Astérix et les Vikings

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.

... but I laughed. A lot.

I saw 'Astérix et les Vikings' at a public screening during the World Cup. The sound was lousy, it was too bright to see the screen properly - but I still enjoyed myself immensely. The names of some of the characters had me rolling on the floor: Smsix, Abba, Vikea... All not very witty, but in good Astérix tradition. Some very good jokes, but also some that not everybody seemed to get.

The only thing I didn't like were the voices of Astérix and Obélix, in the German version at least. The voice actors are very well-known around here, which was the only reason they were casted, really. They don't fit the characters at all.

All in all, a good way to spend some time (and if it's free, like in my case, all the better) and to have a couple of laughs. 8 out of 10.

The animation is very good and the humor is very absurd; the plot could have been better, but it's enjoyable.

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.