Tintin e o Mistério do Tosão de Ouro

I have been a fan of Tintin for almost all of my life, having read every book (including Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Tintin in the Congo, and Tintin and the Alph-Art). While I did enjoy the Spielberg/Jackson film, it lacked the proper feel of a Tintin album. There was too much action and too many special effects, despite having great talent. That is where this movie, Tintin et le Mystere de la Toison d'Or (Tintin and the Golden Fleece) succeeds, and does so dramatically.

The plot is simple, and familiar to those who have read Tintin before. A friend of Captain Haddock, Paparanic, dies, and leaves in his will a ship named the Golden Fleece. Tintin and Captain Haddock go to Istanbul to collect it. But it's a rusty old bucket, as Haddock might have said, and he plans to sell it. A man named Karabine claims he is an old friend of Paparanic and offers a small fortune for the boat. Tintin is suspicious and declines the offer. Then the threats come and it seems that a group of people will stop at nothing to have the ship in their hands. The ship, Tintin reasons, must be hiding something, and he intends to find out.

Firstly, the characters. Jean-Pierre Talbot is, essentially, Tintin. He embodies the character perfectly and brings the athleticism and energy needed for the role, natural considering he was a personal trainer at the time. Captain Haddock, played by the well-known, BAFTA-nominated Georges Wilson, may have one of the most unreal beards in the history of film, but that is part of the charm. He also is cast superbly, with the gruffness needed for the role and also the heart of Captain Haddock (as evidenced by the scene where he speaks to the portrait of his dead friend. Calculus has very little to do but makes the most of his screen time with a nice invention and a connection to the ship's parrot, and Thomson and Thompson, incognito, have a few good scenes, and also fit the role perfectly. One cannot forget Snowy, who is ideal and looks perfect. The casting is so excellent it feels like the characters walked of the pages of Herge's albums. The rest of the cast includes, Dario Moreno, the Turkish singer, as one of Paparanic's old shipmates, and, happily, Marcel Bozzuffi as the secondary villain, who you may recognize from The French Connection, who has a very nice fight with Talbot.

It is one thing to have perfect characterizations, but the Golden Fleece succeeds where almost all other Tintin movies have failed by capturing the spirit of Tintin. Spielberg and Jackson had the right ideas in mind (particularly, I think, Jackson) but the action is too over-stated and the movie as a whole opts for grandness when subtlety would have done much better. The climactic crane fight at the end of that film was fine when assumed as a modern-day version of a sword fight, but Tintin's villains were not brought to justice by shipyard equipment or the equivalent; they were captured by gunpoint, traps, or by sheer coincidence. The same goes for the rest of Spielberg's creation. Laying waste to a city is surely not Tintin's style. Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece is so much better because it understands this and seeks to make itself like a Tintin album. The story is light yet intimate, well-paced and simple, and virtually eliminates all exposition (although for the mass of people who were assumed to never have read Tintin before, Spielberg had to accommodate, naturally). Most importantly, the direction is absolutely dynamic. The camera-work is exactly as it would be in a Tintin book. It is again simple, with little weight, and to the point. There is little trickery, little grandiosity, unless it is necessary: as Herge did with his landscapes, so Istanbul is portrayed from overhead for a while, but even then non-pretentiously. Although the movie lacks some subtleties that only Herge could have created, it ticks all of the other boxes. Thankfully, an excellent release came out on DVD not too long ago. The picture is very clear, clearer than any other version I have seen. And the sound is better, which is just as well because the music is also fantastic in this. This is a must-see for any Tintin fan, casual or Tintinologist. Also worth watching is the slightly less excellent sequel, Tintin et les Oranges Bleues (Tintin and the Blue Oranges), also with Jean- Pierre Talbot.

The adventures of Tintin and Milou(Tin Tin and snowy) are now part of European culture.Their impact is so awesome that they are the subject of many university thesis;there are more books about Hergé than about the other European cartoonists put together.Although overshadowed by Asterix in terms of sales,Tintin remains the intellectuals' favorite ,who particularly relish with Hergé's most modern album "les bijoux de la Castafiore".

What they're doing with Asterix now (Asterix:mission Cleopatre),they did it with Tintin forty years ago.It was an impossible task.All the characters of the albums get lost on the screen:George Wilson is physically captain Haddock but he is far from his model;the same goes for Professeur Tournesol (Calculus) and the Dupondt (Thompson twins).As for Milou(Snowy) ,the dog which plays the part is completely insignificant ,except for the dynamite scene.Jean-Pierre Talbot resembles Tin Tin but finding the right actor was impossible cause Tin Tin is neither an adolescent nor a young adult.Hergé used to say his hero was some kind of neutral creature,with which the reader could identify himself.

The film is watchable ,because the screenplay is OK,even if it's a million miles away from Hergé's remarkable stories:there are villains,beautiful landscapes(Istambul,The Greek Meteors) a cameo of Charles Vanel at his shrewdest .

The second attempt,"Tintin et les oranges bleues" ,was a complete disaster and unlike this one, has nothing to commend it.

This relatively little known French live action film from 1961 was the first time that Tintin (the famous boy reporter created by Belgian cartoonist Herge) was brought to the silver screen. It is also probably the best, certainly capturing better Tintin's spirit than the recent Spielberg film. It obviously helped that Herge has creative input in this, unlike with other movies based on Tintin (though this was not based on any particular book but was rather an original story for the screen). The story has Captain Haddock unexpectedly inheriting a boat in Istanbul. When he goes there with Tintin to retrieve the boat, not only it turns out to be a rotting barge, but also there are a lot of baddies trying to pursue them and the boat. It soon becomes clear that the boat is involved with some treasure. Jean Pierre Talbot and Georges Wilson are perfect as Tintin and Haddock. And the attractive locations (Istanbul, Athens, Meteora in Greece) filmed with lush color certainly help a lot.

This is easily the best of the two live-action Tintin adaptations(the other being TINTIN ET LES ORANGES BLEUES which was ok, but nothing special). For the uninitiated, Tintin is the well known Belgian comic book character created by Herge. Every French-speaking child and most European children have grown up following his many comic book adventures. The film is not an adaptation of a Tintin story but this does not matter greatly. Instead we have an exciting adventure that sees Tintin and Capitaine Haddock travel to Turkey to claim a boat(the Toison D'or)that the good captain inherited from a friend. The intrigue starts at this point as numerous people want the boat for some mysterious reason. Jean-Pierre Talbot is perfectly cast as Tintin. Not only does he resemble the character physically but he shares the enthusiasm and athletic agility of his comic book counterpart. Georges Wilson is also good as Capitaine Haddock(gruff and a little silly). The beautiful sun-drenched Turkish and Greek locations are a delight to look at and the story moves along at a good clip. Milou the dog is also quite good. What more can one ask for? An excellent film for the young and young at heart.

This is the sort of children's story - and yeah, okay, father's story too - that you can sit and watch with the kids time and again. The music especially is truly memorable. We love this film and now my kids are showing it to their friends and they love it too.