Asterix Conquers America

Asterix and Obelix are once more called upon to lay waste the Roman Legionnaires lifted from the wonderful drawings and sympathetic text by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's comic books . It is 50 bc and the Roman have just invaded Gaul and Julius Caesar has beset the region . But one little village of plucky Gauls faces off the invaders by whatever means , and especially with aid of a replete magic cauldron brewed by the powerful druid, and giving an extreme strenght . Again our friends in action , from the Gaul wars the French Village of Asterix and Obelix is still holding out supplier Getafix's recipe for their magic potion , when he is kidnapped , catapult them over the edge of the flat Earth , straight into the pipe-smoking clutches of Native Americans.

The ordinary fórmula for this seventh installment is still basically the same : the usual battles between The Gaul people and Roman military , along with a good-natured punch-up ,heavy rescue-adventure with Roman puns for adults . Of course , there appears the unfortunate pirates in distress , as always .The animation and drawings are pretty nice and while it is low on the musical count it all rushes by too fast to notice . There is also some marvelous scenes when Asterix , Obelix singing and dancing along with the Indian tribe . Apart from some questionable editing and the use of slightly watered-down colors the movie stays true to original characters . Youngsters no doubt enjoy it , but true buffs may prefer to stick with the pun-ridden books

This aceptable outing was preceded by several cartoon movies , such as : ¨Asterix the Gaul¨ (1967) , ¨The Twelve Tasks of Asterix¨ (1976) , ¨Asterix in Britain¨ (1986) , ¨Asterix and the big fight¨(1989) ,¨Asterix in America¨(1998) , ¨Asterix and the Vikings¨(2006) . 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 , Catherine Deneuve , Charlotte Le Bonn. And subsequently two 3D entries : ¨The Mansions of the Gods¨ (2014) in computer generator 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 and ¨Asterix and the secret of the magic potion¨(2018) by Alexandre Astier and Louis Clichy . The film will appeal to Asterix and Obelix fans , it's a funny entertaining for kids , grown-ups and nostalgics .

This movie is a double edged sword for me, the animation is a bit better here. However, the film is so meaningless and irrelevant.

The character design isn't anything special either. This sausage-lipped senator just looks like a real typical cartoon henchman and Cesar doesn't look like a human in this film, but like the typical cardboard villain who also laughs devilishly and rubs his hands. Make plans. All of this has nothing to do with Asterix as I got to know it The other audio track is the Schwörerdeutsch dub, everyone's talking, hip-hop slang and jive, that's such a weird idea.

But there are worse things. What I find worse is that the film gets really boring in the middle because nothing happens. The thing with the Indians could be interesting, especially since they don't understand the language, but nothing is done about it either. It's such an unpredictable, run-of-the-mill cartoon. The one that just doesn't exist.

Gets a 5 for being Astrix Looses 5 for the constant mild racism Ive been a fan of Astrix when I was introduced to it in France as a kid. The comics and cartoons were so much fun. I don't know if I was too young to see the racism or if I never actually watched this particular cartoon.

I would say please be aware of this before choosing to watch it. Maybe the others are more like I remember.

Knowing that the Druid Getafix is only one of the mighty Gauls capable of brewing the magic potion, the Romans plan to kidnap him and throw him over the edge of the world (the world, of course being flat). The Romans carry out their plan but are pursued by Asterix and Obelix. However when the edge of the world comes Asterix and Obelix don't find death – they find America and must search for Getafix before their village runs low on potion and is overrun.

In terms of story, this film takes one of the weak Asterix books and deviates from it – big mistake! The Asterix books are generally so good that to try and improve or change them for film is a bad move. The story is OK for kids though – even faithful it's pretty simple – however what it loses is the wit of the books. There are a few good lines early on, but most of this is slapstick that doesn't please anyone but young kids.

The animation is great compared to other Asterix films – this uses some nice visual tricks, the best being the opening shot of the globe that turns out to be flat and only Europe! The voices are also pretty good – Craig Charles is a pretty good Asterix once you get used to his scouse accent. Howard Lewis is not a great Obelix – but at least he isn't playing him like a fool. However Christopher Biggins is poor and the support characters are weak. Surprisingly for a mid-90's film, this is full of racist stereotypes – from rubber lipped blacks, to `ging-gang-gooley' speaking Indians.

The poor characterization also infects the main characters – for example the relationship between Asterix and Obelix is usually affectionate but here they bicker all the time and don't come across as friends.

Overall this film gets the animation just right and the voices are pretty good. It's just a real shame that the film then gets the characters, the story and the comedy very wrong. Still, it's good enough for kids.

So... "Asterix Conquers America"? Yeah right, I'm not sure that playing the Disney card will help Asterix to conquer America. Way to go, dear writers, if that's the first Asterix movie an American watches, be sure it'll be the last, too.

Indeed, you'll have more fun in any five minutes you take from "Asterix and Cleopatra" or "The Twelve Tasks" than one hour of this film. And lacking fun, or wit, is the one weakness an Asterix film can't afford. The most blatant case was the first "Asterix the Gaul" that took itself a bit seriously at the beginning, but give it a break, it was the first. This one had six movies to take inspiration from, four decades of existence, characters rooted in French Pop-Culture and more than anything, 25 albums, from which to copy paste any script.

And they still screwed it up, by adapting a book, but what a loose adaptation. The film is based on an adventure written by René Goscinny where our two heroes accidentally land in America after a misleading fishing trip (when you tell Obelix to throw the net, be sure you asked him to attach it first). The discovery of a new territory, weird but edible gobble-gobble creatures and then the first interactions (or attempts to) with the Natives was a source of countless gags and subtle anachronisms, culminating (that's the word) with a wonderful visual reference to the Statue of Liberty. And it even had a great third act in Viking territory. Some Asterix films borrowed plots from many books, but there was enough potential in "The Great Crossing".

But somewhere the writers only took America as a setting, a plot parenthesis in a rather dull and empty plot. Was it just because they really meant to conquer the American market? Or they knew Disney's "Pocahontas" will create a new interest toward Native-related films and bring some extra viewers? There's nothing substantial in the way the Natives participate to the story, which isn't saying much since the story, itself, is rather weak. Basically, the Romans kidnap the Druid Getafix because he's the one who makes the magic potion. If you pay attention, this is exactly the same set-up than the last Asterix "The Big Fight", the film even recycles the same characters and a few images, but that's not an issue, the problem is with the set-up.

The film starts in the most incongruous way, with a view on space and a progressive close-up on Earth, shown as flat as a pizza, to illustrate how the Ancients conceived the form of our planet. It's integral to the plot since, instead of putting the Druid in jail, they want to throw him at the end of the Earth. Why not? But as much as the pizza joke was funny, the film insisted so much on the Italian stereotypes that it proves one thing: either the writers never read an Asterix story or the film was mostly targeted for a German audience. After six films, never had a centurion spoke like Tony from "Lady and the Tramp" or punctuated his sentences with 'bella' and 'al dente'. That was annoying but the worst was still the big-lipped villain. Did they try to make a new Stromboli? He looked nothing like a character Uderzo (of Italian background) would draw. I don't know if I'm the only one, but the sight of that guy really turned me off.

To the story now, we have the obligatory fish-fight scene to introduce the Gallic village, fish isn't fresh but Getafix needs some for the magic potion. He sends Asterix and Obelix, gets kidnapped, but don't worry, less than ten minutes after, they'll all find themselves together in the fishing boat, landing in future America. What follows is a series of cute moments, so dry in gags, that you really don't know where this is going. The film turns into Disney-like stuff, Gauls meet Natives, even love, discover customs and sing together (and what songs!). Since the film had to fill the second act, they needed a secondary villain, the Chief sorcerer filled the box, he poisons Obelix who turns crazy (and we've got to wait for him to be cured) then kidnaps the druid and asks him to make the magic potion. The next scene is revealing of the writers' amateurship.

Getafix gives the sorcerer the recipe, naturally, he fooled him, the sorcerer hits a rock and hurts his hand. So, no growing barber or crazy effects, he didn't even think of making him sleep, he just made him angry, so angry he pulls a knife, then Getafix cries for help, well shouldn't have he anticipated that before? Basically, he did something unfunny that didn't even make sense. And this is symptomatic of the movie, you shouldn't try to focus on the plot very much, just follow the story and enjoy perhaps its one redeeming quality. Thankfully, the drawers gratified our eyes with the sexiest animated Native girl, the only superlative the film deserves. Seriously, she looks like Naomi Campbell and makes Pocahontas looks like her raccoon.

This girl was like the only significant Native of female persuasion, and no one would complain, with her vertiginous cleavage and a body honored by a few subliminal shots. Speaking of my experience, I was in my teen years when I first saw the film and I never expected a character from an Asterix film to turn me on, well, I guess that compensated for the big-lipped fatso. The Native girl, finally cures Obelix from his brief amnesia and says our friends goodbye, during a farewell song that tries too much again, what did they expect? An Oscar nomination? Anyway, our heroes come back to Gaul, and basically, the third act is just the climactic sequence of "The Big Fight"… a big fight. Great.

If that adventure proved them the Earth wasn't flat, this is sure how the film fell.