The Adventures of Tintin.

I remember Tintin fondly. They were straight forward boy adventure tales with the twist that Tintin was more responsible than the adults around him. Along with his clever dog Snowy he would constantly find lost maps to treasure or foil evil deeds. While buffoonish, he was helped by Captain Haddock and the twin cops Thompson and Thompson. I remember them as fun and fast paced romps.

I was a little hesitant to see that they made a big budget version of these cute tales. I was more leery when I saw they were doing it with motion capture technology which is sort of a mix bag aesthetically.  So it was with fingers crossed that I finally saw the new Adventures of Tintin. 





I was delighted.

The voice work was excellent.  The motion capture for the most part worked here.  Oh there were times when they couldn't help themselves from showing off, but not to distraction.  The plot moved fast enough going from London to North Africa at a rapid pace as Tintin tried to figure out the secret hidden in a model ship while staying ahead of a rather nasty fellow with a sword cane.  This is one of those rare films aimed at children but capable of being watched by adults.  I certainly hope there will be sequels.

Rotters by Daniel Kraus

"Rotters" could have been retitled as "I was a teenage grave robber," but I suppose that lacks pizazz.  If there is one thing this novel has is pizazz and more.  It's a dark book of adolescent growth and mysteries both of the living and the dead.  I admit I had trouble getting through the first couple chapters cause the teen agnst was warped up to "11" but after a bit the story really caught fire and I became engrossed.

This is the story of Joey Crouch who's just a typical teen until his mom dies.  He's sent to live with his father who has never met and believes was partially responsible for his mother's death.  His father is a hermit that the local town calls "The Garbage Man," though that seems more for how he smells then his real job.  He has no time for his son as he leaves his cabin for mysterious assignments.  Joey, meanwhile, has to deal with a hostile school environment where both teachers and students are against him.  They automatically peg him a loser and give him the new name of "Crotch."

This would get all depressing and all, but luckily Joey finds out that his dad is not just a grave robber but something of the king of all grave robbers.  He then becomes his father's apprentice and learns quite a bit about subjects that most folk wouldn't want to know about.  There's a lot detail in this section and some of it is a bit stomach turning to those weak of heart, but still fascinating.  This section oddly enough reminds me of "Holes," because it's amazing how digging a lot of holes will not just change your physique, but your character as well.  Unfortunately, this disturbing idyllic time couldn't last.  The father's ex partner and now permanent nut ball, Baby, comes back because he wants ... well he wants Joey for one thing.  He also wants revenge and he wants to become famous.  His life's work is now the Rotter's book where he catalogs all his crimes and intends for the world to know every grave he violated.

Baby is an incredible villain who is oddly sympathetic but obviously homicidal.  He drives this part of the novel as he bedevils father and son to the point of nearly driving them mad.  He then becomes Joey's new mentor for a time, at least until he decides that Joey must die.  The end to the novel leads to an incredible climax where father, son, and Baby fight in a cemetery drowning in a hurricane.  I can safely say that by the end I thought this book was just awesome.  It's certainly worth a read if you can handle some of the more grisly details.

The Wild Hunt

On of the early memes involving D&D was besides proof you were nerdy beyond all hope, it will eventually make you crazy and you'll be wandering the steam tunnels looking for goblins. Never mind that the actual incidents like that were few and far between, it was just too juicy to pass up.

In later years LARP (Live Action Role Playing) became more of an in thing, so yes there are now wonderfully nerdy people wandering woods dressed as elves throwing "thunderbolts" at each other. But they are functionally sane, right? Right? To answer my own question, I do believe they are functionally sane but there is a danger when you take a bunch of people into the woods for a long time doing strange things.

That's basically what happens in "The Wild Hunt." Our hero has no interest in LARPing but he knows his girl friend there. Worse he has heard rumors that she has been captured by an evil shaman who is trying to have his way with her. This is just too much so he drives to the woods and there he teams up with crazy viking brother. He just wants to talk with his girlfriend but he's forced to play the game by everyone so he decides to capture her back instead. Unfortunately, all the real life tensions underneath this begin to warp and wrap around the fantasy. Soon the Wild Hunt becomes a dangerously real thing.

This is an interesting film and I enjoyed the Viking brother's jovial nuttiness. He tries to help his brother but he's just... so... serious. I wish LARPers looked this good. It has bits of good action, and fine drama, and really it's interesting watching just where to drop off point to reality is.

The Colonialism Double Feature: The Stranglers of Bombay and The Terror of the Tongs

I call this the colonialism double feature cause both films came on one disc and not only are they in the time of colonialism but deal directly with British perceptions of the "benighted" natives they ruled over.

"The Stranglers of Bombay," is for me the more interesting story.  It is a based on the real story of Thuggees and the man who helped bring them down.  It's been of course dramatized to become a thrilling adventure tale, but it is still very powerful.  The Thuggees were a religious sect that worshipped Kali.  One could look at them as the first terrorists as they killed thousands of travellers in India.  Not just kill by the way, but make disappear.  How's that for terror to just make people disappear.  They were broken because one British officer actually listened to the people of India and did some basic detective work.  He also managed to find people willing to give evidence on these thugs (which by the way is how we got the name "thug).

A good rousing film and if nothing else you can see where the second Indiana Jones film lifted some characters from.  I should note some modern historians believe that the Thuggee didn't really exist and were a colonial delusion based on "regular" highway men.  Now I would expect some tall tale telling from british officials in India, but when you get down to the brassiest tacks India was a business.  The ledgers don't lie (at least not with a good accountant) folks were certainly disappearing in India in a way not consistent with normal crime.  Maybe the Thuggees didn't kill millions as some have said, but I certainly do believe they existed and they were as evil as any Nazi or Al Queda thug.



"The Terror of the Tongs," is more of a problem for me.  Lots of white actors given chinese eyes and plot about a sea captain who's the only man to stand up to the evil Chinese Tongs.  It has thrilling bits, but it really dates as old.

Unnatural History

"Unnatural History" is a new series on Cartoon Network. It is a live action series. On Cartoon Network. Yeah. I hate this tendency for "mission creep" in our tv channels. I want my MTV back, you know the channel that had MUSIC. I want science fiction on the SF channel not the SYFY channel. I want American Movie Channel to go back to being American Movie CLASSICS.

Oh well. Bitching aside, "Unnatural History" isn't bad and has promise. Two very different people team up to do an encyclopedia brown. One is a world traveller, martial artist, hero in training. The other is a scholar and bit of a wet blanket. The mysteries will mostly come from the rather odd collection of odds and ends in one section of the musuem.

There is good chemistry between the leads, and it moves lively.