Thompson on Hollywood

Fall/Holiday Preview: Four Films to Get Animated About, Especially Tintin

Bill Desowitz considers the Fall/Holiday seasons animated features, The Adventures of Tintin, Puss in Boots, Arthur Christmas and Happy Feet Two. Which have the right stuff to join Rango as an Oscar contender?It's obviously been a terrific week for Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin, given the mostly positive reviews coming out of Europe timed to the October 26 international release. And judging by the stunning new trailer and the footage I've already seen, the experiment seems to have paid off well for Spielberg and producing partner Peter Jackson. In fact, Tintin could very well turn out to be the performance capture game-changer for animation that we've been expecting, feeding off the momentum from Weta's innovative work on Avatar and Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

By Bill Desowitz
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October 21, 2011 5:44 AM
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Adventures of Tintin Early Reviews are Mixed: Delightful, Dazzling, CG Wizardry, Vidgame Action

Reviews

Despite his stellar review, TOH! London critic Matt Mueller says there are a few drawbacks to Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. An "almost bombastically annoying" John Williams score, for one, creepy close-ups of Tintin are thankfully few, and a "ridiculously frantic and breathless pace" join what some other critics aren't so impressed with. But there are many fans, which should help Tintin reel in an impressive global box office (October 26 overseas, December 21 in the US).

By Sophia Savage
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October 17, 2011 6:34 AM
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Review: Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: Secret Of The Unicorn

Reviews

Our London film critic Matt Mueller reviews The Adventures Of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, which left him out of breath. The film opens overseas starting on October 26; you'll have to wait until December 21 stateside.

By Matt Mueller
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October 16, 2011 5:08 AM
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New Adventures of Tintin Trailer Rocks The Boat

Check out the action-packed new trailer for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (December 25) below. Director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson talk their inspiration for the film here.Video: MSN Exclusive: The Adventures of Tintin - trailer

By Sophia Savage
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October 5, 2011 5:26 AM
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Spielberg and Jackson Talk Tintin, Trailer on Real Steel, Opens in Europe First, Plays Rome Festival

The trailer for Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson's 3-D The Adventures of Tintin: the Secret of the Unicorn (Paramount, December 21, 2011) will go out on Friday, attached to Disney/DreamWorks' Real Steel. The performance capture film will play The Rome International Film Festival with Jamie Bell on hand on October 27; Sony will open The Adventures of Tintin in many European countries, where Herge's comic books are better known than they are stateside, on October 26 (Italy is October 28). The film will screen in the Official Selection (out of competition) and in the Alice section of the festival. “I discovered The Adventures of Tintin in 1981, after the presentation of the film The Raiders of the Lost Ark," says Spielberg. "One of the reviews seemed to believe that my Indiana Jones character had been inspired by Hergé. When I later went out and bought the illustrator's books and read them, I was completely taken by them and immediately thought Tintin's adventures would make great films."

By Anne Thompson and Sophia Savage
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October 4, 2011 5:57 AM
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Geeking Out with Cameron at the 3D Summit: Titanic, Avatar, Theme Parks

This week, in his Immersed in Movies column, Bill Desowitz talks to James Cameron at the 3D Summit. Don't try to convince James Cameron that 3-D is faltering. He's still a true believer, despite some recent 3-D blowback. He laughed if off as growing pains and negative media spin at the 3D Entertainment Summit this week at the Hollywood & Highland Center, but said it's nothing that can't be fixed with a change of perception and better 3-D authoring and presentation.

By Bill Desowitz
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September 23, 2011 5:14 AM
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Spielberg and Jackson Tout More Tintin at Weta

A select group of film writers flew to New Zealand last week for an early look at the filmmaking process behind Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's The Adventures of Tintin. Our own Bill Desowitz was one of them. Building on their Comic-Con momentum, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson previewed more exclusive Tintin footage for select online journos last week at Jackson's Weta studio in New Zealand. And after viewing the thrilling and slapstick seaplane chase (culminating with the drunken Captain Haddock crawling out the plane in a storm and burping fumes into the empty engine), there's certainly less concern about the quality of the performance-captured animation and the movie's domestic commercial appeal.

By Bill Desowitz
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August 1, 2011 5:43 AM
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Andy Serkis Talks Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Tintin, Hobbit

The king of performance capture actors pretended to be a fan in Hall H at Comic-Con Friday, asking Steven Spielberg a question about Daniel Craig meeting Clint Eastwood on the set of The Adventures of Tintin wearing just a leotard. (Here's a full report on Spielberg and Jackson talking Tintin.) Bill Desowitz (Immersed in Movies) talked to Andy Serkis afterward:Few in Hall H recognized Serkis because film fans don't know what the Brit actor looks like--the man who performed not only The Lord of the Rings' Gollum, but King Kong. Serkis is pivotal in the evolution of performance capture.

By Bill Desowitz
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July 25, 2011 1:14 AM
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Comic-Con: Spielberg and Jackson Talk Tintin Collaboration, Jurassic Park 4, 3-D

Comic-Con welcomed Steven Spielberg, making his first visit to promote The Adventures of Tintin (December 23), with a standing ovation and the convention's Inkpot Life Achievement Award. Making a surprise visit during his The Hobbit hiatus was the film's producer Peter Jackson and Spielberg's favorite collaborator since George Lucas, said Spielberg. During a long conversation with the LAT's Geoff Boucher in Hall H, followed by a smaller press conference at the Hyatt, Spielberg and Jackson explained their love for Belgian Herge's comic books, how motion-capture as perfected by Weta during Avatar made it possible to bring these comics to life close to how they had been created, and when 3-D works and when it doesn't. Both men cited their connection to their inner child as the key to their creativity. When he grows up he'll stop making films, Spielberg said.

By Anne Thompson
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July 22, 2011 12:50 PM
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Gosling on Clooney Pranks, Peter Jackson’s Vlog, Scientology’s Mega-Properties

In an interview with Extra, Ryan Gosling exposes prankster George Clooney, who directed him in the political drama The Ides of March, which opens the Venice Fest: "He will come up to you and tell you something very serious ... and then he'll walk away and you realize your pants are wet. He's had like an Evian spray bottle. He's been spraying your crotch the whole time." Gosling's promo duties on his new film Crazy Stupid Love (July 29), with co-stars Steve Carrell and Emma Stone, kept him from attending the Drive panel at Comic-Con.