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Asterix and the Big Fight and Asterix and
the Soothsayer were the perfect two books to combine to make
a movie. In Asterix and the Soothsayer he is away at the Druid's
Conference at the Forest of Canutes and in Asterix and the
Big Fight he looses his mind after being hit with a menhir
as happens in this film. The combining of the plots of the
two Asterix stories works quite well but unfortunately, it
is one of only a few things that work in the films.
Asterix and the Soothsayer and Asterix and
the Big Fight are two very funny Asterix books filled with
great satire and puns. The makers of this film have mostly
scrapped all that was funny and witty and instead opted for
dumb second rate cartoon humour. No more do we see the talking
owl (its in the movie, but has no comic value relegated to
making the odd twit-whoo) and Psychoanalytix the Druid. Which
is a pity, because they were some of my favourite parts of
the book. Indeed, the entire fight of the chieftans plot is
no where to be seen making this Asterix and the not-so-big-in-actual-fact-wonder-why-they-called-it-a-fight.
The character's voices get on your nerves,
as does Getafix's incessant laughing. The only thing I liked
about the voices was the fact that the Romans had Italian
accents makes a good change from the annoying American accents
of the Gauls.
Bizarrely enough, many of the character's
names had been changed. Asterix and Obelix stayed the same
but Getafix became Vitamix, Unhygenix - Fishtix and Cacofonix
became Franksinatrix. I have no idea where the translators
pulled those names out of, as they are not the American English
translations character names and certainly not in the English
translations!
Unlike when Obelix throws his menhirs or the
flying cauldrons of Getafix, which often hit their targets,
the Musical Number (which I assume was supposed to be funny)
misses badly. Cacofonix sings (oddly enough quite well) and
the villagers accompany. The point of this I fail to see.
The effects of the deranged Getafix's Potions that is given
to the Roman Spy is absurd. He grows a dragons tail, shatters
into a million pieces, becomes a rocket, among other thoroughly
silly things.
You can tell this has been dumbed down for
the kids right from the beginning of the movie when Asterix
explains to Obelix that the Gauls are the French! For this
ultimately, is a movie that is aimed at kids although it sometimes
seems to underestimate the intelligence of its target audience.
As a kids movie its not that bad and I'm sure
younger Asterix fans will enjoy it
If you have seen the movie and would like
to add your thoughts, drop
me a line.
Carlos in a very blunt statement writes:
"Damm, that's the worst Asterix movie I ever seen,
it's nasty and too much childish'."
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