Americans Might Not “Get” Film Version of TinTin

As Stephen Spielberg’s long-awaited 3-D version of the Belgian comic book classic opens in the UK, some critics are not sure how well the 80-year-old comic character will play in the United States when the film arrives in theaters in time for the holidays.

“American audiences may find the film a bit difficult,” TinTin expert Michael Farr told the BBC, “Some have known him and loved him, like Spielberg, but not the audience at large.”

Farr’s concern is that the US, immersed in a tradition of superheroes, might not really understand the charm of the character Belgian writer and artist Hergé created more than 80 years ago.

Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot), who voices the title character, told the BBC why he things the Spielberg/Peter Jackson collaboration will be a hit with TinTin fans:

“I’ve never seen such a realistic Tintin in my life. In the comics the characters don’t look like people -- they’re surrealist drawings,” he adds.

The 25-year-old says that the film -- which is produced by Peter Jackson -- can be “paused at any moment and put back into a comic.”

The Billy Elliot star reveals that while performing the actors, including Andy Serkis and Daniel Craig, had frames from the original cartoons pasted around their studio “so we could look directly at the source”.

Bell believes that Tintin’s transformation will draw in a fresh wave of fans -- on their own terms.

The BBC piece is here.