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The Adventures of Tin Tin: Spielberg Scores

By Pam Glazier · December 25, 2011

This holiday season, Stephen Spielberg decided to bring Tin Tin to the big screen. He then decided that using performance capture technology would be the best plan in executing this venture. Now, I don’t know about you, but the performance-capture in The Polar Express still creeps me out, and I’ve only seen the trailer. There’s something just a little bit off about the hybridization of natural and unnatural visuals that just cramps my brain in the most interestingly horrid ways. And why, I wondered, would one of the most brilliant minds in cinema want to handicap an already possibly-lame premise like Tin Tin. I mean, seriously? Boy-wonder red-head with a cow-lick and a lap dog go on adventures together? It’s Pippy Longstocking with all the testosterone drained out.

I rolled my eyes at the first several minutes. It was cheesy, fluffy, and the motion capture was really distracting. I knew this was going to be a long two hours. But then something magical happened. The story ripped me out of my snarky cynicism and planted me right in the middle of a mystery filled action-adventure. There were treasure maps, bumbling policemen, mysterious villains, and plots abounding that took our clean-as-a-whistle hero Tin Tin (Jaime Bell) and his trusty dog all around the globe.

It’s kind of ballsy on the part of the filmmakers to introduce a main character without any flaws. You could stretch to find some, but they don’t really count. Tin Tin’s flaws are his strengths. He’s insatiably curious, he loves his dog too much, and he feels an intense need to help people. If there are villains in his way, he stops them as best he can.

Simply put, he’s a hero. And these days, that’s weird as hell.

From Han Solo to Wolverine, it has become the standard to sew in heroes flaws that they must struggle against. In a world of anti-heroes, I suppose the new anti-hero is the hero-hero. Tin Tin isn’t perturbed by any physical short coming or emotional deficit; he doesn’t have time to be so narcissistic. Instead he simply follows the leads that arise when he tries to find out who stole the toy boat he bought at a flea market.

And really, the motion capture was pretty awesome. I’m sure there’s some technical abracadabra that went into making this movie’s look, but I couldn’t even begin to try to understand any of that. All I know is that it looked great. And even though the first few minutes were a bit distracting until I grew accustomed to it; once I did, the visuals really complemented the story. It was like being in the coolest adventure dream I’d ever had.

I don’t want to ruin any of the plot for you because you’re going to want to see this movie, so no spoilers in this review. But just know that the performances were great, the action was thrilling, and there were a lot of comedic moments juxtaposed against the adventure that made this movie extremely watchable.

I would go so far as to call The Adventures of Tin Tin the best movie of the year. Go see it.