaoh. Perhaps it was the exotic nature of the adventure, with Tintin setting off to far-off ports, or the fascinating occult and unexplained elements. I found it somewhat fascinating the Spielberg chose to make The Secret of the Unicornas his first film, since he makes the case that Tintin is a hero who shares a lot with Indiana Jones. I’d make the case that this adventure here is the one that most perfectly captures the strange occult vibe that Lucas and Spielberg tried to recreate with their whip-weilding explorer.

Not quite the boy scout he used to be...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Hergé, Secret of the Unicorn, Shooting Star, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the seven crystal balls, the seven crystal balls, tintin, Tintin: The Seven Crystal Balls, Unicorn, United States | 3 Comments »

The Adventures of Tintin: Red Rackham’s Treasure (Review)

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Darren

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

It’s quite strange, given how lukewarm I was to The Secret of the Unicorn, that I am undeniably fond of Red Rackham’s Treasure. At a time when Hergé seemed to be aiming for fantastic escapism, perhaps to avoid dealing with wartime reality, I think that Red Rackham’s Treasure perfectly encapsulates a lot of what was fun about Tintin, at least for my inner child. There’s hidden treasure, untouched tropic islands, walks along the ocean floor, submarines and even a shark attack! It’s all very light and whimsical, but it’s pure adventure all the way through, with a giddy enthusiasm sustaining the narrative.

Pushing the boat out...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Captain Haddock, Hergé, Red Rackham's Treasure, Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: red rackham's treasure, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin, Tintin: Red Rackham's Treasure, Unicorn, United States | 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 »

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 Seven Crystal Balls (Review)

Posted on October 13, 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.

Apparently, if Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is a success, Peter Jackson will be directing a sequel that will be based on the two-part story directly following The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure. I’m already anticipating that, seen as The Seven Crystal Balls and Prisoners of the Sun are probably among my favourite Tintin stories, and I can actually see the rather wonderful conflict between mysticism and rationality playing out really well on the big-screen. It’s pure unadulterated pulp fiction, and it’s pulp fiction done exceptionally well.

Mummy!

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, Captain Haddock, Hergé, List of The Adventures of Tintin characters, peter jackson, Red Rackham's Treasure, Secret of the Unicorn, seven crystal balls, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the seven crystal balls, the seven crystal balls, tintin and the seven crystal balls | 2 Comments »

Tintin: Red Rackham’s Treasure (Review)

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Darren

I have to admit to being just a little bit lukewarm to The Secret of the Unicorn as an entry in The Adventures of Tintin. However, the second part in the adventure, Red Rackham’s Treasure, is a much stronger instalment, standing on its own two feet. Part of me has always liked the more exotic Tintin adventures, but I reckon a large part of the appeal of this instalment is seeing Hergé resurrect a genre that has been left fallow for quite a few decades: the good old-fashioned treasure hunt.

Are Tintin and Haddock LOST?

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, blue lotus, Captain Haddock, Hergé, King Ottokar's Sceptre, Red Rackham's Treasure, review, Secret of the Unicorn, steven spielberg, the adventures of tintin, the adventures of tintin: red rackham's treasure, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin and red rackham's treasure, Tintin in the Congo | Leave a comment »

Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (Review)

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Darren

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 Crab With the Golden Claws (Review)

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Darren

The Crab With the Golden Claws is the first of three Tintin stories that were used as the basis of Steven Spielberg’s upcoming The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (the other two being, obviously, The Secret of the Unicorn and its sequel, Red Rackham’s Treasure). The Crab With the Golden Claws was originally written during the Nazi occupation of Belgium, when Hergé feared that his then on-going storyline The Land of Black Gold would have proved too politically charged for the country’s new governing force. So the adventure was essentially written as filler, a bit of light entertainment to take the minds of his headers as far away from the political reality as possible. And it certainly succeeds as one of the lighter and brisker adventures in the series, with one major addition to the franchise’s mythos in the form of Captain Archibald Haddock.

This could be the start of a beautiful friendship...

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: Adventures of Tintin, alcoholism, captain archibold haddock, Captain Haddock, Comics, Hergé, opium, peter jackson, raiders of the lost ark, Red Rackham's Treasure, Secret of the Unicorn, steven spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the crab with the golden claws, The Crab with the Golden Claws, tintin, tintin and the crab with the golden claws, tintin: the crab with the golden claws | 2 Comments »

Tintin: Tintin in the Congo (Review)

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Darren

“Unfortunate,” is probably a word that gets tossed around quite frequently about Tintin in the Congo. The second adventure in the series, it was omitted from the list of books on the back of my old Tintin collection, for reasons that aren’t too hard to fathom. Apparently, like Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, the book was driven by editorial edict – to encourage Belgians to move to the colonies in the Congo, rather than to drum up fear and mistrust of communist Russia – though, to be frank, I really can’t see much here stirring a desire to emigrate. Tintin in the Congo is very mush a product of its time, filled with casual racism and awkward portrayals. That doesn’t make it any better, and it’s genuinely quite difficult to look past that fact.