Astérix et les Vikings

I have known for a long time that France has its own animation industry, but I'd never seen examples of it before. I chose this movie to be my first look at "Franimation", because I am an Asterix fan - I've read almost all of the books, including the one this movie is based on.

Overall, I was pleased with this movie. First, the animation. While the animation may not quite match Disney theatrical movies, it comes close. The movement is fluid, the colors pop out of the screen, and the backgrounds are detailed.

As for the story, it was overall fine. The movie does follow the book about halfway through, then goes in its own direction. Probably this was a wise decision, because the second half of the book is mostly talk. In this movie, there is more action and slapstick in the second half, and it's more cinematic. The whole story zips along at a good pace and contains plenty of action and laughs.

My one criticism of the movie is that the characters of Asterix and Obelix - the principle characters of the books - become secondary characters here. It seems odd to have Asterix in the title of the movie. One other criticism other viewers might have is that, if they are unfamiliar with the books, some details may be a little puzzling.

Having been a faithful Asterix fan all of my life, I have to say that "Asterix and the Vikings" is probably the most well done of all the Asterix films. Its got some very funny jokes in it and the animation is superb. As many people have pointed out, it doesn't really follow the plot of the comic ("Asterix and the Normans") very closely, but in many ways that's just as well, because that book stands out in my mind as one which poked a great deal of fun at the culture of the sixties, and much of it is very dated today.

What really rubbed me the wrong way, though, is how they incorporated a Disney-style plot into the film which took much of the focus away from Asterix and Obelix. We have a misunderstood boy who doesn't fit in, Justforkix. We have a tom-boy girl who doesn't fit in because she wants to be treated as equal to men, Abba. They meet and fall in love, but their love is threatened because boy is ashamed to be totally honest with girl, but in the end their love wins out. This has been the plot of so many Disney (and, be fair, other studios too) films that its not funny and the plot was old twenty years ago. I mean, they even gave Justforkix a whimsical animal sidekick.

Not only did I find this derivative and clichéd, but it really detracted from the story and left me dissatisfied.

I think that it speaks volumes about how superb the rest of the movie was that I still think very highly of it, despite the way the plot got hijacked.

Attending this film was an excuse to escape the work I had to do for my classes but it turned out to be one of my best experiences here in France. The film makes quick work of building multidimensional characters and has an excellently smooth storyline. The characters really did have the voices you would expect reading the graphic novels and the artistic talent exceeded my expectations The music was catchy and the comedy toying and lighthearted, almost a flinstoneish inclusion of modern items in playful manners. The film was attention grabbing, cute and action packed at the same time. A wonderful tale spun expertly. I'll be showing it to my French students.

Since the last horrid Astérix film and the fact that we only get the Swiss German version in cinemas, here, I went to watch it with quite a bit of trepidation... Unfounded, as I was happy to discover ^____^

The film is funny and modern, has good gags, a good animation, an amusing character interaction, a good voice cast (Note: I can only speak for the Swiss German one!) except for the Viking chief's daughter Abba (her name is great, despite the not very inspired voice actress)...

I especially liked the character Justforkix (Goudurix in French, Grautvornix in German. He's the young man who is supposed to be put in shape...). He's a very amusing portrayal of a mollycoddled, urban teenager; but he's very likable, despite the teenage mannerisms... XD The interaction between Astérix & Obélix and their young charge is fantastic and thoroughly entertaining.

It shouldn't be compared to the old films, since this one is quite different... Which surprisingly doesn't make it bad. On the contrary. When they tried to modernize the last film (twelve years ago), they completely blew it. This film, however, proved that it can be done just fine... ^-^

I came out of the theater cheerful... Always a good sign ^_~

Based on Goscinny/Uderzo's "Astérix et les Normands" published in 1967, this movie roughly follows the plot of the cartoon book,but it introduces new characters :Grossebaf's daughter,Abba (a good innovation) ,a wicked viking and his muscle man half-wit offspring,and Goudurix's father.Another significant difference is that the album was called "Astérix ET (=and) Les Normands" and the heroes did not leave their village .Half of the flick takes place in the Vikings'land.The part of the bard ,Assurancetourix,which was prominent in the album , is reduced to the bare minimum,although it's finally he who...

It's pleasant to watch ,but it lacks the puns,the anachronisms,the word games ,in a nutshell,it lacks the magic the albums would bring when we used to read them in the sixties (the best Asterix albums were made in the sixties and early seventies) But the biggest mistake is the music:"eye of the tiger' is bad taste in that context ;the rest of the score is fake disco/funk and the last song and its "moral" so unbearable it's an insult to Goscinny's extraordinary sense of humor!Sorry but Elton John did much better with his "lion king" music.