Steven Spielbeg’s first foray into animation and 3D is surprisingly enjoyable. He has described the film as an Indiana Jones movie for kids, but given the fact that the Indiana Jones movies are already works made for kids it’s a little hard to understand what that means, except perhaps that The Adventures of Tintin has no romantic subplot, or any attractive female characters at all.

The film sticks to a simple adventure-thriller format and the 3D animation, based on motion capture, is inventive from shot to shot without an overuse of effects meant to startle.  There are too many big, chaotic set pieces and the emotional core of the film — the redemption of Captain Haddock — is thin, which keep the film from being great in any sense, but it’s fun . . . certainly the best of the modern 3D movies I’ve seen.

Click on the images to enlarge.