Tintin has a head full of it

Steven Spielberg, one of the most beloved of filmmakers, has two films opening this holiday week. “War Horse” comes to theaters Christmas Day, while “The Adventures of Tintin” opens Wednesday. The latter is the more family-friendly of the two — but it’s also not as inspiring. It begins promisingly enough. The instantly recognizable art of Belgian artist Herge is transformed into moving pictures that play across the screen to the sound of a delightfully Francophonic score by frequent Spielberg collaborator John Williams.

Herge created the boy reporter Tintin in 1929; eight decades later, the figure beloved in Europe and beyond is responsible for Spielberg’s first animated film — motion-capture 3-D, to be exact.