Apocalypto Found To Be 'Just Like Tintin'

FOXNEWS.COM: Mel Gibson's 'Apocalypto' Eclipsed by Tintin?
Monday, December 04, 2006 By Roger Friedman

At the end of last Thursday night’s one and only screening in New York of Mel Gibson’s excruciatingly violent "Apocalypto," a woman in the audience exclaimed, "It’s just like Tintin, you know!"

I didn’t know, but since then I’ve looked into her idea. Yes, "Apocalypto" appears to have a big scene in it that is also integral to other pieces of work in fiction: Mark Twain’s "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court" and the Belgian illustrated books by George Remi (aka "Herge") called "The Adventures of Tintin" about a young man (the title character) and his dog.

In "Tintin: Prisoners of the Sun," a book that is still wildly popular all over the world, and has been for several decades, a scene depicts a solar eclipse that takes place in Mexico over the Mayan ruins.

An almost identical scene is pivotal to the story in "Apocalypto," in which a sudden eclipse darkens a maddening crowd scene and helps those who’ve been taken prisoner during continual warring to escape.

The eclipse is so important to the movie and such a visual hook that Disney has used it as a key part of the film’s promotion. It’s part of the film’s animated logo in trailers and ads.

Now it’s not like Twain (in his book an eclipse is also used to hide an escape) or Herge were first to think of this device. The Mayans were obsessed with eclipses and studied them, so Gibson and his screenwriter assistant Farhad Safinia were right to be thinking about them. Some people call this "being influenced." Others call it "stealing."

At the same time, though, the Tintin business is a little surprising. In "Prisoners of the Sun," it’s as if "Apocalypto" is actually story-boarded.

Not only that, but the woman in the audience was thinking not just of the book but of a 1969 animated film called "Tintin and the Temple of the Sun" in which that scene, from the same perspective as it’s seen in "Apocalypto," takes place.

Conveniently, none of the Tintin movies are available on video in the United States.

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... a woman in the audience exclaimed, "It’s just like Tintin, you know!"

Except for the scene where a human heart is cut out and sacrificed - they had to tone that shit down from the comic. Hey, that's how Tintin rolls.