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Did Zemeckis Put a Mo-Cap in Spielberg's Ass? The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn Trailer

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trailers | Comments (24)

600full-the-adventures-of-ti.jpg

There are six more months until the release of Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, and from what I can tell, the more we see of it, the less interesting it becomes. I was fairly excited for the film when it was announced (there’s a Tintin poster above me, as we speak), but the mo-cap is not doing the story any favors, at least from what I can see in the trailer. It has a very “zone-out” quality, which is to say: It’s difficult to watch it without zoning out. That’s not an ideal way to sell a two-minute trailer for a two-hour film, and given Tintin’s lack of popularity in the States, the uncertain demographic, and the unexciting CGI, Tintin could end up a flop come this winter.









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Comments

Eh, it doesn't look that bad.

Are there horrible stereotypes of black people? Because I'm very much a fan of keeping true to the source material.

Posted by: linny at July 11, 2011 11:38 AM

Was the dog mo-capped? It seems much livelier than the rest of the characters.

Posted by: Renton at July 11, 2011 11:41 AM

Why hello, Uncanny Valley, how nice to see you again. Why, I don't believe I've visited you since the last time I played Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Nothing I love better than animated characters that are restricted by motion capture to only convey 1:1 the motor aspects of human body language, but are not animated in an advanced enough way for their faces to express any kind of believable emotion. Because heaven forbid we employ exaggerated movement and expressions commonly used in animation to really drive home emotional moments, jokes, and crises.

The only way you could make me more excited is if you somehow get one of these characters to do the "Dreamworks Face." Like so: http://gregpike.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/pixarvsdreamworks.jpg

Posted by: StoatCat at July 11, 2011 11:42 AM

Valley of the Uncanny? It was a bad choice to go "real" with Tintin.

Posted by: mograph at July 11, 2011 11:43 AM

I'm excited! Excited that this might finally kill off mo-cap when it brings in ~$40m at most.

Posted by: D-Day at July 11, 2011 11:47 AM

One of the good guys looked very similar to one of the bad guys, so I found the whole thing confusing. Perhaps if I were familiar with Tintin, it would make more sense?

Posted by: tamatha at July 11, 2011 11:51 AM

Still looks nauseating to me.

Posted by: asdff at July 11, 2011 12:04 PM

this just killed my childhood.

NO.

Posted by: bitchole at July 11, 2011 12:10 PM

Snowy looked awesome, and I am totally going to go see this, despite the apparent lack of Bianca Castafiore.

Posted by: Salieri2 at July 11, 2011 12:16 PM

@Salieri2 Bianca was a bit player, so who cares about her? give me Rastapopulous (or wahtever the frack is name is> any day. he's a much more interesting character.

I loved, loved, loved Tintin, and I think this trailer looks quite epic, I cannot wait to see this movie.

Posted by: LordNinja at July 11, 2011 12:26 PM

They seem to be working really hard to avoid showing peoples faces in the trailer. That does not bode well.

Posted by: The Mutt at July 11, 2011 12:33 PM

Failfail and the Secret of the Uncanny Valley

Posted by: Protoguy at July 11, 2011 12:59 PM

Tintin's not the dog? My totally uninformed opinion of this series just took a nose dive.

Posted by: Robert at July 11, 2011 1:04 PM

Was the bearded bad guy and his bearded Irish buddy 2 different people? That bit was confusing as hell. This looks underwhelming. How is it "groundbreaking"? Is it somehow different than Beowulf and the other mo-cap movies?

Posted by: TylerDFC at July 11, 2011 2:10 PM

Looks fine to me.

Posted by: qualtinger at July 11, 2011 4:46 PM

@linny: I think they avoided adapting that book...

Posted by: FabMax at July 11, 2011 5:28 PM

My mantra is "I trust Edgar Wright. I trust Edgar Wright."
How are they going to depict Snowy's inner monologue? "I trust Edgar Wright."
Why did they use mo-cap but then add exaggerated cartoon features? "I trust Edgar Wright."
(And everyone seems to confuse Tintin with Rin Tin Tin)

Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at July 11, 2011 6:10 PM

I'm boycotting this movie because it's not about a real unicorn but a stupid ship named "The Unicorn" and some boring treasure. Everyone should join me because the trailer gave the whole movie away so no point in seeing it.

--Spoilers---

Tin tin is at a yard sale see's model ship of "The Unicorn" (Again, no real unicorns in this movie!) buys it after haggaling w/ other that want it. Finds a clue in the ship @ home. Is attacked @ home @ night by (I'm Guessing) the people he talked to earlier. Next day twin cops show up for comic relief. At night Tin tin visits mansion that has another Model ship with another clue to the treasure. He gets clocked in the head and put in a cargo ship where he meets more bad guys. His dog helps him escape, then he meets the boat captain that also helps him escape on a life boat in the middle of the ocean. The bad guys send a sea plane to capture them but Tin tin et al. bring it down and commander it. They end up flying and crashing in the desert where more adventures happen in a desert city that looks like Morocco (the go to for movie desert city) and the treasure probably is. We wont know until trailer 2 where they show some of the treasure and it becomes clear they don't want you thinking through their movie.
Also, @ 2:16 in the trailer, Tin tin looks like Ceaser from Rise of The Planets of the Apes.

So lets all boycott the movie, cause it has no real unicorns.

Posted by: Vhrico at July 11, 2011 7:11 PM

@ Optimus Rhyme

I thought Rin Tin Tin was Tin tin's Dog's name

Posted by: Vhrico at July 11, 2011 7:13 PM

FUCK THIS.

I'm just gonna go re-read the comics and forget this ever existed.

Posted by: Figgy at July 11, 2011 7:54 PM

Wait, so the dogs name is snowy which would make the GUY Tintin? the fuck?

Posted by: JackRandom at July 11, 2011 7:56 PM

I think it looks pretty cool, but I am concerned that they are not showing characters talking all that much.

Posted by: junierizzle at July 11, 2011 9:20 PM

Good Lord, is Tin Tin sporting a Desert Eagle in that Pic? Is Magnum Research paying for product placement, because I remember reading the comics and I don't recall ever seeing that ugly, heavy, flashy and ubiquitously Hollywood handgun EVER make an appearance.

As I recall, most of the pistols seemed to be revolvers or Luger/Walther P-38 lookalikes.

BUT, all quibbling with our new, Dirty Harry version of Tin Tin aside...

Even if it flops in the USA, it should do fairly well in the Europe just on the basis of Tin Tin being a) popular and b) well known.

And I'd rather see this than the Smurfs.

Of course, I'd also rather be vigorously rubbed all over with a cheese grater than see the Smurfs. Make of that what you will.

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