Tintin is making his way to be known all over the world. Already famous since his debut in back in 1929, with the release of the movie by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson along with the recent release of the first season of the animated series on DVD, there's no escaping the world of Tintin. If you have ever seen, read or watched anything involving Tintin, there's no reason you would want to.
With the release of 'The Art of The Adventures of Tintin' from WETA and Harper Collins Publishers, you'll be more than impressed with what went into making this movie.
You're probably thinking the same thing I thought when I first saw this book sitting on a shelf. It's just another 'movie book.' It's just another "Art of..." books that only appeal to die hard fans. Once you look inside, you'll see it's much more than one of those typical books.
The book is divided into four sections. The first focuses on the film makers. Steven Spielberg had his eye on making this movie for some time and the foreword by him gives some insight into what Tintin exactly means to him. There's also the thoughts from Peter Jackson, Joe Letteri (Weta Digital Senior Visual Effects Supervisor) and Richard Taylor (Weta Workshop Design and Special Effects Supervisor).
Then we jump into "The Beginning."
You can't have a book about Tintin without a look at the creator, Hergé. If you haven't seen the movie, there's also a summary on the three stories that the movie's plot is based on. If you get the chance, pick up the actual books before seeing the movie. They are collected in single and combined formats. You'll be surprised at how well the stories hold up today.
Another bit I should mention, dealing with the plot, is the inclusion of a wallet with the three clues in finding 'Red Rackham's Treasure.' I don't want to give away too much about the plot but these three clues are on a different type of paper to add a little more realism to them. In order to fully decipher the clue, you have to do something with the three pieces to solve it. Having watched the animated episodes, my daughter immediately put them to the test and thought it was really cool.
The layout and size of the book (9.8 x 12.2 x 0.8 inches) adds to the appeal. Besides the abundance of information on each page, there are some amazing images to be seen. There's a great mix of shots from the original comics along with concept designs from Weta Workshop.
Originally I wasn't sure if going the CGI route was necessary but when you see everything they put into it, the process and the end results, you can only hope that we'll be seeing sequel after sequel for Tintin.
The next section is devoted to the characters.
Not only do you get summaries on the characters but there is also an extensive look at how they were brought to the big screen. The fact that motion capture was used raises this 'animated' movie to a new level.
If you're one of the lucky ones that have already seen the movie, you should be able to back this up. There's even a couple pages devoted the different wardrobe worn by all the characters. There was definitely a lot of thought that went into making each character have a unique feel to them.
Along with a look at all the characters, I was surprised to see the information and images for the live-action experiment.
If you've seen the movie or the trailer, you know this isn't contained to just one or two locations. They go all over the place and there's a huge section on the different environments from the movie.
As with the characters and their wardrobe, you'll be amazed at how much thought and effort went into designing the different environments. How many times have we seen movies where the backgrounds have a generic feel to them? That won't be the case here. The inclusion of the concept art really makes you appreciate all the work. Having them side-by-side panels from the original comic are great and gives another reason why this goes beyond a book simply covering a movie. There's so many pages here that would be more than suitable to hang on your wall. It turns out you actually can buy prints from Weta's website. (There's also a ton of other products you'll find yourself looking over. You've been warned.)
This is an incredible book. If every "Art of..." books were like this, I'd be in trouble because I'd be buying a lot more books. I was super-excited to see the movie before but after getting this, I somehow became even more excited. December 21 can't come soon enough.
