Asterix Live Action Movie

[Thom_Serveaux]

I've been on a bit of a nostalgia trip of late, In particular regarding the french comic series form the 60's known as  'Asterix the Gaul'.  I came across a copy of 'Asterix in Switzerland' when I was stationed in Germany back in '85, and absolutely fell in love with it!  This past month I've purchased a cd-rom with all 41 books on it, as well as a PS2 videogame, 'Asterix and Obilex Kick Buttix'...

But for now, I'm here to discuss the first of the live-action movies which I also pick up recently, 'Astérix et Obélix contre César' a.k.a. 'Asterix and Obilex Against Cesar

IMDb only gave it a 5.2 out of 10, but any fan of the comics should enjoy it as much as I did.  Needless to say, adapting any cartoon/comic into a live action feature is tricky, but perhaps a bit easier when the source is 60% slapstick and 30% wordplay, with about 10% set design/costumes (which were fabulous)

Most noteable were of course Gérard Depardieu, who was fantastic as Obilex, Roberto Benigni as Lucius Detritus a roman governor, who, when he learns of the magic potion, decides it may well be time for 'a regime change'.  I am not all that familiar with Christian Clavier, who portrays Asterix, but he seems up to the task.  Last but certainly not least, is Laetitia Casta, as Falbala (Parafanalia /Panacea) as Obilex's unrequited love interest.

My biggest concern, was being able to recreate the visual effect of the Romans being knocked into the stratosphere, as in the comics.   Fortunately, that went off without a hitch...

[BathTub]

Actually I've been a fan of Asterix all my life, it's pretty common book series over here. And I have been interested in seeing the Live Action films ever since I heard of them, but I have never come across them locally.

And that sounds like a very dodgey CD.

[mrbasehart]

I've seen that Asterix movie.  My copy had lousy dubbing, but I quite liked it.  I believe they made a sequel, Asterix and Cleopatra (I forget the proper name) - with the gorgeous Monica Belucci as Cleopatra.

[Tripe]

I love Asterix, I've got all the books and have seen all the animations but I've never seen the live action films.

Curses can't even find them on netflix!

[Chaos]

You know what to do when you can't find a movie locally or through netflix... "toe rent"

The pirate has it.

[Thom_Serveaux]

@ BathTub and TripleHound Redux:  Well I found it on Ebay.  t of course was a French production, but this particular DVD was distributed by a company in S Korea originally, which may or may not be the reason for the occasionally spotty subtitles.  Even so It so captures the spirit and flavor of the books (cheesy) that I can overlook it. 

My favorite part was near the end of the movie, when the Romans get a hold of the potion, and Asterix, Obelix, and Getafix have to visit the druids' father (who's pushing at least 200) for a way to enhance the original potion recipe.  Thus enterth the Deus Ex Machina: The milk from a Two-Headed Unicorn   This version of the potion not only makes you super strong, but creates a clone of yourself.  This allows for them to create about a dozen or more 'bubble clones' (clones that look act and sound just like the original, but afte the ten minuite time limit is up, they turn into bubbles and disappear.) Anyway, Asterix, Ohbilex, and the 'clones' are even stronger than the enhanced Romans, and a rout ensues.  Then we see Obilex give  Parafanalia(Panacea) a bit of the enhanced potion, creating a clone of her, and true to form, he's too shy, even with the clone to say much of anything, and just as he leans over to get a kiss, the time limit expires, and the bubbly little clone of Panacea disapperas

So it ain't Shakespear, then again neither were the books. IMHO It falls into a similar comedy niche that has The Marx Bros, The Three Stooges, and yes even MST3K and at times RifTrax, which is why I'm not surprised that there are forum members that know of it, and appreciate it...

@mrbaseheart: Yeah like I mentioned above, the subtitles on mine could be a bit dodgey at times as well, I still maintain that this was due perhaps to the fact that you had Koreans trying to translate French into English...  

..and yes you are correct about the second movie

[BathTub]

Heh I think coming from South (downtown ) Korea almost guarentees that it's dodgey.

I still have most of my asterix books actually, some of the very few that survived my severe culling earlier this year.

[Tripe]

I always liked them better than Tintin, although I still like those to some degree, which reminds me I need to find so images from Tintin in the Congo to post on the politically incorrect images thread.

[BathTub]

Oh very much a fan of tintin as well, pretty sure I have read almost all of them.

Billions of Blistering Blue Barnacles!

Just never owned any tintin books.

[Tripe]

Oh I owned them all (still do) just never read them anywhere near as much as the Asterix ones.

[Ranika]

I used to own every Asterix comic, but some of them were stolen out of a friend's car once, along with a bunch of CDs, as they were together in a napsack in the back of the car that was pinched. Pity. I need to get Asterix and the Goths and Asterix in Britain again still. Fantastically funny stuff for what it is.

[BBQ Platypus]

Coming in the summer of 2009:

Asterix: The Barry Bonds Story