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  Twelve Tasks of Asterix, The Herculean Efforts
Year: 1976
Director: René Goscinny, Albert Uderzo, Pierre Watrin
Stars: Roger Carel, Pierre Tornade, Jacques Morel, Henri Labussière, Jean Martinelli, Pascal Mazzotti, Lawrence Reisner, Claude Dasset, Roger Lumont, Gérard Hernandez, Henri Virlojeux, Nicole Vervil, Jacques Hilling, Henri Poirier, Mary Mongourdin
Genre: Comedy, Animated, Fantasy, AdventureBuy from Amazon
Rating:  6 (from 1 vote)
Review: Here in the land of Gaul, when it was mostly forest and the Romans had control over the whole territory, there was a sole village holding out against the Empire. This was where Asterix (voiced by Roger Carel) lived, a famed warrior who went into frequent battle with his comrades against the Roman encampments surrounding them, and all because their druid Getafix had cooked up a magic potion which gave them incredible strength. Only one of the villagers was not allowed to partake of the concoction, and that was menhir salesman Obelix (Pierre Tornade), because he had fallen in the cauldron when he was a baby - but will the potion get them out of this fresh predicament?

Asterix is a French comic book phenomenon with popularity reaching across the globe, so it was natural that its creators, René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, would want to branch out into filmmaking to adapt their originals into cartoon features. Previous to this one they had brought Asterix and Cleoptara to the big screen in the late sixties, but for this their Idefix studio looked for a story that was not based on one of the books, and opted for an original script. Directing it themselves, as presumably if anyone knew how to translate their characters to the movies it was them, the result might not have been considered canon otherwise, as those familiar with the source might have been noting where this diverged from the comics to better fit an eighty minute narrative.

That narrative is really very simple and lacked some of the wit and intricacy of the originals, yet did prove satisfying to the fans, even the ones with misgivings about the tinkering the format had taken. As the title suggests, Asterix and Obelix are set twelve tasks by Julius Caesar in the pattern of the Roman myth of Hercules, and all to ensure that the Gauls are not better than their supposed conquerors. The Romans have got it into their heads that if the Gauls have these magic powers, then they might well be on the level with Gods, which would mean that by all rights they should be the ruling class. As usual Rome is contrasted with the far less pretentious Gauls in a comic manner that nevertheless presents a support for the little guy against state bureaucracy, nowhere seen more clearly than in one of the tasks being for Asterix to secure the form necessary to complete the following task.

It's a nice change for a film that stresses the physical over the intellectual, but Asterix can be wily when it suits him. The other tasks rely on feats of strength such as beating the fastest athlete in Rome or facing a German karate expert, but Obelix gets into the act as well with the eating challenge where he scoffs everything from a wild boar (naturally) to a camel and an elephant without losing his appetite. Elsewhere the plucky duo see their bravery tested as they face a terrifying beast (which we do not see, for some reason) or a whole legion of ghosts, and there's a spoof of television advertising when we were expecting an insoluble riddle. Most of this is pretty broad stuff, but it does stay true to the spirit of the comics, excusing the more fanciful aspects with a final gag which tells us that because this is a film, anything can happen, and then goes on to illustrate precisely that. Music by Gérard Calvi.

Aka: Les douze travaux d'Astérix
Reviewer: Graeme Clark

 

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