When the Roman soldiers are defeated yet again, a rumour starts that the Gauls must be gods of some sort. Eager to find out the truth, Cesar challenges them to complete 12 tasks just as Hercules once did. If they pass all 12 then he will concede they must be gods and will leave them in peace. Asterix and Obelix are selected to complete the tasks and set out with a Roman administrator to record the tasks.
Although some of the little tasks in this bitty film are imaginative and funny (the admin one for example), the majority of this film is deeply flawed. The first few tasks are rubbish but some of them get better as they go. The administration one starts out very imaginative but gets silly in the style of the rest of the film. The humour here is not the witty stuff of the books but noisy childish stuff that I simply didn't find very funny. The fragmented nature of the plot should have made it easy to have some tasks be slapstick and others be very smart, but instead it goes for an unfunny sort of jaunty humour that doesn't work.
The actors hurt the film more than I could have imagined. I relate this to the English version of the film, perhaps the other languages had better actors more suited to the roles, but the English one is awful - I though Craig Charles was not a good Asterix until I saw this film! All the voices are very whiney and nasal and simply do not suit any of the characters - Asterix and Obelix in particular are just plain wrong and that little admin may have been amusing for about two seconds but after a while his voice simply grates. The boring and poorly cast voices serve to make the film feel deadly dull and humourless; they really sucked the life out of it.
Overall this film has a few moments but generally it is poor. The animation and music are far to round, colourful, cheerful and lacking any precision or wit. The humour is far to basic to bear the name Asterix and all in all this is a fairly painful film for all but young kids and Asterix fans who have the patience and grace of a saint.
Although some of the little tasks in this bitty film are imaginative and funny (the admin one for example), the majority of this film is deeply flawed. The first few tasks are rubbish but some of them get better as they go. The administration one starts out very imaginative but gets silly in the style of the rest of the film. The humour here is not the witty stuff of the books but noisy childish stuff that I simply didn't find very funny. The fragmented nature of the plot should have made it easy to have some tasks be slapstick and others be very smart, but instead it goes for an unfunny sort of jaunty humour that doesn't work.
The actors hurt the film more than I could have imagined. I relate this to the English version of the film, perhaps the other languages had better actors more suited to the roles, but the English one is awful - I though Craig Charles was not a good Asterix until I saw this film! All the voices are very whiney and nasal and simply do not suit any of the characters - Asterix and Obelix in particular are just plain wrong and that little admin may have been amusing for about two seconds but after a while his voice simply grates. The boring and poorly cast voices serve to make the film feel deadly dull and humourless; they really sucked the life out of it.
Overall this film has a few moments but generally it is poor. The animation and music are far to round, colourful, cheerful and lacking any precision or wit. The humour is far to basic to bear the name Asterix and all in all this is a fairly painful film for all but young kids and Asterix fans who have the patience and grace of a saint.