- Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz/24-bit), English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Audio Description Dolby Digital 5.1, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish
- Region: ABC (Region-Free)
- Rating: PG
- Discs: 2 (1 x Blu-ray + 1 x DVD + UltraViolet)
- Run Time: 107 Mins.
- Studio: Paramount Home Media Distribution
- Blu-ray Release Date: March 13, 2012
- List Price: $44.99
[amazon-product]B0034G4P4Y[/amazon-product]
Purchase The Adventures of Tintin on Blu-ray Combo Pack at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:4/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
–
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Long-running comic strip Tintin by Hergé makes its way to the big screen for the first time in this first in a trilogy of films, The Adventures of Tintin, directed by legend Steven Spielberg with a screenplay adeptly sculpted by Seven Moffat (Doctor Who; Sherlock; Coupling), Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), and Joe Cornish (Attack the Block). More familiar to European readers than their North American counterparts, the popular Belgian protagonist may seem like a hard sell for audiences on this side of the pond, but with Spielberg at the helm taking up the motion capture animation technology for the first time, and the action-packed adventure that incorporates two of the Tintin books, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure, The Adventure’s of Tintin is a fresh and enjoyable big screen debut for this decades-old character ready made for longtime fans and newcomers alike.
The inquisitive baby-faced, ginger-haired reported Tintin (voice and motion-capture performance by Jamie Bell) discovers a detailed model ship in an open-air market of the 17th century ship, The Unicorn, captained by Sir Francis Haddock. Bargaining to purchase the ship that catches his eye immediately, Tintin plonks down the cash, but it immediately approached by a mysterious man with words of warning wanting to buy the ship from him. Later, an even more ominous Ivanovich Sakharine (voice and motion-capture performance by Daniel Craig) offers to take the model off his hands. That same night, while away at the library, Tintin’s house is ransacked and the ship stolen. The mystery around the Unicorn deepens as he discovers something from the model the thieves missed – it’s a poem. Having been by Sakharine’s estate earlier, assuming he had stolen the model, Tintin also knows already that there is a second model. The next day, Tintin is kidnapped and taken away on a ship headed for Morocco along with his feisty dog Snowy. Aboard the ship, he discovers the ship has been taken over from its boozy Captain Archibald Haddock (voice and motion-capture performance by Andy Serkis), by Sakharine. After some wrangling to get free and a serendipitous discovery of Sakharine’s plans, the three make an escape from the ship into the cold sea and head for land, where they will try to out maneuver, outwit, and outrun the malevolent Sakharine, assuming, of course, that Captain Haddock can stay sober long enough.
In the long line of Spielberg films, Tintin may be the most enjoyable adventure he has created since Raiders of the Lost Arc. Now, don’t yell at your screen or slam down your iPad – I’m in no way saying that The Adventures of Tintin matches that film, what I am saying is that this film, created in what, for Spielberg, is a whole new medium, and that is the world of CGI and motion capture technology, has touched a place in his creative soul that we haven’t seen for a very long time. Like Scorsese with Hugo – another master stepping into a “new” medium for the first time – with Tintin it’s like Spielberg was a young filmmaker creating his own love letter to the old cinematic adventure films that inspired his Indiana Jones days. From the swashbuckling action sequences, the moody lighting and sweeping score from John Williams, the film is like a churning of the creative spirit flowing directly onto the screen.
Video Quality
[Rating:5/5]
A fully-digital high definition, motion capture, CGI production, The Adventures of Tintin comes to Blu-ray in a magnificent AVC/MPEG-4 1080p encodement that really looks like a straight digital rendering. There are no hints of video noise, compression artifacts, or any sort of aliasing here to worry about. The depth of blacks and gradations in shadows is superlative while the detail in animation is intricate.
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Equally enjoyable is the beautifully mixed and mastered DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 soundtrack that accompanies Tintin on this Blu-ray from Paramount. While the mix is aggressive, it isn’t obnoxiously so, and this is evident from the overall level of sound which doesn’t have the volume pushed to levels that defy all reason. It allows for very healthy dynamic range. Panning and overall balance between the surrounds, front and back channels is even and delicately handled. While the back channels aren’t really brought it in much with discrete sounds, they do add just an extra bit of surround depth and spatial realism. Low frequencies are deep, but not unruly, and the mids are natural. Dialogue stays clean and remains perched above the sound effects in the noisiest of scenes.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:4/5]
The Adventures of Tintin comes with a healthy dose of HD supplements that run through all the different aspects of the film’s production. Most of them are self-explanatory, as you can see below. Additionally, the combo pack included a DVD of the film and access to an UltraViolet digital copy.
The supplements:
- Toasting Tintin: Part 1
- The Journey to Tintin
- The World of Tintin
- The Who’s Who of Tintin
- Tintin: Conceptual Design
- Snowy: From Beginning to End
- Animating Tintin
- Tintin: The Score
- Collecting Tintin
- Toasting Tintin: Part 2
- BD-Live
- DVD
- UltraViolet Digital Copy
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:4.5/5]
A masterful director and a lineup of skillful writers come together to harness the cutting edge of CGI and motion-capture technology to mold a truly classic action/adventure film for the big screen of one of the world’s most beloved comic strip characters. The Adventures of Tintin is edge-of-the-seat fun, with skillful twists and awesome visuals. Highly recommended.
Additional Screen Captures
–
[amazon-product]B0034G4P4Y[/amazon-product]
Purchase The Adventures of Tintin on Blu-ray Combo Pack at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:4.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:4/5]
–
