The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of The Unicorn (REVIEW)

The Adventures of Tintin:  The Secret of The Unicorn (REVIEW)

by Henry Brown – 7/10

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is the latest in comic adaptations, bringing Herge’s (aka: Georges Remi) much loved series to the big screen. Detective Tintin (Jamie Bell) and his faithful dog Snowy become embroiled in a search for the Unicorn, a sunken ship rumoured to be possessed of great treasures. Teaming up with Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), an ancestor of the Unicorn’s late owner, Tintin must contend with the sinister plans of Ivanovich Sakharine (Daniel Craig), who is also on the hunt. Will Tintin prevail? Will Haddock drink himself to death? And will Spielberg score enough at the box office to secure that all important franchise?

The Secret of the Unicorn isn’t a straight adaptation of a single comic; rather it’s a mash up of several stories, featuring elements from The Crab with the Golden Claws, Land of the Black Gold, Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure. On this front, the British writing team responsible (Stephen Moffat, Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish) does a reasonable job, crafting an epic journey across deserts, oceans and foreign lands, that’s full of humour, action and adventure. All the series’ iconic characters are introduced effortlessly, without the typically laborious exposition that such adaptations often suffer from. As such, I imagine newcomers to the world of Tintin will quickly find themselves immersed.