Tintin: Comic to Film?

Tintin and Haddock ponder their migration from book to screen.

Tintin: What would Hergé have thought of us?

Haddock: Turning in his grave likely.

Tintin: Wish we had better lines to speak.

Haddock: Too right! It’s getting boring saying “Billions of blue blistering barnacles” over and over again.

Tintin: Think we should have stayed home in the comic. Everybody applauded us there.

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Voice-over

What’s not to applaud? Why did the movie drag for so many people? Why did so many of us get restless and not even grin? The movie begins well, it looks good. Give it 50% for looks?

The flaw. Pragmatically, the dialogue is stilted and wooden. Sure, a movie should be action, and too much talk will slow it down and clutter it up. But in TinTin and the Secret of the Unicorn, too much action clutters it up, and talk drags it down (e.g. when Thompson and Thomson stumble on the wallet pickpocket). Hergé’s light lilt doesn’t migrate across the media.

Action movies can be elevated by decent dialogue. Some comics should stay comics. At least until a dialogue doctor checks out the lines. Sorry.
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You're either with us or against us

Joseph, veteran political speech analyst, is asked by an interviewer whether Barack Obama will be different from George Bush.

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Joseph: If you look at the speeches they make, you see differences. George Bush uses a lot of the first person: “ I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security.”

Interviewer: Whereas Barack Obama…?

Joseph: Barack Obama uses “We” a lot. “We face a lot of problems.”

Interviewer: So this shows a difference in style? George Bush tends to be unilateral, Barack Obama, multilateral?

Joseph: Definitely. And there’s another defining characteristic between them. George Bush, talking about terrorism, used the expression, “You’re either with us or against us.” It’s a polarizing expression. Black vs. white. No room in the middle for maneouvering.

Interviewer: Or dialogue presumably.

Joseph: Right. A zero tolerancy approach. Hard power. Barack Obama, on the other hand, is a proponent of soft power. It’s a multinational world. “I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.”

Interviewer: The speechmaker molds the leader we see?

Joseph: Partly. But an authoritarian, polarizing approach can also be a reflection of an insecure leader. They put up false dilemmas. Either… or… The secure leader listens and synthesizes. 

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Kamishibai remix

Atsuko borrows some techniques of kamishibai for an audition.

Oliver: Why is she moving back and forth?

Ned: Well, first she speaks one part and then she speaks the other.

Oliver: She’s telling a story?

Ned: Through dialogue, yes.

Oliver: And pictures too.

Ned: It almost looks like she has done a remix, putting together a ventriloquist act with kamishibai.

Oliver: Kamishibai?

Ned: A story told using pictures and a frame.

Oliver: Refreshing change from the gravity of Gore, but she could use a little coaching on voices and maybe a couple more pictures.

Atsuko's performance here>