Asterix in America

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.

The story isn't necessarily that bad, but it's disserved by a very poor quality production and realisation. The animation is erratic, with entire sequences copy-pasted from greater Astérix movies or even recent disney's of the time, adding a constant "deja vu" which distracts from the story. Still pleasant for kids but not much for the amateurs of Astérix or good animation. The songs are just insufferable and out of place.

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 .

Somehow it just has never quiet worked out to translate the "Asterix"-comics to the big screen. For one, the graphic novels always had an appeal for both young and old. More than being your average, "funny comic-book adventures", "Asterix" contained insight and informative, valuable facts on cultural references, language and history. Not all of those would reveal themselves to the adolescent reader, but appealed to the older crowd (generally the parents). Indeed, I dare say that the Latin which most of kids from my times learned came straight out of "Asterix". The cartoons on the other hand, perhaps with exception of the first two films, "Asterix the Gaul" and "Asterix and Cleopatra" (that caught the essence of the first album) and the psychedelic "Twelve Tasks of Asterix", clearly catered to an adolescent audience. Combining various story lines from the comics, the wit and cultural and political references were mostly been replaced with juvenile jokes and slapstick. Generally most of the Asterix-films are an amalgamation of various comics. In the case of "Asterix conquers America" the story sticks pretty close to "Asterix and the Big Crossing" (but excluding the meetings between the two Gauls with the "actual" discoverers of America, namely a bunch of Danish Vikings). The visuals are okay if you prefer computer-animations over hand-drawings (which I don't), but lack the richness in details that was typical in the graphic novels. However, the gags and jokes are so infantile and predicable, that I doubt it will raise many laughs even during a screening of some children's channel. If you never liked the cartoons, give it a miss and stick to the comics. If you enjoyed the early cartoons, it still is one of the weakest of the whole series. To those who criticize that there are some genitalia visible in the film, I'll let you in on a secret: We all have them, we've all seen them and very little ill has come from this fact. Only dirty minds think dirty things. 3 from 10 points