Astérix & Obélix contre César

This film is a genuinely brilliant live-action translation of an (arguably) unfilmable classic comic book series... Claude Zidi's writing and direction are top notch, and the main characters as played by Clavier and Depardieu work extremely well.

The English translation, on the other hand, is awful. When I saw the film in England having already watched it in France, I was, frankly, embarrassed! Terry Jones relies too much on direct translations and gags that don't fit... perhaps they should have used Bell and Hockeridge, the hugely talented translators of the actual books. Oh well.

I definitely recommend the film, though, albeit only in the original French. Don't worry if you don't speak a word of the language; you'll soon pick up what's going on, without the experience being spoiled by the abysmal English dubbing.

This was a film I was curious about. My childhood has fond memories of the adventures of the brave little Gaul and his pals. This film was perfect in capturing those memories.

The essence of the film seems to be fun. In fact this one of a few films I would dubb a family movie. All ages can view this and come away with something. Personally the slapstick humour I enjoyed. Also the dub for English translation was excellent, hats off to Mr Jones.

The one bad point, and this is a minor point, is that the film is actually four books mixed together. If you know the books you can have a good idea about whats coming up, which is a bit unfortionate. An original script may have served the film better.

However overall it proved to be entertaining. May that little village in Gaul always remain free.

I thought this movie was a fairly good adaptation of the work by Uderzo and Goscinny. Of course, the comic books are better and I would read one album probably 10 times before seeing this movie again. But still, this film was entertaining and fun to watch.

The acting was good by Depardieu and Clavier (who's also playing in Les Visiteurs) and Roberto Benigni was very good as the Roman soldier. I also liked Michel Galabru as the chief of the Gaulois. I really like this actor that I came to know after watching the whole series of «Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez» with Louis de Funès, the great French actor.

Two things to end this review. First, the special effects, in this day and age, could have been a lot better. Second, the movie is lacking the subtlety that the comic books have. Verdict: on the way to the video store, stop at the library and get the comic books too. Compare for yourself.

Out of 100, I gave it 75.

Critics, in France and Quebec, have been very hard on this movie. They all compare the film to the excellent comic books of the adventures of Astérix and Obélix. It's the same old story for any movie adapted from a book : the book will always be better! That's right: Astérix is not as charming as in the books, and some characters (Falbala) are there for... well... what for? Some of the characters of the books are missing in the movie: Cétautaumatix and Ordralfabetix. But for just good entertainment, this is a good movie! It reminds me a little bit of the Flinstone movie : better in cartoons (or comic strips) but not so bad at all. When I saw the movie, I noticed that people really loved Roberto Benigni, because of his succes in the Life is wonderful movie. Children of the audience love the movie, I have lots of fun, so, what's really wrong?

At the end of the day it's not a film for introducing one's kids to Astérix - buy the comic books for that. It's more a capture of the flavour of the Astérix books for those of us adults who remember them with affection, and who consequently aren't concerned overly with details of plot or characterisation. In fact Astérix and Obélix are woefully under-characterised from the start of the film. If you don't know that Obélix's trade is in quarrying menhirs, then the joke about the heart-shaped menhir for Panacea (Laetitia Casta) is likely to fall flat. But those of us who know and love the characters already are going to enjoy it.

One reason for not showing it to your kids would be that there is the occasional crudity in the language - in my view utterly unnecessary, and against the practice of the comic books - at least the English translations of same.

One of the joys of the English translations of the books was the pains taken by the translators to include jokes specifically for the English, particularly in character's names, eg the chief is called VitalStatistix, the druid is called GetAFix, Caius Bonus becomes Crismus Bonus, etc. Terry Jones has happily continued this tradition, although it's a shame that he didn't do more, as it seems to me that movie script rather emphasised silly japes and slapstick over the wonderful wit of the comic books.

Dèpardieu is an absolute revelation as Obélix (and in the English version, splendidly dubbed by Terry Jones himself).