Astérix : Le Secret de la potion magique

Faithful to the type of humour of other Asterix movies, this one offers many funny moments. The story is simple but it serves the movie well. It's not as good as the old animated movies with the Gaulois, but still offers a pretty good time!

When the Druid Panoramix falls from a tree on the floor, he breaks his foot and decides to find a young successor to teach the secret of the magic potion to keep the village protected. He travels through Gaul with Astérix, Obélix and his young apprentice Pectine seeking out a good druid to learn his secret. Meanwhile the evil Sulfurix becomes the advisor of the ambitious Teleferix expecting to learn the secret of the magic potion to negotiate with Cesar while the Roman troops attack the village that is protected only by the Gallic women.

"Astérix: Le secret de la potion magique" is a wonderful family entertainment. The stubborn Panoramix has a great participation in the film looking for an apprentice. The result is the usual, with the Romans helping the Gallic heroes against a greater evil. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Astérix e o Segredo da Poção Mágica" ("Astérix nd the Secret of the Magic Potion")

Amusing and fun feats with Asterix and his faithful friend Obelix fighting Romans . The diminutive Asterix (Christian Clavier, who provides the voice and he previously starred Astérix y Obélix against Caesar 1999 and Astérix and Obélix: mission Cleopatra 2002 ) and his rather larger companion Obelix (voice by Guillaume Briat) , warriors of the last village in Gaul still free after the Roman invasion, set out on a mission to search for a talented successor in order to deliver the cauldron of their druid's famous magic potion to help villagers to fight off the invading Roman army . The year is approximately 50 B. C , Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans commanded by Julius Caesar . Wel l, not entirely..One small village of indomitable natives still holds out against the invaders . And the life is not easy for the Roman legionaries who garrison the fortified camps. There a small village located in Armorica live our friends , the intelligent hero Asterix, the menhir delivery and addicted to wild boar Obelix, the venerable druid Panoramix with his potion which gives the drinker incredible energy, the majestic,hot-tempered , brave chief of the tribe Abraracourcix , the Bard singer playing harp ... As always the perilous mission is immediately trusted to shrewd and cunning Asterix . Obelix , ready to drop everything and go off on a new adventure with Asterix and this time accompanied by Panoramix and a little girl .Meanwhile , in order to wipe out the Gaulish village by any means necessary , Caesar plans a sinister plot . Following a fall during mistletoe picking up , Druid Panoramix decides that it is time to secure the future of the Gaul village . Accompanied by Asterix and Obelix , he undertakes to travel the Gallic world in search of a talented young druid to transmit the ¨Secret of the Magic Potion¨ usually brewed by druid Panoramix . As they set out to find a new druid to prepare the powerful potion getting superhuman strength . As Panoramix sends a small herd of boars to call his 'fellow druids' for a special meeting at the forest , while the invading Romans are attacking the surrounded village .Then Panoramix has to confront Sulfurix , the heinous and envious druid allied with the Romans , who results to be clearly more powerful and whose only flaw is not to have invented the magic potion .

Bemusing 3D computer generator movie about the immortal heroes , based on characters created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo , though this time the plot is not adapted from an already existing comic book , it stars Asterix and his inseparable partner Obelix , from French comic-books .This is a nice adventure with hilarious moments here and there , and has Asterix and his inseparable friend battling , as usual , against silly Romans as well as a nasty and moustachioed druid . Full of fights , noisy action , chases , jokes , customs critical about way of life and modern anachronisms that's common thing in comic books . The movie brilliantly captures the outrageous adventures , tongue-in-check , satire , absurd humour from original characters created by Albert Uderzo and by Rene Goscinny . Christian Clavier, who provides the voice for Asterix in this picture , formerly portrayed him in the first two Asterix live-action-movies . As usual , on the finale scenes the village people celebrating a wild party and eating boars in a gargantuan lunch . After this is the second animated Asterix movie that is based on the original characters by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny but not on a specific Asterix volumen .

This passable second entry shot in computer generator 3D , was preceded by several cartoon movies , such as : ¨Asterix the Gaul¨ (1967) , ¨The Twelve Tasks of Asterix¨ (1976) , ¨Asterix in Britain¨ (1986) . And various live-action movies as : ¨Asterix vs Caesar¨ directed by Claude Zidi with Christian Clavier , Gerard Depardieu , Robert Benigni , Laetitia Casta , Arielle Dombasle . ¨Asterix and Cleopatra¨ by Alain Chabat with Monica Belucci , Jamel Debbouze , Claude Rich , Marina Fois , Gérard Darmon . ¨Asterix and the Olympic Games¨ by Frederic Forrestier with Clovis Cornillac , Santiago Segura, Monica Cruz , Jean Pierre Castaldi and Janel Debouzze . ¨Astérix and Obélix: On Her Majesty's Secret Service¨ (2012) by Laurent Tirard with Gérard Depardieu , Edouard Baer, Guillaume Gallienne , Vincent Lacoste , Charlotte Le Bonn . The motion picture was professionally written and directed by Louis Clichy and Alexandre Astier . Both of them wrote and directed the prior entry ¨The Mansions of the Gods¨ (2014) in 3D that dealt with a Caesar's plan to absorb the villagers into Roman culture by having an estate built next to the village to start a new Roman colony . Director Alexandre Astier is a notorious actor , writer , producer and filmmaker . While Louis Clichy worked at the Animation department in 2009 : Up , 2008: Burn-E and 2008 : WALL·E as an animator . The film appeal to Asterix and Obelix fans , it's a funny entertaining for kids , grown-ups and nostalgics

I have to admit that I went in with low expectations watching this movie. But loving the old classics, I wanted to give this reboot a chance.

The animation was spectacular. I really loved the director's vision of Asterix & Oberlix. The story was really cute. The ending was a bit predictable and there wasn't much to be learned about the characters or humanity in general, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Seeing the beloved characters on screen again in a fun adventure was enough for me.

I am really excited to see more!

It's always difficult to judge a sequel on objective terms as the original always carries the edge of being "unprecedented" in a way or another.

Sure "The Mansion of Gods" wasn't a newcomer as the eight animated Asterix film but it was preceded by adaptations that belonged to the lesser category and movies that -despite their success- sowed incertitude over Asterix' adaptability in the minds of many fans... until Astier came.

And I loved his film because unlike its predecessors, it didn't try to emulate Disney or Pixar trends and that was the first credit I gave to the director and writer Alexandre Astier, a comedian who proved to be as much a fan of the little Gaul as Alain Chabat and a worthy successor. And it also helped that the film was a faithful adaptation of one of the best comic-book adventures, a sedentary one with an interesting commentary on deforestation, urbanism and its effect on environment, to put it simply an ecological and social view on the march of progress from the village's perspective.

While I was hoping a second Astier movie, I didn't know there was one in preparation so it caught me totally off guard. I came, I saw the trailer and then two fears conquered me.

First, the title "The Secret of the Magic Potion" gave the first major hint: it wasn't an adaptation, while this didn't prevent "The Twelve Tasks" to be a masterpiece, I was afraid Astier would get too carried away by the previous success and go a little overboard, making the kind of stories similar to the recent albums from Uderzo. Of course, one won't expect 100% realism for a series whose narrative is driven by a magic potion but it's pretty much handled like a McGuffin and only Uderzo is blamable for having gone as far as showing people getting bigger, turned into granite and worse, cows flying in the Atlantis or Alien invasion.

The second trouble was with the voices, for non-French speakers, Roger Carel is to Asterix what Mel Blanc was to many Looney Tunes characters, that he could voice the little Gaul during a time span of 47 years was a credit to his longevity and irreplaceability. But the lone survivor of a generation of voice-actors who shaped the childhoods of millions of children retired before the release, which prompted Astier to cast Christian Clavier. It wasn't the most unwise choice as Clavier is still the best live-action version of Asterix. I didn't have any problem with his voicing especially since Astérix isn't given a central role, the real focus is Getafix who must find a heir to transmit the secret of his most famous recipe, the magic potion that give a superhuman power to its drinker, except Obelix who "fell inside where he was little".

While indispensable in the series, the magic potion has catalyzed a few adventures such as "The Golden Sickle", "The Great Crossing" and "The Black Gold" which allows many fans to know a few ingredients, beside the mistletoe and the lobster (for the flavor) there must be some fish (reasonably fresh), some black oil, ultimately replaced by beetroot juice, for a better taste and the rest lies on Getafix' unique knowledge and can only be transmitted from druid's mouth to druid's ear.

The magic potion has always been a popular trope like the French equivalent of Popeye's spinach and the expression "to fall into something as a child" (meaning being good at it from the start) or "magic potion" (meaning a secret) has entered common language in French (like so many expressions coined by Goscinny). So the initial idea was good, though the fact that it was a broken ankle that pushed Getafix to contemplate his decline was rather far-fetched. Didn't he fall after saving a bird and making stunts that could have made Disney's Tarzan yodel with jealousy? He did act like a prima-donna that was so unlike his usual venerability.

Anyway, what Getafix wants, Getafix gets. So he is escorted by Asterix and Obelix to the quest for the right successor, he sends a small herd of boars to call his 'fellow druids' for a special meeting at the Carnutes forest. And the druids part restored my confidence in Astier's humor, except for one tiny detail, not so tiny but the size of a child actually.

The first film had a cute relationship between Obelix and a Roman child, one that wasn't overplayed and didn't make an underdog hero out of the child. Of course, once the little girl pops up in a school scene, my intuition anticipated everything and accurately so, I was afraid it would another of these Moana-Frozen "chosen one" things again. First of all, she doesn't belong to the film's canon. Not that it matters but who are their parents anyway? Aren't they worried over her disappearance? It doesn't take an Asterix fan to understand what she was doing, only being aware of most family-friendly movies trends. I suspect some marketing behind that choice, it didn't have the Astier zest in it.

Overall, the film provides a nice backstory of Getafix and an interesting rival in Sulfurix, the druid who's clearly more powerful and whose only flaw is not to have invented the magic potion, his alliance with the Romans and the fact that the Gauls left the village to pick before the journey, made the climax rather predictable but I guess it was spectacular enough to make for a positive impact, maybe because there's always that self-awareness in Astier that has a certain ring to it.

So I liked it in the sense that it stayed faithful to the first film's spirit and didn't take any major deviation, I only wish it could have deviated more for some stuff we've seen in so many animated movies, especially coming from Astier...ix.