Tintin enters the third dimension

Tintin and Snowy's new Hollywood look (left) and one of Herge's line drawings of the boy reporter

More than 80 years since Tintin first appeared in print in Belgium, the roving boy reporter has been transformed for the big screen by Steven Spielberg.

Creator and illustrator Herge's pen lines have been brought to life by 3D and performance capture techniques, in an animated movie that takes the comic book hero firmly off the page.

The young adventurer's famous quiff is lustrous and red and his face full of expression, as up-to-the-minute technology brings him alive and makes him eerily human.