The Adventures of Tintin

Computer-animated movies really can’t continue getting better and better, because there’s simply not much more they can do. (I’m speaking of technically; the stories can still be dumb.) I suppose that eventually I’ll be jaded to the incredible levels of complexity we can see these days, and I suppose a lot of people who see more of these animated extravaganzas than I do already are, because this didn’t do very good business in the US. It did wonderfully well overseas, though, probably because they are more familiar with the character there, whereas the little guy with the cowlick never really caught on here. There will be a sequel, something they blatantly set up in the last minute. And the look of it is just awesome. The use of light, shadow, transparency, distortion, flames, water, momentum … the attention to the tiniest detail simply overwhelms you. It would take a dozen viewings to appreciate a significant fraction of what’s on display here. It swept me along quite nicely. Story? Well … okay. Fun. Kinetic. Not as much humor as I might have liked; this is no Shrek franchise. And maybe that’s a good thing, because the bar is not set quite so high for the follow-ups. The funniest stuff comes from a pair of supporting players: identical inept Scotland Yard detectives, both named Thompson, played by Nick Frost and Simon Pegg. That Pegg dude is really on a roll. Not only does he write and direct his own funny movies, like Shaun of the Dead and Paul, he’s added much-needed humor to things likeMission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.