Gerhard Hahn

One of, if not the, weakest of the hand-animated series of Astérix films, but it's not terrible, just bland. And it is a shame, because the animation is nice enough, and the basic plot is decent. It is in the individual scenes the film usually falls short, rushing through the dialogue and rarely daring to let a joke sit (and when they do, it is the weaker ones), and peppering bad jokes into scenes that are supposed to raise the stakes and be ominous, rather than daring to let them be properly tense and scary.

But there are redeeming moments. Caesar's in-disguise declaration at the prompt "Who goes there?" ("A barrel, you fool!") is stuck in my head nearly twenty years after first seeing the film, and the main villain's odd vascillation between nervous toady (around Caesar) and supreme self-confidence (everywhere else) is rather delightful. The pirates are always fun, and the brevity of their appearances are part of the comedy to me (they barely get introduced before their ship is sunk at this point in the film series, and I find that hilarious). Obélix' easy assumption that the feather-wearing American natives are Romans disguised as turkeys is brilliant, though sadly an example of the type of joke that's there and gone in the blink of an eye. And the pun-heavy, yet serious, narrator voice is a highlight -- the film would have benefitted from matching that tone more frequently in the actual scenes and dialogue.

All in all a film I only own due to completism and nostalgia, but again, it's not terrible. You're just better served watching virtually any other hand-animated film in the franchise.… (altro)