Astérix en Bretaña

This was funnier than I expected it to be. I mean, I love the Asterix books but I rarely laugh out loud at them. The animated adaptation also managed to be cleverer than the book in certain instances, though some of the dialogue was unnecessarily changed in others. Something struck me about the character animation, as well, as some characters seemed to be better animated than others. I realize this is probably because different artists were assigned to different characters, but I wish a greater effort at consistency was attempted. These are minor points. This is great fun, for everyone, even if it says "Just for Kids" (the name of the company, I think) on the box.

Before the British can ask themselves what the Romans can possibly do for them they are not too terribly pleased with the bothersome invasion. Anticlimax, cousin of Asterix, sneaks off to Gaul for help. Getafix makes a barrel of magic potion and Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix courier it back to Britain. Many, many beaten, bruised, and broken Romans make the mistake of getting in their way.

The jokes and visual humor just don't stop. You'll be grinning from ear-to-ear when watching Asterix in Britain. The animation has such a detailed quality to it that the film nearly rivals vintage Disney. The music too, is also lovely. A score CD was produced in France, but it's long out of print. Bill Oddie is the voice of the little warrior this time around, while amusing English stereotypes fill out the rest of cast.

A favorite of mine since I was a kid, I first saw Asterix in Britain on BBC2 one Xmas morning. I nearly wore out the tape I recorded it on. My advice, buy the DVD. Even for kids raised on CGI it's a winner.

When the Romans invade Britain they do such ghastly things as fight outside working hours and at weekends, hence the island quickly falls. One Briton sneaks across the channel to seek help from his cousin Asterix. Asterix, Obelix and the Briton take a barrel of magic potion back across the channel in an attempt to help the British villages to fight back.

Another in the staggered animated Asterix series. This story follows the book quite closely and manages to have some of it's wit – `send us a victorious wind o gods' implores Caesar just before his map blows over his face! However much of this is the usual hitting Romans fare. The story may not be great but it's still very enjoyable for children.

The colours are a bit washed out looking at times and the animation isn't state of the art (even then!) but it's easy to overlook this. Some of the characters are very good – the British, although cliched, are very funny, however the main characters are a bit off. All the Gauls have `Allo, Allo' French accents that annoy. Worse is Obelix being played again like a buffoon crossed with a child – not very good at all.

Overall this is an acceptable addition to the Asterix stable, it doesn't totally manage to carry off the wit of the books but it's a reasonable funny and faithful version. The worst thing is the terrible Euro-pop played over the end credits.

Having seen this one many times as a kid, I wasn't sure I would still like it as an adult. To my positive surprise, however, it's filled with original ideas and jokes that may vary in subtlety, but remain at a funny level throughout. One may see this Astérix-episode as a respectful parody of British peculiarities, seen from a French perspective. The animation is quite beautiful at times.

The overall plot of this animated version of Astérix chez les Bretons is faithful to that of the book. As the latter is perhaps the best of all the Astérix volumes, this film could fare badly in the comparison. But whereas most of the Astérix films lose much in the transition to a dumbed-down, vaguely Hollywoodesque cartoon that I suppose is meant to appeal to children, Asterix in Britain manages to retain much of what made the original (written and drawn) version great. I haven't yet listened to any of the dubbed versions of the film, but the French is particularly clever in using native English speakers to play the roles of the Bretons.