Tintin The Movie

The Tintin series finally appear in the movie. The Secret Of Unicorn written by George Remi (well known as Herge) in 1943 was chosen to be the first.

Tintin, hero of the story, swashbuckling in an adventure of treasure hunt once possessed by the captain of an old legendary royal ship, the Unicorn, Francouis Haddock. To assure that the treasure pass only to his true bloodlines, he hid it and left the hints to uncover the location of that treasure on the parchments insidiously placed in the mast of three separate miniatures of the ship Unicorn. The writings on those parchments were the same, except each of it had some different numbers. The numbers would actually show the exact location of the treasure in maritime coordinate. In order to see a complete making sense ‘address’, all the three parchments had to be combined and that means all the three separate miniatures must be found.

Tintin accidentally found the second ship in the old goods fair. At first, he didn’t know at all about the secret of the ship. He was just interested. Just after he had already bought it, a man with a beard, this was the bad guy in this movie, Mr. Sakharine, came and said he would buy that ship at a very favourable price, if Tintin were wiling to give it away. Tintin refused. The man insisted, but Tintin still kept his mind.

When he was in his apartment, Snowy, his terrier dog, broke the mast of the miniature accidentally while chasing a cat, allowed the parchment to slide and roll under the buffet in the living room. Snowy knew this and tried to tell its master by barking at him but he in anger of snowy, set it aside.

Tintin later knew that there was something in the miniature Mr Sakharine eager to have for himself when he found the other day his apartment were totally in mess. Someone had entered his apartment to steal the parchment but failed. Snowy barked and jumped again trying to tell him and this time Tintin noticed. He found the second parchment and realized it was the thing Mr Sakharine really wanted. He also knew then that Mr Sakharine had already had the first of the three ships, trying to have his too, and would hunt for the third one.

The story then continued to the race between Tintin and Mr Sakharine (along with his bad guys) to find the third parchment or the third ship. And as it went further, some well known figures such as Captain Haddock, the grand grandson of Francouis Haddock, Allan the traitor, and Bianca Castafiore were introduced.
...

When thinking about Tintin to be in a movie, two things come into my mind. First, the movie may have weak appeal, especially to Tintin fans who know A to Z what the story “ The Secret of The Unicorn” is. They, perhaps, just like me, have read the story several times. The movie will be very predictable and therefore uninteresting. How to keep it interesting to watch?

Second, Tintin is a short story comic. The TV cartoon version of Tintin only takes thirty minutes to complete each serial (minus some minutes of commercial breaks). Of course, no movies in the theater will run only half an hour. How is the story going to be developed to have at least, the usual ninety minute duration?

It is also important to keep in mind that, George Remi, author and creator of Tintin before his death left us his final message which said no one would continue the adventure of Tintin, except under his pen. He said only himself who knew how Tintin was to be. So, to honor this, there cannot be a significant change in the story.
(Remi died in 1983 leaving his last work of Tintin adventures ‘Tintin and The Alpha Art’ unfinished. The basic sketches of it was first published in 1986, and later in the 2004 delux edition).

And it came up with surprises.

The first surprise one may notice is the appearance of George Remi in the first minute of the movie. He was depicted as the painter in the fair Tintin attended. And may be, to inaugurate Tintin as his sole design, it happened that the painter made a painting of him on demand. I am not totally sure it is really a George Remi or not. It’s only what I think I have found. At least, the painter’s face really looks like him.

The improvisation from the basic comic is easily can be heard in the film’s dialogues. The dialogue is very rich, flowing, in a very clear European English accent. Remi wrote a straight, to the point story of Tintin. The overall dialogue in this film should have been lengthened and improvised.

To make the film endure for few hours, some cuts from other Tintin’s stories were lent.

This animated film was actually a mixed setting of three different stories, ‘The Secret Of The Unicorn’, as the main part, combined with some settings of ‘Crab With The Golden Claws’ and some minor cuts from ‘Red Racham's Treasure’.

In the comic Secret Of The Unicorn, Tintin was considered having already known Captain Haddock. He saw the miniature of Unicorn and remembered Haddock. So he bought it because he knew that the captain would like it very much. But in the movie, Tintin didn’t intend to buy the ship for Haddock because he and Haddock had never known each other.

Tintin met Haddock in the ship ‘Karaboudjan’ where he used to be the captain. Haddock’s first mate, Allan betrayed him and took over the ship, made him prisoner by the order of Sakharine (knowing Haddock as the only one who could uncover the secret). At the same time, he also ordered Allan to kidnap Tintin and locked him in a cargo room, urged him to surrender the parchment. In his trial to escape, Tintin accidentally jumped onto the cabin where the captain was arrested.
This was how both met and became friend ever since. After knowing where Mr Sakharine was up to and realizing they could join efforts in hunt of the treasure, both tried to escape from the ship by using lifeboat. They made flee but then stranded in vast, dry Sahara desert until saved by the commander of French Legion whose post was near there.

The meeting of Tintin and Haddock for the first time aboard the ‘Karaboudjan’ and the escaping adventure from the sea to the desert is the story that belongs to ‘Crab With The Golden Claws' which was written two years before ‘The Secret Of The Unicorn’. Both are two separated comics with completely different story. The story writer used this cut and improvised, made it fit to be a continuing and well connected storyline.

Two other figures, Bianca Castafiore which often appeared casually in the Tintin series, and Sheik Emir Bin Sallad (appeared twice in Tintin comics) were introduced near the end of the film. Bianca Castafiore, an opera soloist, was first appeared in ‘King Ottokar Sceptre’ and grew a close friendship with Tintin and Haddock. In the film, she was shown not as one of Tintin friends but just as the other, the singer invited by the Sheik to stage in his palace. And the Sheik, who was appeared first in ‘Land of The Black Gold’ and then in ‘Red Sea Sharks’ was the ruler of the place. The Sheik, different from what he has been in the comics, was the person who had the third ship (but he didn’t know about the parchment).

It was in this country, Maroko, beginning from the Sheik's palace to the downtown of fictional city Bagghar, the movie’s climax and anticlimax took place.

The film ends with the three parchments in the hands of Tintin and Haddock. They made it to uncover the hint which led them to Marlispike Hall where the treasure had been long kept in secret.

I do not expect the story will improvise that way. It is very clever the way the three different stories can be arranged into a continuing and unpredictable movie.
It is a good movie.
….

I like reading Tintin comics. They are not just comics with stories of adventures. The author wrote them on the base of real settings of the era. He did a pre-writing research for the background of every story. If you read Tintin, you will acquaint with some flashes of real historical events.

Four of them I like the most:
‘The Blue Lotus’ (1946) which inserts ‘The Manchurian Incident’, which was vaguely accused as the key event that triggered China and Japan army face to face in war.
‘The Calculus Affairs’ (1956) shows the intense cold war where the development of lethal weapons were inevitable.
‘The Red Sea Sharks’ (1958) that tells about Black African slavery in our modern civilization.
and ‘Land of The Black Gold’ (1950), a story about the attempt to seize and control Arabian oil mines by means of political conspiracy.

I was happy. Seeing Tintin adapted into a movie has always been in my mind every spare time I read the comics. I thought I was very special in a day as if the movie had been made for me only. I could not wait. I went in rush (it was Saturday when I need not to) and found the theater was not opened yet. I could not be late but,… I came too early.

The film is intended to have a sequel and Spielberg is said to direct the third.

I'll be waiting both.



Kb. Lama
12/13.11. 11