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    Astérix: Le domaine des dieux

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    Over the years I’ve seen many adaptations of the “Astérix et Obélix” books by Uderzo and Goscinny and as far as animated ones go, this is one of the better, if not the best one. It perfectly captures the look and feel of the story while adding enough material to make it fit into a full-length feature running time. What really surprised me was that despite the fact that what we’ve got here is a CG animated film, it really looks like the 2-D illustrations that have brought the characters to life over the years.

    All of Gaul has been conquered by the Roman Empire. All of it? Not quite. One single lonely village stands still defiant against Cesar. Because of a magic potion brewed by their druid Panoramix (Bernard Alane) the Gauls are able to easily defeat any army sent against them. This time however, César has come up with a much more subtle plan. Determined to assimilate their culture into Rome’s, he engages Anglaigus (Lorànt Deutsch) to build a luxurious apartment building just outside the village. While most of the villagers are easily swayed by the glamour of the new culture, Astérix (Roger Carel) and Obélix his best friend (Guillaume Briat) have to find a means to save their way of life.

    This is a terrific looking picture. As far as I could tell, the entire production was made in France, which means the studio didn’t necessarily have the power that your Pixars, BlueSkys or Dreamworks do, but you can’t tell. The environments are lush, there are nice little details in the backgrounds, and the characters are lively and have weight to them. I was astounded to see how well the drawings of Albert Uderzo were translated into these 3-D models. It shows me that the people in charge weren’t just making a cash grab of a movie; they wanted to take this prized property, one of the most popular comics from Europe and bring it to life. I also thought the voice acting was good (I’ve always liked Roger Carel as Astérix) and as an adaptation of the book, this works quite well.

    It’s been, I’ll admit it, far too long since I’ve read this story myself. From what I can remember, little, if anything has been omitted and the material that has been added helps keep the film afloat for the entire running time while giving a couple of nice emotional moments with Obélix. I thought the story was quite strong (this of course comes from the source material) and clever as well. We all know that there’s no physical threat that could ever hope to topple Astérix and the rest of the villagers, so this idea of having a more sneaky tactic to take them down is terrific. There were moments where I really was wondering how they were going to get out of this jam. The last thing I expected was to find some genuine tension here but there I was, genuinely nervous at the idea that our heroes might not make it out ok in the end because I couldn’t think of a way for them to escape this trap set up by César. I think any good film based on a book should inspire you to check out the source material and I have a new itch to scratch after having finished “Astérix et le domaine des dieux”.

    I only have a small criticism of the film, and even then it’s more of a personal pet peeve than anything. I found the picture merciless in its pacing. If you’re not familiar with these characters, the picture just jumps right in regardless. There’s no short sequence at the beginning where they tell you who is who or what their relationships are and I wish there had been one. I realize that there have been many films about these characters made over the years and that the novels are known worldwide, but I feel like it’s a missed opportunity because a lot of the children I saw in the audience probably struggled to remember some of the more complicated names such as Abraracourcix or Assurancetourix. Additionally, and this one is even more of a pet peeve, this is very much a French film made for the people of France. My first language is French but there were often times where the dialogue was whizzing by so quickly that I missed some of the jokes, or the gags were about some French historical character that I simply didn’t get. Once again, that’s my problem, not this movie’s. I’m just giving you some information that I think is going to be relevant if you’re thinking of checking this one out (and I recommend that you do) I feel like I would have laughed a lot more and a lot harder if I had been able to catch every single little joke in the dialogue because this is a sharply written, very smart film. Don’t let the fact that it’s based off of a comic book, or that the characters are all goofy-looking lead you to believe that you’re going to find juvenile humour here.

    I really enjoyed “Astérix et le domaine des dieux” and I would really like to watch it again so that I could get even more of the jokes and catch even more of the little details the next time around. If you’ve never read any of the books, I’d recommend that you pick up a couple and read them to get a sense of who the characters are before you check out this movie (they’re terrific so you won’t mind spending the time reading) If you are a fan, I think you’ll be delighted. (Original French version on the big screen, May 18, 2015)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  13.6.2015 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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