From the charming drawings of the Belgian artist George Remi, using the pen name of Herge, the young newspaper reporter named Tintin and his loyal dog, Snowy, go off in search of good stories and buried treasure in “The Adventures of Tintin,” a feature-length animated film that is entertaining in spite of being in 3-D.
I don’t like 3-D. Never have. I think it’s phony and a gimmick, and it bothers me that a director of Stephen Spielberg’s taste and ability would use it. The film, in the works for many years, is a blend of real animation (Snowy the dog) and live movement turned into computer animation (Tintin and others). With his carrot-colored hair and top-knot, Tintin has a face that looks a little like a Kewpie doll, or even a Billiken. Jamie Bell is the voice, with Daniel Craig, the hero of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” as Red Rackham and Ivanovich Sakharine. Andy Sarkis is Haddock, and his ancestor, also named Haddock.
The film combines three of the comics, “The Secret of the Unicorn,” “The Crab With the Golden Claws” and “Red Rackham’s Treasure.” Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish wrote the screenplay, and there is more Tintin in the plans if it goes as well on American screens as it has in Europe.
As in all comic books, our hero goes through a wide variety of adventures, always arriving safely at the other end of the story. Children and, to a great extent, their parents, will have a grand time. I did.
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, opens today at several theaters
— Joe