Alcoholism as humour

it certainly didn't offend me in any way.
In the past people would get less butthurt for things like that, the readers didn't have to make the distinction between being alcoholic and a captain haddock, it was simply common sense. It's part of the story, that's how the character is, no need to think further than that.
I thought it was a good interpretation to the comics and I found it funny.
You're talking about african people but did you know that in belgium some guy recently (like a month or 2 ago) sued Moulinsart (the company that has all rights about Tintin) because in "Tintin au Congo" they claim that they are some racist references. Come on, this is 80 years later and now people suddenly think it's a good idea to sue these guys, probably hoping to get some money out of it.
That is really pathetic imo.
Same for the alcoholic issue, Spielberg was faithful to the original captain haddock and in no way this is about alcohol. If some people are making such a link then maybe they're the ones trying to blame their own problems to someone else.

I just came back from a screening that was full of kids. They all laughed every time Haddok did something stupid while drunk, or drank. They were laughing at him for being such a loser because of the drink, they certainly didn't think the drinking was cool or anything.

This kids get it, however young they are.

I can't think of a second in any Tintin album where it would be hinted that drinking is cool. Alcohol always gets Haddock in trouble — but in a funny way.

Plus, you seem to forget that kids relate to Tintin, not Haddock. Haddock represents adulthood for young kids — he drinks, smokes, has a castle, an affair with an Opera singer... But Tintin is the one they take as an example, and Tintin has a certain pride in not drinking at all. I would even say that he is the best example kids could follow in any comic — he doesn't despise alcohol and alcoholism, but he just does not need to dring.

Finally, later albums clearly picture Alcohol as a problem. In Tintin and the PIcaros, a dictator controls a revolution by sending boxes of whisky to the rebels. Haddock even stops drinking in this one.

"I think it's wrong to turn a real problem like alcoholism into a running joke in a family film" - I'd say the opposite and argue that it's a positive thing to address it in a kid's film.

Here in the UK there's so much concentration on illegal drugs from the media you could quite happily kid yourself that alcohol is harmless, not a drug at all, and there's nothing more normal than knocking back a few pints of an evening. "It's not a drug, it's a drink" as comedian Chris Morris put it, capturing quite succinctly the pro-alcohol message that constantly emanates from our media, allowing people to actually believe that delusional thought.

So, for a kid's film to show an adult character acting foolishly or unpleasantly, even violently, due to alcohol is a whole lot more honest than we're used to seeing in most adult drama - let alone stuff aimed at kids. And showing that same adult as someone who is addicted to alcohol, constantly in search of his next dose, highlights that alcohol IS a drug to which people CAN and DO become addicted, every bit as much as they can with illegal drugs.

Tintin is the product of an earlier, more honest, less media-manipulated time, and I would applaud the producers of the film for choosing not to deliberately obscure this aspect of the Captain Haddock character. Getting a problem out in the open, even via the medium of humour, is a whole lot healthier than pretending that it doesn't exist - which is what we're more used to seeing.

There's no way that watching Captain Haddock will make anyone think that the life of an alcoholic is the life for them (!) but maybe if a few alcoholic parents get called "Captain Haddock" by their children after they've watched Tintin, it might make those parents think for a moment about what kind of person alcohol turns them into.

Well over the course of the film Haddock is ridiculed and disliked for his alcoholism, and his arc is his journey to sober up and become a reliable asset to the other characters.

Sounds like a good moral story to tell kids to me.

- You must perform the ritual... in a tutu. Pillock.

The fact that the 75% of the humour in the moviewas related with the alcoholism of one character uncovers a big lack of imagination. So much money spent in technical details but the script is not very good. I think you can make jokes about a drunkie funny man buut to base almost everything in alcohol... even to make work a plane! too much and a little sad.

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