Astérix et Cléopâtre

Enjoyable cartoon movie with original story based on the hugely successful series of comic books and featured by our immortals heroes . Asterix books are a popular comics with the same title about a village of indomitable Gauls who resist Caesar's invasion thanks to a magic potion that renders them invulnerable supermen . The year is 50 Bc. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Roman.Well,not entirely..One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders.and life is not easy for the Roman legionaries who garrison the fortified camps .In the village are our friends : ¨Asterix¨,the hero of this adventure,he's a shrewd,cunning little warrior,all perilous missions are immediately entrusted to him. ¨Obelix¨ his inseparable friend,he's a Menhir delivery-man by trade and addicted to wild boar,he's always ready to drop everything and go off on a new adventure with Asterix,so long as there's wild boar to eat, and plenty of fighting. ¨Panoramix¨,the venerable village druid, gathers mistletoe and brews magic potions,his speciality is the potion which gives the drinker superhuman strength although also has other recipes up his sleeve.¨Abraracurcix¨,the chief of the tribe,majestic,brave and hot-tempered,the old warrior is respected by his enemies,he has only one fear,he's afraid the sky may fall on his head tomorrow,but as he always says,'Tomorrow never comes'. And of course ¨Cacofonix¨,the Bard,opinion is divided as to his musical gifts,he thinks he's a genius,everyone else thinks he's unspeakable,but so long as he doesn't speak,let alone sing,everybody likes him..... Meanwhile the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra bets against the Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar, that her people are still great, even if the times of the Pharaohs has long passed. She vows to build a fabulous palace for Caesar within a short period of time. Since all her architects are either busy otherwise or too conservative in style, this ambivalent honor falls to a botcher architect. He is to build the palace and be covered in gold or, if not, his fate is to be eaten by crocodiles. Then the Egyptian architect calls upon an old friend to help him out: The magician Druid Panoramix from Gaul, who brews a fantastic potion that gives supernatural strength. In order to help and protect the old Druid, Asterix and Obelix accompany him on his journey to Egypt. En route to Egypt, the ship is met by a gang of pirates , and as always the pirate vessel is sunk .When Julius Caesar gets wind of the project succeeding, he has the building site attacked by his troops in order to win the bet and not lose face. But just like the local pirates, he hasn't counted on Asterix and Obelix .

This is a fine adventure with hilarious moments here and there, and has Asterix and his inseparable friend Obelix traveling to ancient Egypt to help Cleopatra build a fantastic palace and fighting, as always, against the stupid Romans , pirates and an ambitious architect. Although contains a primitive drawing , however being better developed than former entry ¨Asterix the Gaul¨ , both of them produced by Raymond Leblanc. It contains some customs critical about actual way of life and modern anachronisms that's common thing in comic books . The cartoon movie brilliantly captures the outrageous adventures, tongue in cheek, satire, comedy from original story with the same title and drawn by Albert Uderzo and writing credits by Rene Goscinny . This amusing movie is accompanied to lively musical score by Gerard Calvi with a catching leitmotif on the start and the ending. Full of humor , it's a funny entertaining for kids and grown-ups . The picture will appeal to popular animated hero Asterix and his faithful sidekick Obelix fans and comic-books nostalgics. A successful, funny adaptation from a great comic book.

My kiddos loved the first Asterix movie, so I quickly picked this up on ebay: one again, a "version remasterisée" on blu ray with excellent quality picture and clear sound, the original English dubbing. Surprisingly, although they are both interested in ancient Egypt, they liked this one less than the first and the third movies. By far their favorite part, and very much in keeping with the series' farcical spirit, is the introduction, in which one of the Egyptian characters (the troubled architect) mimes hieroglyphics as "natural" language (e.g. Sounds of animals and environmental features) rather than human natural language: part of his apology that the dubbing (of Egyptian, apparently, not French!) will be off sequence with the lip movements of the animated characters. How's that for metatheatrics?

OK: I'll admit it. I don't remember all of the details of the story any more. But this movie was one of my favourite Asterix movies. It is based on the Asterix comic of the same title (the 2nd or 3rd one in the series, I believe), and it contains the one moment that I, a big Obelix fan, have always been waiting for.... I won't spoil it, but it's been the best bit of the movie for me.

Also, it contains such a remarkable nose...

Funny and enjoyable, one of the better Asterix cartoons and movies.

When an argument between Caesar and Cleopatra over Egyptian ability turns into a bet, an architect is charged to build a palace for Caesar. The architect turns to Getafix, Asterix and Obelix to help him with the construction. However with a rival architect and the Roman empire seeking to stop Caesar losing the bet Asterix et al have more on their hands than they reckoned for.

The story is yet again faithful to the book, even opening and closing on the original cartoon itself. It doesn't manage to bring all the jokes out of the book as it could have done but it is still pretty good. The animation is solid and stays close to the source in style.

The characters are quite good, however their voices sound the same at times and don't match their roles too well – Obelix sounds less dopey this time but Asterix still sounds too squeaky. The downside, watching it now, is that the racist stereotypes are really crude – the black characters are dark with huge rubber lips. But I suppose at the time nothing was thought of it and we should take it in the spirit it was intended.

The musical numbers are OK –there aren't too many so the film isn't slowed down. The bets one is a sort of warning against anorexia with the lines `If you're off your food, you're ill' and `when you're eating well you're well'!

Overall it's not brilliant, but it's a faithful adaptation of the book and manages to bring some of the wit and charm of the characters out.

This is probably one of the best French animated films to date. It surely is the best of all Asterix movies since its story holds more together than any of the others. Its comic parts are many, but they are not ridiculous as many found in the others. On the cover of the book there was this motto: "The Greatest Story Ever Drawn". Surely it says right. Although much of the animation seems to have been inspired by 20th Century Fox's "Cleopatra" (1963), still it is full of originality. There is never a dull moment - it is entertainment from beginning to end.