A Thundering Typhoon

Cast: Jamie Bell,Andy Serkis,Daniel Craig,Simon Pegg,Nick Frost

Rating: ****

Ever wondered what you would see if you looked closely into eyes thrown wide open in almost perpetual exclamation,in the interludes between “billions of blue blistering barnacles” and “ten thousand thundering typhoons”?

Ever wondered what you would see in the eyes of his companion,a person of indeterminate age,suspicious occupation,mysterious lack of past and an indefatigable sense of purpose — a boy just trying to be a boy,or a boy just trying not to be an adult?

Ever wondered what would happen to the beloved world of Tintin should those remarkably lush,picture-perfect,ligne claire illustrations jump out and actually become real?

Here’s that film for you. A film that stayed 20 years in planning,ever since Spielberg made the first Indiana Jones and was told that the character was remarkably like Tintin (that was when,he says,he came to know about the comic character — the US,amazingly,isn’t as enamoured of him); through long conversations between Spielberg and Tintin creator Herge first and later with his managers; through delayed indecision over the best mode of bringing it to screen; through finally to this “performance capture” technique.

It renders us a bland Tintin (Bell) almost as perfectly as a colourful Captain Haddock (Serkis),and an evil villain (Sakharine,played by Craig) almost with as much as ease as two harmless,stumbling fools (Pegg and Frost as Thomson and Thompson) and a brave,loyal pooch.

The achievement of Spielberg,fellow producer Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings) and screenwriters Steven Moffat,Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish isn’t just in getting the basics of the original Tintin right,though — in a nod to Herge,there he is on a street drawing a sketch of Tintin right at the beginning; just after the opening credits have rolled by in a style drawn from the comics.

It is in also getting it right in spirit. A story that draws from three different The Adventures of Tintin stories — The Crab with the Golden Claws (where Tintin and Haddock met the first time),Red Reckham’s Treasure and The Secret of the Unicorn — and blends them seamlessly into one is going to be as enjoyable for fans who have grown up on this world as for those just signing in.

Nobody perhaps brings forth the reckless and unbridled joy of pure adventure on screen as Spielberg does,and the scene in Baggar (a town in Morocco) where Tintin on a bike is chasing an eagle that is flying with the secrets of the ship Unicorn has you in thrall and wonder. It’s impossible,but hey,why not?

In fact,from the moment Tintin lays his eyes on Haddock for the first time,drunk and morose,“locked” in the cabin of his own ship by Sakharine,the film becomes as much Herge’s as Spielberg’s and his associates’. It’s in the courage and sincerity of Tintin as well as in the goodhearted roguishness of Haddock that the heart of Tintin lies. Voiced by Serkis (Gollum of The Lord of the Rings),Haddock is laughable,ludicrous,loquacious and lovable.

You are left wondering what they could have done with Professor Cuthbert Calculus. Yes,he makes no appearance! Bianca Castafiore does though,and so does Ben Salaad. But Tintin without Calculus is Tintin without Calculus.

shalini.langer@expressindia.com