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WHEN I FIRST HEARD that Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson were teaming up to produce The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, I felt both excitement and foreboding. Finally my favorite adventure comic book set from childhood (and later years as well) was going to get the full-bodied high tech cinematic treatment it deserved! At the same time, what could I expect from a relaunch of a gritty comic series, which first saw the light of day in the 1920s, in the politically correct Hollywood culture of 2011?

I had good reason to fear the results. Belgian and French TV had already screened a cartoon series based on Hergé's books in 1991/92. They were well done, all right, but entirely PC: no booze, no swearing, no ethnic stereotypes, no extreme violence. It was Tintin for an enlightened age - which means that it was boring.

I've always thought it's the mid-century roughness of the original stories that gives the Tintin series its charm. But wait, who is this Tintin character anyway? If you think you've never seen Tintin before, I'll bet you have: If you've watched Indiana Jones, you know all about Tintin. It's the same combination of action, adventure, and pratfalls, just with a younger hero (accompanied by a dog). In fact, it was only after hearing constant references to Tintin after producing Raiders of the Lost Ark that Spielberg discovered the original and fell in love with it. Creating this film, and possible sequels, has been a 28-year labor of love for him.

For those unfortunate enough never to have experienced the brave young Belgian in his original form, Tintin is a "boy reporter" with a little white terrier called Snowy who embarks on a range of extremely exciting adventures all across the world, righting wrongs and protecting the weak. Tintin's creator, Belgian artist Georges Rémy (Hergé, 1907-83), created the character for a conservative Catholic youth newspaper called Le petit XXième back in 1929. Tintin's first serialized adventure took him to the Soviet Union. Since the newspaper had a profoundly religious and anti-communist slant, his experiences there were correspondingly gloomy.

For his next story, Hergé again took his boss's advice and sent Tintin and Snowy to the Belgian Congo, essentially to shill the colonial experience to young Belgians. The result was a slapstick but egregiously racist story that reflected contemporary attitudes and that has been stirring controversy ever since it began appearing in 1930. Hardly a month goes by without an African immigrant trying to get it banned in Europe and America. While I'm against censorship as a rule, I can see the critics' point.

The books that followed improved greatly, although they are still hard to get truly excited about (particularly his clichéd Tintin in America). Hergé landed his first real winner with The Blue Lotus (1934/35), a story of Japanese skullduggery and European drug dealing in old Shanghai. It is in this story that Hergé introduced the character of Chang. This was a real Chinese acquaintance of Hergé's who would reappear in the spectacular Tintin in Tibet in 1958/59.

In 1938/39 he published his highly political King Ottokar's Sceptre, which is my favorite overall. Here, in a mythical Balkan kingdom called Syldavia, Tintin and Snowy battle dark forces reminiscent of German and Italian fascism. Then, in 1940, Hergé introduced Captain Haddock, a drunken sot of an aging ship's captain whom Tintin befriends and leads back to a semi-sober existence. The inclusion of the Captain throughout the rest of the series represented a geniune relaunch and began the glory age of the Tintin books, represented by such masterpieces as The Seven Crystal Balls/Prisoners of the Sun, Destination Moon/Explorers on the Moon, The Calculus Affair, and the rousing Red Sea Sharks.

As Tintin and the Captain, assisted by the Thompson twins, Bianca Castafiore, and a sweeping cast of other characters, circle the globe, we go along for the ride. On the way, we are confronted by a motley assortment of stoic Native Americans, rotten English sailors, cobra-charming Indians, insane Italian drivers, evil Japanese warmongers, sinister Jewish bankers, black-hearted German scientists, and half-witted West African pilgrims to Mecca (whom Tintin liberates from modern-day Arab slave traders). In fact, we see the world the same way a young Belgian might have seen it half a century ago, and Tintin wouldn't be Tintin if everybody was depicted as if they were all nice - nor would Captain Haddock be Captain Haddock if he wasn't drunk half the time, screaming (witty) obscenities at the top of his lungs. It's the blend of cruelty and tenderness, ugliness and beauty that makes the books so magical.

So what did Spielberg and Jackson make out of it all? The Adventures of Tintin is essentially a combination of two books - The Secret of the Unicorn and The Crab with the Golden Claws - plus what seem like hundreds of quotes from the rest of the 24-book series, including glass-breaking as a weapon and gallons upon gallons of "Loch Lomond" whiskey. Like the original bare-bones Tintin figure - essentially a squiggle and two dots for eyes -  Jamie Bell is just bland but charming enough to bring the hero to life. The motion-capture driven animation - in 3D no less - is spectacular and oddly appropriate when it comes to recreating what was once a beautifully drawn but clearly low-tech comic. Did they tone the books down? Never fear. In fact, The Crab With the Golden Claws is one of the least appealing of the Tintin books, and the producers spare us nothing, all the way down to Haddock's alcohol-induced delirium and withdrawal symptoms. I loved, but I can't honestly recommend it for small children.

 
From the original Secret of the Unicorn

Tintin is a wonderful ride. It takes us across Europe, over the high seas, and all the way to the sands of Morocco. The only scene I didn't like was one that simply had to have come from Jackson. Remember that interminable scene in King Kong where the heroes are fleeing various winged creatures and creepy crawlers, and actually spend what seems like half an hour galloping along between the dinosaurs' legs? Yes, that one. The elaborate downhill escape scene from the Moroccan city had me wishing for a remote control in the movie theater. Sometimes less is more, and this was one of those cases.

 
Captain Haddock comes to life in Andy Serkis's
motion-capture performance

For all its high tech splendor and artistic mastery, I couldn't help but note that the original stories are still better than the version that Spielberg and Jackson have put together. And why shouldn't that be so? The film isn't really an adaptation, it's an hommage to the original series. If it succeeds in winning a new generation over to the Tintin books, it will be a very fine tribute indeed.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (1 hour and 44 minutes) is opening in cinemas all across the United States this week.