Review: ‘Tintin’ is by far the best animation this season

Shomini Sen

Take a bow Steven Spielberg. You have proved once again that you are the best in the business of movie making. Spielberg’s latest offering ‘Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn’ is one of the best 3D film in recent times. Based on Herge’s popular comic book hero Tintin, the film starts with the first book where ‘boy’ reporter Tintin sets on the high seas to unearth a mystery of a ship called ‘The Unicorn’. A mystery that he just stumbles upon when he buys a replica of the famed ship at a market and is threatened by an evil Mr Sakharine to give it up or face dire consequences. The film then shows the journey that Tintin embarks upon with his faithful dog, Snowy to unearth the deep dark secrets behind the ship and also to find out what Sakharine is after. While on the ship, he meets Captain Haddock, who becomes his companion in the rest of the adventures. From the mind boggling graphics to some uber special effects, almost everything in the movie is perfect. The film is engaging from title credits itself and keeps the viewer engaged all throughout with interesting twist and turns. The chase sequences on the streets of Bagga are absolutely stunning and so is the last scene where Captain Haddock and villain Ivanovich Sakharine fight it out at a dockyard is edgy. The film infuses animation with realism and what we get is a heady concoction which leaves the viewer spell bound. One little complain, the film in some portion seems to drag a bit and could have been edited to a certain extend. For avid Tintin fans, the presence of the bumbling inspector duo Thomson and Thompson are lot more in the book and far less in the film. The humour of Captain Haddock is also less in the movie as it mainly concentrates on establishing Tinitin’s character. The cast of the film is stellar. Jamie Bell as Tintin and Daniel Craig as Sakharine are definitely the best of the lot. Overall, the film satisfies the thirst of avid animation lovers with some marvelous graphics and top notch performances. The story of course is the winner with Herge leaving a treasure of adventures which was waiting to be discovered by filmmakers. Watch it if you are a Tintin fan, you won’t be disappointed. And if you are new to the world Herge and his wonder boy, then you have just stumbled upon gold. Follow @shominisen