The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

“How's your thirst for adventure, Captain?”

“Unquenchable, Tintin.”

            My favorite stories are adventure stories particularly ones where there is a mystery and a person has to solve it using their vast knowledge of history. Put it this way, Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite movie and Indiana Jones is one of my all time favorite movie characters. I also love that type of story because I am an introvert and for a long time I was not the type of person who wanted to really live life. Well, I did but I guess I was afraid to. I always stayed in and never went out and had fun (that was down to some other issues as well but I am a major introvert by nature). I have always loved living vicariously through characters. I love history and archaeology so I have always dreamed of being an adventurer like Indiana Jones. I like stories like the ones in the Indiana Jones movies because the heroes are always so smart and knowledgeable with history and connecting historical dates and figures. As an Art Historian I can do that to a certain extent with paintings and sculptures and symbols. But I will never be cool like Indiana.

            I have always wanted to see the movie The Adventures of Tintin. It is the kind of story I enjoy immensely and the kind of character I would love to be.

            In a Paris market, Tintin buys a model of an eighteenth century ship. The model belonged to a family who had to sell off all their possessions when they fell on hard times. As soon as Tintin is done paying for the ship a man comes up to him and tells him the ship is very dangerous to own he will be in trouble very soon. Another man approaches Tintin and the seller and says that he will pay Tintin whatever he wants for the model. Tintin refuses to sell the ship it belongs to him.

            At his apartment, Tintin places the model ship on a dresser. Snowy, his dog, knocked the ship over as he was chasing a cat. The mast on the model snaps in half. Something metal rolls out of the mast and onto the floor near the back of the dresser. Tintin does not realize something fell out but Snowy does. He cannot get Tintin’s attention before the landlady calls him down to the door. The man from the market who warned him about the ship is at the door to see him. The man tries to tell Tintin something about the ship and what was in it and who is looking for it. He was about to come to the important information when he is shot repeatedly in the doorway. Before he dies he leaves a clue for Tintin. Tintin tries to follow the car with the shooter but it is no use.

            When he goes back up into his apartment it is ransacked and the ship has been taken. Snowy points out the metal piece that fell under the dresser. Tintin opens it and there is a piece of parchment with some sort of puzzle on it about a treasure. He places it in his wallet for safe keeping. Unfortunately his wallet is stolen by a pickpocket when he goes outside.

            To keep this short and to avoid spoilers: the man at the market who wanted the ship is named Sakharine. He is looking for a treasure. The treasure is part of the history and family of another man named Captain Haddock. Captain Haddock is a drunken sailor whose family had been cursed since the time of his relative who first had the treasure. Tintin helps Haddock locate all the puzzles that were stored in the ships that only a Haddock descendant can read. Their adventure to find the treasure takes them across oceans and deserts to palaces and docklands.

            I enjoyed The Adventures of Tintin immensely. The animation was incredible. The story was funny, entertaining, thrilling, and exciting. It should be no wonder why I enjoyed Tintin so much since Steven Spielberg directed it and Steven Moffat who writes and produces Doctor Who was one of the screenwriters. This was yet another movie my brother chose for us to watch together while he was home from school last this week and I yet again thank him so much for finally making me watch The Adventures of Tintin. It was a great experience watching this together and also a wonderful time. The Adventures of Tintin is a movie I highly recommend watching as soon as you can especially if you love adventure stories and lots of exciting action.