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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 »

we3: The Deluxe Edition (Review)

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Darren

December is “Grant Morrison month” here at the m0vie blog, as we take the month to consider and reflect on one of the most critically acclaimed (and polarising) authors working in the medium.

It’s Homeward Bound, but with cyborgs!

Run rabbit, run rabbit, run run run!

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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: All Star Superman, batman, Batman and Robin, deluxe edition, final crisis, Flex Mentallo, frank quitely, grant morrison, Homeward Bound, morrison, Scotland, superman, United States, We3, we3: deluxe edition, we3: the deluxe edition | Leave a comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: Flight 714 (Review)

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Darren

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

Towards the end of his Adventures of Tintin, you could tell that Hergé was growing increasingly experimental, taking the series well outside comfort zone of pulp thrillers and global adventures. Tintin in Tibet was an introspective meditation on hope and faith. The Castafiore Emerald was a combination of plot threads that never really managed to tie together into an adventure. Flight 714 reads as if it were a parody of a Tintin story, instead of one itself. It’s a collection of incredible coincidences, elaborate schemes and recurring villains, all written in a wry style that tends to divide fans. Some appreciate the tongue-in-cheek nature of the story, while other find the inclusion of aliens to be a ridiculously fantastical element. It’s certainly not a conventional Tintin story. And, to be honest, I think this poses a bit of a problem for the team handling the adaptation. They’ve done a stellar job tying together the more straight-forward entries in the series, but seem to struggle with some of the stranger instalments.

And this, I’m afraid, is very strange.

Departure lounging around...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Castafiore Emerald, Colin O'Meara, Flight 714, Hergé, Professor Calculus, The Adventures of Tintin: Flight 714, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin, Tintin: Flight 714, United States | Leave a comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald (Review)

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Darren

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

The Castafiore Emeraldis certainly a strange title to adapt for an animated television series. Essentially an excuse for Hergé to play with the assorted tropes and clichés he had established for the series, the story is a mystery that refuses to conform to what Tintin and the audience might expect it to, with each and every avenue of exploration turning into a dead end. As such, it allows Hergé to explore the more personal interactions of his supporting cast (like Haddock and Calculus), while having a bit of fun with his lead character – the boyish reporter. While it makes for an interesting book, I’m not convinced that it could ever really work as an animated episode.

Faithful to the letter...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Castafiore Emerald, Hergé, moon, Shooting Star, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald, The Castafiore Emerald, tintin, Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald, United States | Leave a comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in Tibet (Review)

Posted on December 18, 2011 by Darren

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

Tintin in Tibet is a wonderful book. It’s probably, despite coming towards the end of the series, the perfect book to give somebody who wants to try to read The Adventures of Tintin. It’s a perfect encapsulation of all the heart and warmth that makes Hergé’s series so fascinating, and an illustration of how appealing and endearing his two leads are. More than that, though, Hergé’s story is one of hope and faith, and it’s hard not feel a little bit warm inside after reading it. So the animated adaptation has quite a lot to work with. While they don’t surpass the original book – which would be quite a considerable accomplishment – they do it proud.

It's Snowy out there...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Captain Haddock, Colin O'Meara, Haddock, Hergé, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in Tibet, tintin, Tintin in Tibet, Tintin: Tintin in Tibet, United States | Leave a comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: The Red Sea Sharks (Review)

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Darren

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

In many ways, The Red Sea Sharks feels like a conclusion to The Adventures of Tintin. Drawing together countless plot threads and supporting characters into one massive confrontation between Tintin and Rastapopoulos, providing some nice set pieces and a tour of the globe, the adventure feels like it’s really wrapping up all the left over bits and pieces the series has accumulated since Cigars of the Pharaoh. The four adventures that followed would have a markedly different tone, to the point where they almost felt like an epilogue, examining what happened after Tintin’s globe-trotting adventures had concluded. The animated adaptation of the episode seems to treat it as an adventure relatively epic in scope, and again makes a surprising case for an unconventional candidate for a potential movie adaptation.

Just plane trouble...

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Filed under: Movies, Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Calculus Affair, Captain Haddock, Castafiore Emerald, Dawson, Haddock, Hergé, red sea sharks, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the red sea sharks, the red sea sharks, tintin, tintin: the red sea sharks, United States | 1 Comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: The Calculus Affair (Review)

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Darren

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

We’re just finished the more fantastical series of Hergé’s adventures, where he took his lead (and supporting cast) to the bottom of the ocean, to the heart of a lost Inca society and even to the moon itself. The animated series proved quite adept at handling these stories. The fact that Hergé’s two-part adventures translated to four-part feature-length episodes was just icing on the cake. However, I find myself wondering how the team will handle The Calculus Affair. It’s a relatively mature adventure, and it represents a point where the series became considerably more self-aware and reflexive. Given some of the changes made to earlier stories, I can’t help but wonder how the series will deal with these very different themes and ideas.

Tintin must have ticked off some important people in his time...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Calculus Affair, Cold War, Hergé, indiana jones, Professor Calculus, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the adventures of tintin: the calculus affair, The Calculus Affair, tintin, tintin: the calculus affair, United States | Leave a comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: Explorers on the Moon (Review)

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Darren

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

After a somewhat disappointing adaptation of Destination: Moon, the series bounces back with a wonderful take on Explorers on the Moon. I honestly think that Destination: Moon and Explorers on the Moon are perhaps Hergé’s most optimistic work on the series, aside from Tintin in Tibet. Although one can detect hints of the Cold War on the horizon, informing his writing, there’s still an incredible sense of marvel at the human capacity for what seems to be impossible. While the adaptation of Destination: Moonseemed to miss the comical whimsy to focus on the sabotage subplot, it does a much better job with the more earnest joy of this space-based adventure.

One small step...

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Colin O'Meara, Explorers on the Moon, Hergé, moon, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin, tintin in america, Tintin: Explorers on the Moon, United States | Leave a comment »

The Adventures of Tintin: Destination Moon (Review)

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Darren

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

I think that Destination: Moon represents perhaps the most significant challenge to the producers of the animated series so far. While they managed to harvest a plot from the disjointed collection of scenes Hergé knitted together to form Tintin in America, this is the perhaps the least standard instalment of the series they’ve tried to adapt until this point. I’m a big fan of Destination: Moon, reading it as a wonderful optimistic and enthusiastic reflection on mankind’s potential, coming from Hergé after the Second World War. However, it’s also a bit unstructured and episodic, almost a collection of short stories tied together by the plan to send a manned mission to the moon. The animated adaptation doesn’t have the luxury of cutting the adventure down to a single episode, and so it’s a standard two-parter. It seems that there was a bit of difficulty structuring the story for that format.

Blast off!

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Filed under: Television | Tagged: Adventure of Tintin, Captain Haddock, Castafiore Emerald, Destination Moon, Hergé, moon, the adventures of tintin: destination moon, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, tintin in america, tintin: destination moon, United States | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Help

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Darren

The Help is a well made film with a solid script, decent direction, and some very good performances from a superb ensemble. It’s hard not to get swept up in the drama as it unfolds, as the movie takes a harsh look at some of the prejudice festering in Mississippi during the sixties, where the phrase “hippie!”was an accusation that could destroy anyone’s social standing, it was not appropriate to fraternise with the help, and even raising the suggestion of racial equality was to open one’s self to prosecution for breaking the law. It’s powerful stuff. I was moved by it, particularly by the wonderful work put in by the cast. And, yet, I couldn’t help but feel that there was something very cynical unfolding before my eyes. The Help is a movie that seems built to fill a particular void, carefully measured and constructed to keep its audience well within their comfort zones, and a movie that feels like it might be sacrificing some of its depth for fear of actually challenging its audience.