I reserve the right to be shocked, for all those times Yanks have been shocked that I've never seen Sesame Street. I reserve the right to be condescending for the condescending tone I get when I say: "Sorry, but I haven't seen the new Muppets movie yet. It hasn't even been released here yet. Muppets were never a big thing, this side of the ocean."
edited 16th Jan '12 11:37:35 PM by Kerrah
Could've been the seldom seen BBC one. Was kinda hopping it was. Never seen it. But it's the good one with the catchy theme. One of Nelvana's better works.
Hopefully it works and you guys can get more Franco-Belgian adaptation You'd get to see the amazing Spirou And Fantasio animated series
edited 17th Jan '12 6:32:53 AM by Ghilz
They'll have to incorporate motion capture at some point in the next decade. Not eligible for animation because it doesn't involve an animator, not eligible for live action awards because the actor is not actually on screen.
Fresh-eyed movie blogSpeaking of the Academy Awards, I'm pleased that John Williams's score for the film was nominated in the best score category. It certainly deserves to be among the nominees because it was one of the best scores from the maestro in a while. The music in the film was stunningly clever, enthusiastic and complex in orchestration although it's interesting that many of the themes weren't quite as visible as they probably should've been for such a character-driven film. The most memorable theme for me was definitely the eerie one dealing with the mystery surrounding the Unicorn (heard most prominently in the "Sir Francis and the Unicorn" track), which worked really well in the scenes it was played in to underscore the secrets that the characters gradually uncovered over the course of the narrative.
Anyways, I finally saw the film, and it turned out to be quite good overall and worthy of Herge's legacy. The animation and design were beautiful (it took a while for me to get used to Tintin's look and eyes but after a few minutes I was pulled into the story so it didn't matter that much anymore), voice actors performed quite well and seemed to have a good time (Serkis and Craig in particular were a riot towards the end), and Snowy/Milou was adorable as I expected. I didn't mind the changes made to the film version (compared to the comic) because many of those changes helped to make the story more dramatic and didn't detract from the core adventure. The Herge bit was sweet, the opening credits were appropriately cool, the cinematography was up to Spielberg standards (particularly liked the long shot during the chase scene near the end), and the crane fight looked awesome. The Bianca Castafiore bit lived up to my expectations.
The film's definitely worth checking out. It isn't the best Tintin story, but it was an enjoyable adventure and a good starting point from which the film makers can continue.
Is it too early to start speculating about what the sequel will be like? I'm curious as to how they will go about it if they're really planning to adapt The Calculus Affair, since the ending of the first film clearly implied that the next film would be about the search for the rest of Rackham's treasure. I just hope the Calculus Affair part will amount to more than just using the Bordurians as the villains. If the next film is just going to be another treasure hunt, but with Nazi-expies as the villains, I think it would make the film Tintin come across as even more of a palette swap of Indiana Jones. Of course, regardless of which direction they take, the next film will almost definitely introduce Professor Calculus, which can't be anything but good.
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Was it? *checks IMDB* Oh, yeah. Must've missed that in my fury over it not getting nominated for anything else.
I believe they said they plan to do "two and a half stories." So I'm guessing that they'll wrap up the Red Rackham plotline, then somehow segue into The Calculus Affair.
I wonder if the film version of Red Rackham's Treasure will involve the Bird Brothers in some way, since they were left out of Secret Of The Unicorn. Since the film was given Red Rackham's Treasure's ending, they're going to have to heavily modify the story already - probably dip into another of the tales and make a composite of some sort, but bringing back characters already associated with the storyline would probably be the wisest of additions.
Of course, would probably be better if they had been introduced in the first movie, but I get the impression that even though they were leaving sequels open during Unicorn, they weren't really thinking about them while producing it.
I'm not sure why everyone makes such a big deal out of the Bird brothers getting cut. I didn't find them very memorable.
That said, Thomson and Thompson could very well enter the submersible looking for Sakharine, who has allegedly escaped prison. The Bird brothers themselves are hardly the vital element.
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.

Apparently The Hub will begin airing the animated series about a year from now.
Source here.
Call me hopeful, but could The Movie and this be the beginning of a Tintin awareness movement in the US?
Looking for some stories?