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The Adventures of Tintin Blu-ray Disc Review $44.99

The Adventures of Tintin Blu-ray Disc Review

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  • THE FILM
  • VIDEO
  • AUDIO
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THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN (2011, Blu-ray released March 13, 2012 – MSRP $44.99)

I don’t quite know how they managed it but director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson skirt the uncanny valley with their brilliant, breathless animated franchise opener, The Adventures of Tintin, available now on Blu-ray disc from Paramount.

    From Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg and Oscar winning producer Peter Jackson, two of today’s most visionary storytellers, comes a motion picture event: an epic, globe-hopping quest that spans hidden mysteries, menacing criminals and ancient secrets – and brings to life the classic escapades that have enthralled generation after generation with their one-of-a-kind mix of action, humor and scintillating tale-spinning in “The Adventures of Tintin”, Based on the internationally beloved and irrepressible characters created by Herge, the story follows the unquenchably curious young reporter Tintin (Jamie Bell) and his fiercely loyal dog Snowy as they discover a model ship carrying an explosive secret. Drawn into a centuries-old mystery, Tintin finds himself in the sightlines of Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine (Daniel Craig), a diabolical villain who believes Tintin has stolen a priceless treasure tied to a dastardly named Red Rackham. But with the help of his dog Snowy, the cantankerous Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) and the bumbling detectives Thompson and Thomson (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost), Tintin will travel half the world, outwitting and outrunning his enemies in a breathless chase to find the final resting place of The Unicorn, a shipwreck that may hold the key to vast fortune… and an ancient curse. From the high seas to the sands of North African deserts, every new twist and turn sweeps Tintin and his friends to escalating levels of thrills and peril, proving that when you dare to risk everything, there’s no limit to what you can do.

I admit it. I was expecting the worst from the Tintin film. How could I not be? Adapting a beloved Belgian comic strip, simply but masterfully rendered by genius-of-the-form, Hergé, into a garish CGI feature film using similar technology to that which birthed the disturbing human-like things in The Polar Express seems like the worst idea since Jar Jar. And yet, Spielberg, Jackson and the animation expertise of Weta Digital make it work like a charm. The secret seems to be in keeping the character designs distorted and just “cartoony” enough to tell our brains that what we’re seeing on screen isn’t supposed to be real. For some reason, this works, despite the fact that the graphics are rendering some of the most convincing backgrounds and character performances yet seen. So it looks pretty great then, but that doesn’t actually speak to the film itself, does it?

Allow me to just reiterate what I’ve been hearing folks say since The Adventures of Tintin debuted in cinemas this past December because it’s right on the money – this is the Raiders of the Lost Ark sequel I was hoping Spielberg would make years ago. It’s so fresh and spirited and genuinely entertaining that it almost makes me forget about the abomination that was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The voice acting and performance capture are superb and the plot, while familiar to those who’ve read the Tintin books, is a perfectly cracking-good adventure. I can’t imagine any person, never mind any child, watching this film and not having a great time.

As you’d expect from a CGI film with a purely digital-to-digital transfer to disc, Tintin makes for a rather stunning addition to your Blu-ray library. The film is gorgeous to begin with, just by design and execution alone, but with the addition of a great encode, you can be dazzled at just what this remarkable cinematic achievement can offer your home video set-up. You can easily use this vivid, detailed Blu-ray as your new demo disc! But prepare to be blown away by the awe-inspiring DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track every time you pop the disc in the player. You might just be bowled over by how natural and dynamic John Williams‘ inventive score is and forget to look at the picture on your HDTV. Yes, Virginia, this soundtrack is just that fantastic!

Continuing my love affair with The Adventures of Tintin Blu-ray disc, allow me to add that the single special feature included (yes, I know, points off for only providing one bonus goodie) is exactly the kind of thing I crave from home video extras – a good, lengthy documentary! Now, Paramount has split it all up into tiny, little 2-to-18-minute chunks, making it look like there’s a lot of different stuff on the disc. But come on, you know the drill. Though they might be listed separately, those parts are all chapters in one larger piece. And you can experience them all at a go by clicking the “Play All” feature at the top of the screen. Marvelous. This is a fairly comprehensive doc with a lot of great behind the scenes footage. It walks you from Day 1 of production all the way to the final hurrah.

Highly recommended! Hurrah!

Special Features:

  • Feature film in high definition
  • Toasting Tintin: Part 1
  • The Journey of Tintin
  • The World of Tintin
  • The Who’s Who of Tintin
  • Tintin: Conceptual Design
  • Tintin: In the Volume
  • Snowy: From Beginning to End
  • Animating Tintin
  • Tintin: The Score
  • Collecting Tintin
  • Toasting Tintin: Part 2



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