Film Feature: From Page to Screen, Fall 2011’s Biggest Adaptations

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The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
Photo credit: Paramount

Film: “The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn” (December 23)

Based On: The world’s most popular comic book character that most Americans have never heard of; first published in 1929 by Belgian legend Herge.

Director: Steven Spielberg, up-and-coming director of “1941” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”.

Chances For Success: Risky… in America. You see, “Tintin” is like the soccer of comic book properties. It’s fantastically, epically popular all over the world… but just not in America. I mean, c’mon, Americans don’t even call “soccer” by its proper name (“football” makes way more sense). This is the United States’ relationship with “Tintin”. Like the metric system, many of us are aware that “Tintin” exists, but, beyond that, we don’t know much about it and don’t have much desire to learn more. Spielberg’s first foray into animation is making a lot of cash in international territories so far and the reviews have been halfway decent. (“Tintin” is such a beloved property internationally that you had to expect some to be offended by America’s most famous director taking on such a European sacred cow. My favorite, over-the-top pan so far comes from the UK Guardian: “Steven Spielberg’s adaptation is not just a failure; it is an assault on a great body of art so thuggishly moronic as to make one genuinely depressed.”) And it doesn’t help that Spielberg’s take on “Tintin” has been brought to life by performance-capture CGI animation – another art-form that America audiences have failed to embrace. On one hand, we have Steven Spielberg, one of the world’s most famous directors, playing in a film genre that he basically revolutionized with “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. On the other hand, we have an obscure-in-America hero trying to grab our attention across the wide expanse of the uncanny valley. Will it work? I wouldn’t start counting on those “Tintin” sequels quite yet.

Working Against It: What’s a “Tintin”?; the marketing to younger audiences has been almost non-existent; No, seriously, what’s a “Tintin”?

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