While hanging out in the massive Centro Comercial Gran Estación during lunch today, I overheard a woman chastising her dog. She said, “ven ahora, Snowy…ahora”. I’m not all that elite at Spanish yet but I believe that translated to “Come now, Snowy”. As I was listening—or eavesdropping, depending on how you look at it—I found myself chuckling. Why? Because the dog she named Snowy looked like its more famous counterpart. The whole matter brings me to this week’s moment in the Flashback Friday series: the Tintin film.
How I first came across this moment? My discovery of The Adventures of Tintin started with the trailer, which I saw while watching Friends with Benefits at AMC Hoffman Center in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia amid the Long Hot Summer in July 2011. As a fan of the comic, I was actually kinda geeked. On the day after Christmas 2011, I watched the computer-animated action-adventure film for the first time.
What it meant to me then? Like I just wrote, I was kinda geeked. The Adventures of Tintin was one of the first comics I took a liking to when I was introduced to it as a 2nd grader back at Elyton Elementary School. The love for the comic rolled right into the television series that aired around the same time. I particularly liked that he was a journalist in search of the truth…often going to great and dangerous lengths for his scoop. Knowing that would be part of the backstory of the film, I was very excited in the lead-up to its American release…and I was uber thrilled while watching it. The Steven Spielberg touch along with the voice acting from Andy Serkis and Daniel Craig was fantastic.
What it means to me now? The Adventures of Tintin was the first film I purchased on Blu-ray 3D. I still have it by the way and plan on checking it out tomorrow evening after I put my son down to sleep. Even now, 10 ½ years later, I’m still fascinated by the film. The computer animation is probably the best I’ve seen…it’s certainly up there with Avatar. Looking back on it now, the film really did the whole Tintin story much justice because there wasn’t a lot to glean from the quick comics and I was honestly too young to grasp everything in the television series. The film, however, provided me with a basis to really get into the story, into Tintin and Snowy’s life as a tandem. It just seemed authentic. They even got Thomson and Thompson exactly how I always imagined them. A sequel to that film has been in the works for over a decade. I’m hopeful that it’ll come to life soon.
