The Adventures of Tintin 720p - (2011 Lang: English)

When about a year ago, at the supermarket, I saw on the Empire magazine's cover the 3D reproduction of one of my childhood's toon-idols my eyes popped out. 'WHO is directing WHAT???' - the question that echoed in my mind: It was a bit of shock finding out that one of my favorite directors was working on a movie from a character I considered buried under the dusts of time. The astonishment was soon replaced by excitement and I made the way back home from the supermarket hopping and smiling.

Today I decided to take an adventurous break from my dull academic life and went to the cinema to watch it. No wonder the room was almost full, despite the fact that the movie will be officially released tomorrow. As soon as the opening credits appeared on the screen I felt a shiver of excitement running through my spine as I was visually meeting an old friend from my childhood again; to my pleasure I felt the same sensations I would feel when I was a child. That's one of the VERY good points of this production: the spirit of Herge's Tintin, in Spielberg's movie, remains UNALTERED. There are some cases, though, in which the characters are even better and more deeply characterized than in the comic strips.

OK, let's release now all the excitement about this movie. If I had just five short seconds to say how I think this movie is I'd chose 7 words: Mesmerising from the beginning to the end. That's quite true if you consider that even the opening credits are little shining pearls of direction and creativity.

The general impression you get from this movie, talking about direction, is that nothing could have been better. Spielberg's direction is, in this case as well, a real warranty of general great quality. Three things I particularly appreciated: -The movie flows perfectly; it is kind of a pleasure for your eyes and for your brain to follow the adventure. -There's literally a STORM of brain-waves (and here comes the Spielberg's touch); especially, in the connection phases between one scene and the other the director totally expresses his genius, turning the open ocean into a pond, making two shaking hands become dunes in the desert and so on (you'll understand what I mean when you'll watch the movie) -The 'camera's movements' literally pull you into the movie and you can't help feeling excited or scared according to the situation.

The Adventures of Tintin, known as The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn outside North America, is a 2011 3D motion capture computer-animated epic adventure film based on The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé. Directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Peter Jackson, and written by Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, the film is based on three of Hergé's albums: The Crab with the Golden Claws (1941), The Secret of the Unicorn (1943), and Red Rackham's Treasure (1944). The cast includes Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg.

Spielberg acquired rights to produce a film based on The Adventures of Tintin series following Hergé's death in 1983, and re-optioned them in 2002. Filming was due to begin in October 2008 for a 2010 release, but release was delayed to 2011 after Universal opted out of producing the film with Paramount, who provided $30 million on pre-production. Sony chose to co-produce the film. The delay resulted in Thomas Sangster, who had been originally cast as Tintin, departing from the project. Producer Peter Jackson, whose company Weta Digital provided the computer animation, intends to direct a sequel. Spielberg and Jackson also hope to co-direct a third film. The world première took place on 22 October 2011 in Brussels. The film was released in the UK and other European countries on 26 October 2011, and in the USA on 21 December 2011, in Digital 3D and IMAX.

The Adventures of Tintin grossed over $373 million, and received positive reviews from critics, being compared to Spielberg's previous work Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was the first non-Pixar animated film to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. Williams was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score. It was nominated for six Saturn Awards, including Best Animated Film, Best Director for Spielberg and Best Music for Williams.

In 1955, 17-year old journalist Tintin and his dog Snowy are browsing in an outdoor market in Brussels, Belgium. Tintin buys a miniature model of a ship, the Unicorn, but is accosted by an Interpol officer; Barnaby and a dreaded ship collector; Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine, who both unsuccessfully try to buy the model from Tintin. Tintin takes the ship home, but it is accidentally broken in an incident with Snowy and a cat in his apartment. A parchment scroll slips out, and rolls under the furniture, with Tintin not noticing it. Meanwhile, bumbling police detectives Thomson and Thompson are on the trail of a pickpocket, Aristides Silk

After a visit to Maritime Library to search for clues, Tintin returns to find that the Unicorn has been stolen. He visits Sakharine in Marlinspike Hall and accuses him of the theft. When he sees a miniature model of the Unicorn, he notices that Sakharine's model is not broken, realizing that there are two Unicorn models. Returning home once again, Snowy shows him the scroll . After reading an old message written on it, they are interrupted by the arrival of Barnaby, who is then assassinated while attempting to recover the Unicorn one last time. Tintin places the scroll in his wallet, but it is stolen by Silk the next morning, after a scuffle with the police detectives.

Later, Tintin is abducted by accomplices of Sakharine, and imprisoned on the SS Karaboudjan. He learns that Sakharine formed an alliance with the ship's staff and led a mutiny to take over control. On board, Tintin meets Captain Haddock, the ship's captain. Haddock is permanently drunk and thus unaware of the happenings on board his ship. Tintin, Haddock, and Snowy eventually outrun the crew, and escape from the Karaboudjan in a lifeboat. The ship fails to ram their boat, because they instead rammed an empty lifeboat the captain accidentally released during his escape. Presuming them to have survived by the number of lifeboats, Sakharine sends a seaplane to find and capture them. The trio seize the plane, and use it to fly towards the fictitious Moroccan port of Bagghar. However, the seaplane crashes in the desert due to low fuel.

While trekking through the desert, Haddock hallucinates, and remembers facts about an ancestor of his, Sir Francis Haddock, who was a 17th-century captain of the Unicorn. Sir Francis' treasure-laden ship was attacked by the crew of a pirate ship, led by Red Rackham and after his eventual surrender, Sir Francis sank the Unicorn, and most of the treasure, to prevent it from falling into Rackham's hands. It implies that there were three Unicorn models, each containing a scroll; together, the scrolls can reveal coordinates of location of the sunken Unicorn and its treasure.

The third model is in Bagghar, possessed by Omar ben Salaad. Sakharine causes a distraction in a concert, that results in him successfully stealing the third scroll. After a chase through the city, he gains all the scrolls by having his men toss Captain Haddock and Snowy in the water, to force Tintin to go after them instead of saving the scrolls. After the boat leaves, Tintin is ready to give up, but is persuaded by Haddock to continue. With help from officers Thompson and Thomson, Tintin and Haddock track Sakharine down, who is revealed to be a descendant of Red Rackham. They head back to port and set up a trap, but Sakharine uses his pistol to resist arrest. When his men fail to save him, Sakharine challenges Haddock to a final showdown. Sakharine and Haddock sword-duel with cranes and swords eventually resulting in Sakharine being defeated and pushed overboard by Haddock. When climbing ashore, Sakharine is arrested by Thomson and Thompson.

Guided by the three scrolls indicating the location of Marlinspike Hall, Tintin and Haddock find there some of the treasure and a clue to the Unicorn's location. Both men agree on setting up an expedition to find the shipwreck.

You can tell it's a Spielberg's movie even just looking at these things.

Although all the things I have listed until now are enough to candidate the movie as the best movie of the year (in my opinion) there's still something I must remember: The quality of animation. I really could not find a proper term to define my astonishment when my eyes approached the beautiful places and landscapes shown in the movie. They look perfect, shining and bursting with emotions, sensations; they almost look like paintings: For instance, there's a sunset in the movie that I will hardly forget. It's the same with the CGI models: you can see the wrinkles on the character's faces, even their sweat.

Furthermore, some words about the actors: Bells and Serkis are maybe the sole two living beings who could have given birth to the cinematographic version of the two main characters. The first succeeds in the hard challenge to provide the audience with a convincing and faithful interpretation of the beloved protagonist (he did A GREAT job indeed), the second is a delightful surprise again, with a funny Scottish accent and a very good interpretation.

One last word goes to one of the best composer alive: Sir John Williams. There's nothing to do, every piece of music he creates is able to touch the deepest strings of our hearts. With a soundtrack (already bought at the HMV store) that ranges from the epic tones to the mysterious ones he gives us another example of his limitless genius, because he still remains one of those composers able to make us cry.

Finally, Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn, is one of the greatest surprises of the year. Another great adventure in the archive of the most spectacular stories of humanity, told by a MASTER story-teller (Spielberg). A movie you will hardly forget.