Here’s a link to The Arty Semite and my Steven Spielberg Q&A!
Tintin, a cartoon journalist created by Belgian artist Hergé in 1929, is well known outside of the U.S., but Spielberg hadn’t heard of him until 1981, when a French review of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” compared Indiana Jones to Tintin. Spielberg’s 3D film is based on Hergé’s stories “The Crab with the Golden Claws” (1941), “The Secret of the Unicorn” (1942) and “Red Rackham’s Treasure” (1943).
The Arty Semite caught up with Spielberg outside the Ziegfeld to ask him about using motion capture technology, making Tintin 3D, and what Snowy should look like.
Dorri Olds: How long did it take to make this movie?
Steven Spielberg: It’s been a labor of love for 28 years, when I first optioned the rights from the Hergé estate. I had the honor of meeting, on the telephone, the great Hergé in 1983. This has been the longest gestation between the intention to tell a story and the actual realization. It’s taken all these years but I’m so proud of where we landed.
What was it like bringing the characters to life in 3D?
I was very subtle with the 3D, I didn’t want it to be right in your lap. I wasn’t trying to make a sensationalized 3D movie. I wanted it to be how we see life. We take for granted that we see in 3D. Suddenly we see 3D movies and we’re going, “Oh my God it’s in 3D!” We forget that we see 3D every day. I just wanted it to be lifelike.
What was the challenge using motion capture?
When working with animation, my hands aren’t tied by weather, real sky, real earth, real ocean. I can go anywhere, do anything, move the camera anywhere I wanted to. Suddenly with my hands free, it was limitless and gave me a chance to make a movie that allowed my imagination to take me anywhere it wanted to go.
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