'Tintin' man Spielberg goes to Comic-Con

Steven Spielberg is coming down from the mountain.

The director will make his first-ever appearance at San Diego's Comic-Con, the massive yearly convention for consumers and creators of comics, movies and other forms of pop entertainment. Spielberg, who helped invent the modern blockbuster ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Raiders of the Lost Ark"), seems likely to receive a welcome fit for the pope.

The reason for his visit this Friday? He has a movie to promote. And this one is no surefire hit.

The movie is "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn," a 3-D animated adaptation of the 1943 comic book by Hergé. The Tintin comics, about an intrepid young journalist, have a small but loyal following in America, and Comic-Con has long been a place where filmmakers go to schmooze with fans. Zack Snyder previewed footage of "Watchmen" there, just as Disney did with last year's sequel to "Tron."

But Spielberg may have a bigger concern. "Tintin" uses motion-capture animation (Paramount Pictures prefers the term "performance-capture"), which has a mixed track record, to say the least, with moviegoers. James Cameron used it to good effect in "Avatar," but films like "The Polar Express" and the recent "Mars Needs Moms," both spearheaded by director-producer Robert Zemeckis, were notorious flops. Audiences often seem repelled, rather than enchanted, by the not-quite-human look of motion-capture.

Early trailers for "Tintin," due in theaters Dec. 23, showed little of the actual characters, though later trailers have been more revealing. At Comic-Con, Spielberg is expected to speak about the motion-capture issue and show footage of the movie.