Steven Spielberg's "Tintin" Movie and the History of Other Movie Adaptations from the Comic Book Series

Steven Spielberg has so much on his moviemaking plate this year that it almost seems that focus on his movie adaptation of the famous Belgian comic strip Tintin will be impossible considering the complexities of the stories. There's certainly been other attempts at making movies of the Tintin stories where trying to classify them into a particular genre was already challenging. They also dealt with the challenges of how to present the unique characters when live-action wasn't immediately desired to give the full essence of the famous Belgian reporter and his fascinating array of supporting players. When Spielberg even reportedly and initially had trouble deciding how he wanted to film his version of Tintin, you can see how filmmakers in the 1940's may have had their own share of creative problems.

But because the first film of Tintin ever made was done in the home country of the comic book and its creator Herge (Belgium), it seems that the most desired way to present the characters was through stop-motion where you could see the characters as they were in the comic book series, yet have them be able to do things you couldn't create with live actors. It was a virtually unknown (at least today) filmmaker from Belgium by the name of Wilfried Bouchery who received the blessing to make a stop-motion film based on the sophisticated Tintin tale of "The Crab with the Golden Claws." Anybody who's seen the original comic book of this story from the early 1940's knows how complex and daring the story was.

You wouldn't have seen Tintin succeed in America back then without a lot of censoring--all based on scenes of violence and drinking (by the Navy captain and friend of Tintin, Capt. Haddock) to name just a couple. There also were a lot of racial quips and insinuations in the original Belgian comic books that probably would have passed muster in America considering some of the most popular comic books and strips here did the same thing.

In Belgium, there was a demand to respect the original comic book, so Bouchery's 1947 "The Crab with the Golden Claws" was a re-creation of the comic book story down to the finest detail. While the stop-action animation was crude, it was promised to be a big hit until the company that made it went bankrupt and put the film out of circulation almost immediately. It nevertheless was put into storage for decades and was preserved well enough to be made available through various prints to Tintin fanclubs for years. But it's never been made available on DVD anywhere in the world.

And you can unfortunately say that about most of the other movie adaptations of Tintin done later. After more than a decade of attempts to get Tintin and his elaborate adventure stories back into the movies, it was finally agreed upon that live-action would be the best way to approach it with a movie adaptation of "Tintin and the Golden Fleece." The only difference is that an original screenplay was written for this one and a follow-up done three years later called, in a semi-psychedelically-titled way, "Tintin and the Blue Oranges." Concern by Spielberg using live action in his film should have been dashed through the historical record of these two films being very successful and considered by fans to be the best Tintin films ever made to date.

Apparently the reason for that was the appeal of the French actor who played Tintin: Jean-Pierre Talbot. He's obviously unknown in America, but in France he's still considered a legend for playing the role despite being his only roles, so far, as an actor. That'll be one missing element in Spielberg's adaptation and the chance for an unknown young actor to get a role of a lifetime.
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There probably would have been other live-action Tintin movies made after those two live-action tales above, but the second in 1964 didn't do as well as the first did three years earlier. It was right after this time when the thought was that Tintin (and let's not forget his faithful dog, Snowy) might work better in traditional animation. It's odd that it was never interpreted that way earlier in a film when the characters have such a distinctive look that really could only be truly faithfully recreated through the mighty pen. It's why a TV series started in France in the late 50's and ran through the early 60's right around the time when those two live-action movies were popular. Many fans, though, hated the TV series because it didn't follow the comic book stories faithfully.

Those concerns were amended later when several animated movie adaptations of some of the best in the comic book series were made in the late 60's and early 70's. The only problem with the movies was similar to what the Harry Potter movies have to deal with on a regular basis: What to leave in from the books and what to take out to spare the running time from becoming a 48-hour marathon. In 1969's "Tintin and the Temple of the Sun", two different stories were combined into a mess of a movie where the first quarter condensed a series that went on in comic book form for over a year during WWII.

Right there may be the dilemma for Spielberg who reportedly will include about 23 different Tintin stories combined into a whole. The good news is that the series will be a trilogy in collaboration with Peter Jackson who is collaborating on getting the motion capture animation perfected to make it a true Herge work come to life.

Even better is that many people in America probably aren't all that familiar with Tintin and will be introduced to the unique characters and stories through a Spielberg touch hopefully not afraid to show the rough edges. These films should ultimately be marketed toward adults based on the original use of taboos parents won't want their kids necessarily seeing or mimicking. The comic book series had some brutal honesty in the adventurous stories that Spielberg will undoubtedly make compelling without fail.

Plus, the adventure in the series is very close to the Indiana Jones saga and hence why Spielberg was initially attracted to the comic books back in the early 1980's. In that regard, we'll be seeing a chance to continue the spirit of the Indiana Jones series, except there's no need to worry about Tintin aging and having to admit to it in the story line...