The Adventure of Tintin (film and graphic novel comparison)
By Herge
Graphic novel reprinted 2007
Film published 2011
· One of the most notable differences between the film and the original series done by Herge was the sequence to the tale. In the original trilogy of Tintin’s adventures regarding Haddock. The original graphic novel was noted to start with an opium ring being shut down by the first team up of Tintin and Haddock in “The Crab with the Golden Claws” (Herge, 3-64) then followed by the plot of Haddock’s ancestry and his ties to a great treasure in “The Secret of the Unicorn” (Herge, 131-192). This had a notable middle story “The Shooting Star,” which was but a transition story that was another tale of Haddock and Tintin, yet had no character development in itself. (67-128). the story would conclude with Haddock’s ancestry, however, would end with “Red Rackham’s Treasure,” which is in another volume itself. On the other hand, the film took its liberties to rearrange the continuity of the tale as Tintin was first introduced to Haddock following some earlier events involved in “The Secret of the Unicorn.” This also follows with “The Shooting Star” not even being mentioned in the film. Thus, it is clear for the sake of the film that Spielberg allowed the writers to change portions of the graphic due to narrative restraints.
· It is clear that Spielberg also took liberties in the adaption of the film from the graphic novel in terms of pacing. For example, with the scene of Captain Haddock lighting the boat on fire in “The Crab with the Golden Claws,” he did so while narrating all his thoughts and acting gestures, as was common of Golden Age comics at the time. Since sequential subtleties had not been adopted in comic art yet, Haddock’s talk with himself (as Tintin and Snowy were knocked out at the time) had to fill in with character acting with his environment. With the film, on the other hand, Haddock did more subtle gestures like panting and shivering that indicated his physical condition. Such cues would not have been prevalent in the comics. Rather than Haddock narrating his actions which would take several panels of explanation to do, he just does so immediately on screen. (Herge, 21)
· While the film was set on international locations, little hint of the local people or their culture really shined through. Granted, Herges spent a good amount of research and travels in order to create the Tintin books. This was in an example of another one of his books “The Blue Lotus,” where Herge took the active research in going to China in order to write about the setting and characters and the environment the protagonists interact with. With the film, on the other hand, the protagonists were clearly the focus of the film and the culture was not as regarded in favor for the film’s pacing. Much like other Spielberg action adventure films, the cultural persons shown were but passing oddities not really looked into in the film. At best, they served as comic relief yet were not active to the development of the plot.
· As the film was directed to be action oriented, a lot of fighting easily glossed over in the graphic novels have more prevalence in the film. An example would be Tintin’s escape from captivity in the film, which had quite a few daring moments of fisticuffs that lasted several minutes as TIntin eluded capture and made his way to the Captain for the first time by barely dodging explosions from dynamite. In the graphic novel, on the other hand, Tintin literally tricks a guy into letting him go to eat for one panel and he’s free in the next. While Herge might have wanted to emphasize the plot over the action, it is clear that such ambiguity between the gutters left little for the audience to take in the situation. How did Tintin beat up the purple guy, tie him up and made his way outside? We would never have been able to tell by merely looking at the panels, which left little clues in it themselves (Herge, 14)
Regardless, these are but some of the noted points between the film and the graphic novel. Both have merit in their own rights of entertainment and both should be seen not necessarily to compare to the other. However, it should be noted that the film is but a modern interpretation of Herge’s original intent for the story. Spielberg had much to change in order to match the film viewing audience’s taste. Thus, though a small point in itself, it should be noted that the film does indeed differ from the graphic novel.
Bibliography:
Hergé. The Adventures of Tintin Volume 3. Boston: Little Brown, 1993. Print.
Hergé. The Adventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus. 1st Ed. ed. New York: Little Brown, 2011. Print.
Spielberg, Steven, dir. The Adventures of Tintin. Paramount Pictures, 2011. Film.
