I wouldn't expect Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson to take one of my favorite childhood books and turn it into a creepy, lifeless CGI feature film, but that's what the new trailer for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn suggests has happened. Something about mo-cap irks me--and I know I'm not the only one. Look at the reviews for The Polar Express. Approximate life so closely while missing the mark in several important ways and you're bound to get that ventriloquist-dummy vibe. The Tintin trailer depicts a world that's mostly realistic, with characters that are just distorted enough to both mimic their original design and make me nervous. Everything but the faces could be live action, but then the faces...enh. Bad news. You can't put real human expressions inside inflated cartoon faces. It just looks too weird. Bigger faces call for bigger facial movements.

Instead of hopping on the hit-or-miss mo-cap bandwagon, why didn't Spielberg just opt for straight-up 3D animation? A Tintin movie in the visual style of The Incredibles might actually be a whole lot of fun. That way you'd get to keep the classic exaggerated features of Herge's original drawings without having them look terribly out of place. And you'd still get to beat the 3D horse for those viewers who keep paying $15 for glasses that give you a headache. It'd be a win-win. You'd just have to spend a smidge more money on a more talented animation team. But this is Spielberg we're talking. He's probably got a budget or two.

At least Snowy looks good. And honestly, aside from the slightly nightmarish animation, everything else doesn't seem half bad. The voice acting's just fine and the writing seems pretty good. Besides, I don't think there's ever been a Tintin movie that wasn't awkward, so at least this one's living up to its ancestors. Although the former animated and live-action attempts were probably done on much less of a budget than this one. Ah well.

The film will be released on December 23rd of this year. I'll probably end up seeing it on Christmas day in a traditional Jewish celebration of the holiday. It stars Jamie Bell of Billy Elliot fame as Tintin, as well as (intentionally) creepy mo-cap veteran Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock. Delightfully, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost will be playing the bumbling Thomson and Thompson twins. And Daniel Craig will make an appearance as Red Rackham. Quite the cast, to be sure. Heck, I'd prefer watching them do this movie live-action so they could actually act with their faces. Although passing off Pegg and Frost as identical twins might be a challenge.

Check out the latest theatrical trailer for The Adventures of Tintin below.