Missed this one in theaters, unfortunately, so I just caught it yesterday with my mother. 's been years since I read any Tin Tin books or watched the animated series, but man, what a jolt of nostalgia. I loved all the little shout-outs, and there're probably a number which I failed to spot. I was concerned at first about the voice acting (guess the tv series has stuck with me more than I realized), but they all did a damn fine job.
I thought the "descendant of the previous villain" angle was over-played, but I see your point about how it improved the story. I loved the Unicorn flashbacks, too, but I was distracted by the way they made Sir Francis out to be such a badass - I know they wanted to contrast him with his drunken failure of a descendant, but surely they could have allowed for a little complexity? For some reason, one of my favorite parts of Secret of the Unicorn was ol' Sir Francis KO'ing himself by accidentally cutting a rope and dropping a heavy block on his head, like the loveable buffoon he was - it wasn't nearly so funny in the movie version. Oh well.
I concur that the few real deviations from the actual Tin Tin canon were thoroughly in keeping of the spirit of the stories, including the crane fight, which was a beautiful way to translate the zaniness of the series into a big movie climax.
At first I was disappointed by the choice to tack the ending of Red Rackham's Treasure onto this film, but in hindsight I suppose they had to address the fate of the treasure here at least somewhat, rather than leaving it all to the sequel. I figured their intention now is to stage the search for the treasure in the second movie, buried at sea with the Unicorn, like we originally thought in the comics. Maybe they're thinking of doing Red Rackham's Treasure spliced with a second, more action-packed story for the sequel (since that one was even less of an action-adventure than Secret of the Unicorn). I kind of hope they do, as I'd likewise love for them to introduce Professor Calculus for the next adventure.
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I thought the "descendant of the previous villain" angle was over-played, but I see your point about how it improved the story. I loved the Unicorn flashbacks, too, but I was distracted by the way they made Sir Francis out to be such a badass - I know they wanted to contrast him with his drunken failure of a descendant, but surely they could have allowed for a little complexity? For some reason, one of my favorite parts of Secret of the Unicorn was ol' Sir Francis KO'ing himself by accidentally cutting a rope and dropping a heavy block on his head, like the loveable buffoon he was - it wasn't nearly so funny in the movie version. Oh well.
I concur that the few real deviations from the actual Tin Tin canon were thoroughly in keeping of the spirit of the stories, including the crane fight, which was a beautiful way to translate the zaniness of the series into a big movie climax.
At first I was disappointed by the choice to tack the ending of Red Rackham's Treasure onto this film, but in hindsight I suppose they had to address the fate of the treasure here at least somewhat, rather than leaving it all to the sequel. I figured their intention now is to stage the search for the treasure in the second movie, buried at sea with the Unicorn, like we originally thought in the comics. Maybe they're thinking of doing Red Rackham's Treasure spliced with a second, more action-packed story for the sequel (since that one was even less of an action-adventure than Secret of the Unicorn). I kind of hope they do, as I'd likewise love for them to introduce Professor Calculus for the next adventure.