Tin Tin is one of the more eyebrow raising projects happening in Hollywood right now, at least from where I sit. A huge-budgeted feature that combines the talents of two of the A’est of Grade directors, centered around a property that seems to be popular everywhere that isn’t the US, all done in a format that has far from proven itself as a revenue goldmine, with several sequels treated as foregone conclusions… Intense. I have a feeling Spielberg and Jackson know what they’re doing, at least in terms of making back the bucks across the globe with the character, but it’s hard to get too excited about another motion-capture feature that pushes the boundaries of reality/uncomfortable simulacra in a kids film of all things.
The first images from the film, specially delivered to Empire for their feature issue, show that the film is going to look… like a motion-capture version of Tin Tin. Naturally the animation quality is astounding –these films have never had a problem looking good in stills– but while there was never any doubt that WETA would bring their best foot forward, to see the characters emote and perform will be a different story.
Spielberg and Jackson wisely stacked the deck in their favor when it comes to creating good will for their animated characters by gathering a cast that includes Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (as Thompson and Thomson), Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, and Toby Jones. Empire teases the feature with a few quotes from the two directors, including comments on casting.
On the story and style…
Spielberg: . “The first part of the film, which is the most mysterious part, certainly owes much to not only film noir but the whole German Brechtian theatre — some of our night scenes and our action scenes are very contrasty. But at the same time the movie is a hell of an adventure.”
On Pegg and Frost…
Jackson: “When people first heard that bit of casting they thought that we’d gone barking mad.”
Spielberg: “The Thompson Twins can’t be clones of each other. Nick and Simon provided all the differences we needed to foil for each other. They have a wonderful moment in the movie where they start to have an argument about whose sidekick is whose.”
At the end of the day, I want footage. It’s a pointless exercise to prognosticate how people will respond to the film and how much fun it looks to be without seeing it in motion. I expect an exhilarating, swashbuckling affair, though I remain skeptical about effortlessly enjoying the Zemeckis-recalling motion-capture performances. It’s not too often that such titanic industry dudes come together to produce a film, so expect the next year to be a steady stream of Tin Tin build-up.
Check out Empire’s preview and grab it off the stands next time you’re out and about in reality.
16 comments
Tin Tin dans la vallée dérangeante!
(It's an uncanny valley joke. You know, the phenomenon named by robiticist Masahiro Mori, who… oh forget it.)
I'll be keen just to see how they portray Captain Haddock. Probably the most loved and funniest violent alcoholic sidekick ever. He'll never pass up an opportunity to drink or beat someone, quite often at the same time. He does look realistic in the pic above but I'm sure they will tone him down for todays kids.
Looks like the fucking Polar Express all over again.
I don't see how people can say motion capture hasn't proven itself. Say what you will about how photorealistic the Na'vi looked in Avatar but you certainly can't say the renderings didn't emote. You could see the emotion all over their digital faces. And let's not forget that by the time this thing comes out Spielberg will have had years to supervise it and make sure it meets his standards.
This looks like the most boring idea for a film i've ever heard of. Who exactly is clamoring for this movie? Let a lone TWO movies? This might make a billion dollars outside of the US but it's going to be a complete disaster here. The idea of this film is so boring I have almost fallen asleep during every story i've ever read about it, including this one.
that screengrab doesn't look like captain haddock to me.
face is pretty different.
why so much tintin hate anyway ?
is it because it's a comic that's not marvel and americans don't know about it?
and the characters don't wear sexy tights, showing off their packages?
go ahead fanboys, you can unleash that repressed homosexuality.
@Michael
… which is fine because there IS a world outside of the US who doesn't care about the BO Stateside 😉
Big TinTin fan and was excited for about 5 seconds before I started seeing echoes of Polar Express etc. It's like motion sickness or something. @#1: I'd totally read that. Then again, looks like Charles Burns has already done it. @#4: They were blue cat-people numbnuts. You're not understanding the argument.
Ah but this is Weta, not Zemeckis. Gollum worked, so did King Kong and the Naavi. They make some fantastic eyes, that makes a big difference. The design could have been a bit more cartoonish, but its kind of a cool fusion of the original style with realism. And the stories a great adventures. A bit slow but I bet that is the first thing they will have fixed for the films. Indiana Jones probably got a lot of inspiration from old Tintin.
I don't know squat about Tin Tin, but with the off the charts pedigree involved in this production, color me enthused.
There's an effing PHOTO there that tells you that it is spelled "TINTIN" and not "Tin Tin". Christ.
@#8: Don't be a snob. If I'm not understanding the argument please enlighten me because the way I see it those fake blue cat-people were performed by real live human-people and they didn't do anything humans can't do. And it's not like CG people have always been a disaster. Look at The Incredibles. Not a realistic human design but you believed in them as people because they were strong characters and the attention to detail was there but I guarantee that if you were to look at a still from that film you'd see the lifeless eyes. This is, after all, a cartoon. Are you saying nobody at WETA cares about attention to detail? Are they not aware that these also aren't realistic designs for CG humans? Anything anybody sees in a still image in regards to "lifeless eyes" is complete bullshit that they're projecting because someone told them that's what they were supposed to see.
I was under the impression that this movie was going to look EXACTLY like Herge's illustrations, and frankly I think this "photo-real" look is really creepy. It reminds me of Zemekis's A CHRISTMAS CAROL, where all the characters looked great as illustrations but when they're animated it's just scary. Taking comic strip caricatures and making them "photo real" is a terrible idea: it didn't work for Zemekis, Garfield, Marmaduke, or anyone else who's tried it, so as a huge Tintin fan I think that choice alone may sink the movie.
I agree with the above statement. Cameron was the first to prove that mo-cap can work and if there is anyone aside from Cameron that can make it work, it's Spielberg. Fingers crossed.
—-STILL MORE hermaphroditic NWO
pre-programming from RED China enabling, PC franchise slum Hollywood.
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