A Trip to Alameda's Christmas Tree Lane

If you're an East Bay resident with kids, it's pretty hard to avoid going to Alameda's Christmas Tree Lane at some point or another. It's like trying to avoid seeing "Avatar" or that video where the cat puts the baby to sleep.

We went for the first time this week, and the kids loved it. (Well, Elliot loved it. Alice just sat in her stroller and gurgled contentedly.)

Christmas Tree Lane is a block of Thompson Avenue where every house is decorated — many to an insane degree. I've heard it's part of their neighborhood association that you have to go bananas at Christmastime. (I assume they let people do Hanukkah decorations too, though I didn't see much evidence of that.)

A lot of the displays involved animatronics, and one even had lights that were synchronized with the soundtrack to "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

One of Elliot's favorites was a Santa that would hide inside a tree and then pop out to ambush onlookers. I called him Viet Cong Santa.

I preferred the Tintin display. It's still hard to believe we've reached a point where Tintin is this mainstream in America.

The Grinch, Peanuts characters and the Muppets also were featured prominently. Elliot didn't recognize any of them.

However, he was thrilled when he saw this one. "APPLE!"

It's amazing that a company logo can elicit so much excitement from a 3-year-old.

Why Is Tintin Not Allowed to Use This Product?

Tintin Pumpkin

As Tintin fever heats up in anticipation of the new film, someone in Texas carved this delightful pumpkin (named as a top carving by the This Old House site).

Of course, it couldn't compete with this Steve Jobs pumpkin — way more timely.

'The Adventures of Tintin': Unofficial Titles Sequence

A fan of Tintin has created an unofficial titles sequence for the upcoming "Adventures of Tintin" film, and it's pretty great.


The Adventures of Tintin from James Curran on Vimeo.

It references all 24 of the books, including the ones that nobody read ("Tintin in the Land of the Soviets"). It's very elegant in the way it quotes from Herge's work. There's even a spoiler — the clip reveals the thief from "The Castafiore Emerald."

By the way, it looks like the title of the film has changed since I last blogged about it. The name no longer has "The Secret of the Unicorn" in it. Maybe they figured it was too much clutter. (But it worked so well for "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole"!)

'Tintin' Full Trailer Released

It's been a while since I last blogged about the upcoming "Tintin" film, so here's an update: They've now released the full trailer to promote the movie, which is directed by Steven Spielberg. (Thanks for the tip, BuboBlog Philadelphia correspondent Guy.)



I'm still not sure I'm entirely comfortable with the motion-capture approach. If you wanted to be faithful to the books, it would be better to use conventional animation — you could make it look exactly like Herge's illustrations. Here, you don't get the fidelity to Herge and you don't get real actors. So I wonder if the trade-off is worth it.

Putting that aside, the film is certainly intriguing. Tintin is no stranger to gunplay and chase scenes, but they've never looked this exciting. Even the flutter of his famous hair tuft is dramatic.

It appears that they're combining FOUR books to make the story: "The Crab with the Golden Claws," "The Shooting Star," "The Secret of the Unicorn" and "Red Rackham's Treasure." The inclusion of "Golden Claws" allows the filmmakers to show Tintin's first meeting with Captain Haddock. (I wonder if they'll attempt to play down his out-of-control alcoholism?)

Some of the dialogue rang false to me. Tintin mentions that he can fly a plane because he "interviewed a pilot once." As loyal Tintin fans know, he almost never refers to any kind of journalism — despite that ostensibly being his profession.

He's also very earnest and unflappably upbeat, so the sarcastic line about how they've gotten into a "fine mess" seemed a little off. Maybe this Tintin is a bit of a douche.

Lastly: There's no sign of any gay stuff between him and Haddock. But there also are no women in the trailer whatsoever (aside from a few in the background of the early scene). I heard that Bianca Castafiore will make a cameo, but I don't see her character listed on the IMDB page. We may have to wait until the sequels.