"Astérix le Gaulois" or "Asterix the Gaul" or "Asterix der Gallier" or just "Asterix" is a co-production between Belgium and France from 1967, so the outcome here will have its 55th anniversary next year already. The original is in the French language of course, but this has been translated and dubbed in many, many other languages. I'd also say it is accurate I mentioned the German title here early on because the only bit of awards recoognition mentioned here on imdb for this one is from Germany, namely that the film won the Golden Screen here in my country and that is an award for movies that reach extremely high amounts of movie-goers. Winnetou did the same, Bud Spencer films as well and of course many others. As for this one here, it is interesting to see that it happened almost a decade after this film was released in France and Belgium, even if the release date for West Germany was considerably earlier. Oh well, maybe it just took this long for them to reach the relevant number. In any case, if we can trust figures here on imdb, the sequel about Asterix and the gang in Egypt managed the Golden Screen before this first film. But this first film here was enough of a success for them to come up with the sequel immediately afterwards with not even one year in-between if we are looking at the release dates for France. But yeah, it seems true indeed that this one here came out in 1971 in West Germany and the Cleopatra film in 1970s already, so not the chronological order.
The two big names attached to this project are of course Goscinny and Uderzo with the former dying way too early and the latter reaching a really high age dying in 2020, not even a year ago. Still with this one here, they also had more help than usual to make sure this is getting the right approach because by then, they were still a lot more about writing than about filmmaking. For example, Ray Goossens is credited here as the only director, while in the sequel for example G&U took care of that themselves and Goossens was already a fairly experienced director by then with his work (long) before that. There are also no less than three additional writers credited here, none of them really known and all we know is that one of them died a pretty untimely death sadly. Anyway, this film here is really very short and stay comfortably under the 70-minute mark. It seems as if Goscinny and Uderzo really had all the options what to do with that and how to turn their book into a movie. I do think this film could have been longer though. Honestly, I think it even should have and that is maybe my key criticism here for this movie. It felt extremely rushed at times and there was just too much story and contents for a film this short. Take the introduction to all the characters, but take most of all what happens with the Roman spy in the protagonists' village and also all that happens afterwards when the action moves to the villains' headquarter. Also it felt a bit to me as if this film was not as much about Asterix as you could think from the title. I mean his grit and wit are crucial here, but in terms of screen time, he is not the one and only lead. Maybe the druid even has more. I did not count. I will just call him that and not include the French or German name, so you know what I mean no matter where you're from. Some of the names really differ strongly from country to country. Oh, but I can mention Obelix/Obélix because his name is always the same I believe. Maybe because he is as big as an obelisk? Never thought about that. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that Obelix is barely in this movie, especially in the second half and the moments he has are also not the brightest, like when he jokes about Asterix having taken care of "only" four Roman soldiers early on or also what he has to say about the spy when he mocks him and that he does not look at all like some spy when said spy talks about how the Romans are so scared because of his wit.
Anyway, one thing that came to my mind while watching was really that it is literally the book brought to the screen. I mean it makes sense. The book was a huge success and it was a comic book of course and there is a visual element already and they adapted it effortlessly into moving pictures. But it's also true about the story and individual scenes. Take the spy's whining when the druid does not want to tell his secret, take the feather tickling, take the druid's words on the ingredients he needs for the potion and how they alter the taste. I am rather talking about the lobster here than about the strawberries, even if the latter have a bigger impact story-wise. Fun little inclusion though, also how we find out as a consequence that every Roman soldier is glad to be out and allowed to see the circus. In Paris it was I think. Or Lutetia. And also that the French are living in peace there with the Romans. Or of course how Obelix is not allowed any magic potion. Or that there is a magic potion even. We learn about the entire background in this film, so it was a bit of a weird decision to show this film after another here in Germany. At least quality-wise it makes sense. I do think the Cleopatra sequel is superior to this one here. The reason is mostly that the story here is not the best. The part with the potion resulting in massive hair growth, oh well, it wasn't bad, but nowhere near Asterix's best by any means. My favorite is still the film that includes all the challenges. Anyway, Caesar is in all these films, but he is always more of an observing power on the villain side than really the key antagonist. Here for example he is grateful to the Gauls because they made it known to him there was some kind of revolt going or at least that some of these high-profile Roman soldiers had plans that were not the plans Caesar had. Speaking of hair, pay attention to how Caesar with his black hair here looks really young compared to the other movies. A bit of a glimpse because he is really the one and only character that aged considerably between the first and second film or who has real age references included. In my favorite film, the one I mentioned earlier, he also somehow decides to retire after Asterix and Obelix finish all these challenges with success if I remember correctly.
So you see, there Obelix is a truly crucial part of the team and this one here certainly could have needed more of the big ginger fella. But here he was really just the simple and strong dude whose comedic potential was not used one bit. As a consequence, his little dog (Idefix) was also pretty much absent throughout the entire film. As for the voice acting, I cannot say too much about the French original, only that Carel is much more famous than Morel, which makes sense because Asterix was more of the center of the story. Exactly the other way around than in the live action films with Depardieu being the big name and Asterix is played by several actors. Anyway, another thing to say here is that we even have (at least) one voice actor do several characters. Something that is very uncommon today, at least if we are talking feature films and not stuff like The Simpsons or South Park. You can also take a look at The Wizard of Oz (just an example) to see how it was not uncommon at all for one actor to take character of several characters, even in live action back then. Alright, we are drifting a bit away now, so back to this one here: As I probably made clear now, I am not a huge fan of the outcome here, but it still had fun moments for sure. And even those who do not like it too much cannot deny how muchof a trailblazer it was for the film sthat followed immediately afterwards, but also for those much later. I mean there have been new animated Asterix films not too long ago with a completely different style and I think there's still new books being released. I really wanna read all of them at some point (again).
So this film is a bit of a gem that still needed some polishing and it happened with the following films in the 1960s and 1970s. I want to continue a bit about the voice acting in the German version. Frank Zander, a musician who is still alive today, was in charge of Asterix and Günter Pfitzmann, who died almost two decades ago, did Obelix's voice, but I think they were added in some later versions, so not sure they were already in charge back then in the 1960s/1970s. The movie was not really clear on that during the credits. One thing I quite enjoyed here was the music. It was always fun and kinda playful and the Asterix main theme is just super catchy and no surprise at all that it is still used nowadays for new movies. As for the animation, ou must keep in mind this is the 1960s, so you should not expect Pixar level, but I liked it. It had charm and felt smooth. As for the funny moments, I could mention a lot here, even if it's not the same amount as in later releases. The strawberry scene was good already, but also for example how the singer is ousted as aways. Or how the soldiers who got beaten up by the spy cannot wait to have their revenge. The humor here was definitely a bit on the politically incorrect side and also a bit harsh as you can see from the comments about cutting the fella open to get the magic potion. But then again, it is very family friendly as we see for example by the words used from that Gaul kid running around and saying what she (I think it was a girl or Obelix in tiny) would like to do with the Romans. As for reasons of logics and how it all made sense, I think we can go easy on the makers here with the magic potion at the center of it all. It is a historic fantasy film if you want to call it that. Only one thing stays a bit memorable for me for all the wrong reasons, namely how they basically treated the Gaul hostages when that hair restorer was in full force. A bit more threatening or violence or torture would have been accurate. But even there we had decent moments. All in all, a good watch. Go check it out.
The two big names attached to this project are of course Goscinny and Uderzo with the former dying way too early and the latter reaching a really high age dying in 2020, not even a year ago. Still with this one here, they also had more help than usual to make sure this is getting the right approach because by then, they were still a lot more about writing than about filmmaking. For example, Ray Goossens is credited here as the only director, while in the sequel for example G&U took care of that themselves and Goossens was already a fairly experienced director by then with his work (long) before that. There are also no less than three additional writers credited here, none of them really known and all we know is that one of them died a pretty untimely death sadly. Anyway, this film here is really very short and stay comfortably under the 70-minute mark. It seems as if Goscinny and Uderzo really had all the options what to do with that and how to turn their book into a movie. I do think this film could have been longer though. Honestly, I think it even should have and that is maybe my key criticism here for this movie. It felt extremely rushed at times and there was just too much story and contents for a film this short. Take the introduction to all the characters, but take most of all what happens with the Roman spy in the protagonists' village and also all that happens afterwards when the action moves to the villains' headquarter. Also it felt a bit to me as if this film was not as much about Asterix as you could think from the title. I mean his grit and wit are crucial here, but in terms of screen time, he is not the one and only lead. Maybe the druid even has more. I did not count. I will just call him that and not include the French or German name, so you know what I mean no matter where you're from. Some of the names really differ strongly from country to country. Oh, but I can mention Obelix/Obélix because his name is always the same I believe. Maybe because he is as big as an obelisk? Never thought about that. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that Obelix is barely in this movie, especially in the second half and the moments he has are also not the brightest, like when he jokes about Asterix having taken care of "only" four Roman soldiers early on or also what he has to say about the spy when he mocks him and that he does not look at all like some spy when said spy talks about how the Romans are so scared because of his wit.
Anyway, one thing that came to my mind while watching was really that it is literally the book brought to the screen. I mean it makes sense. The book was a huge success and it was a comic book of course and there is a visual element already and they adapted it effortlessly into moving pictures. But it's also true about the story and individual scenes. Take the spy's whining when the druid does not want to tell his secret, take the feather tickling, take the druid's words on the ingredients he needs for the potion and how they alter the taste. I am rather talking about the lobster here than about the strawberries, even if the latter have a bigger impact story-wise. Fun little inclusion though, also how we find out as a consequence that every Roman soldier is glad to be out and allowed to see the circus. In Paris it was I think. Or Lutetia. And also that the French are living in peace there with the Romans. Or of course how Obelix is not allowed any magic potion. Or that there is a magic potion even. We learn about the entire background in this film, so it was a bit of a weird decision to show this film after another here in Germany. At least quality-wise it makes sense. I do think the Cleopatra sequel is superior to this one here. The reason is mostly that the story here is not the best. The part with the potion resulting in massive hair growth, oh well, it wasn't bad, but nowhere near Asterix's best by any means. My favorite is still the film that includes all the challenges. Anyway, Caesar is in all these films, but he is always more of an observing power on the villain side than really the key antagonist. Here for example he is grateful to the Gauls because they made it known to him there was some kind of revolt going or at least that some of these high-profile Roman soldiers had plans that were not the plans Caesar had. Speaking of hair, pay attention to how Caesar with his black hair here looks really young compared to the other movies. A bit of a glimpse because he is really the one and only character that aged considerably between the first and second film or who has real age references included. In my favorite film, the one I mentioned earlier, he also somehow decides to retire after Asterix and Obelix finish all these challenges with success if I remember correctly.
So you see, there Obelix is a truly crucial part of the team and this one here certainly could have needed more of the big ginger fella. But here he was really just the simple and strong dude whose comedic potential was not used one bit. As a consequence, his little dog (Idefix) was also pretty much absent throughout the entire film. As for the voice acting, I cannot say too much about the French original, only that Carel is much more famous than Morel, which makes sense because Asterix was more of the center of the story. Exactly the other way around than in the live action films with Depardieu being the big name and Asterix is played by several actors. Anyway, another thing to say here is that we even have (at least) one voice actor do several characters. Something that is very uncommon today, at least if we are talking feature films and not stuff like The Simpsons or South Park. You can also take a look at The Wizard of Oz (just an example) to see how it was not uncommon at all for one actor to take character of several characters, even in live action back then. Alright, we are drifting a bit away now, so back to this one here: As I probably made clear now, I am not a huge fan of the outcome here, but it still had fun moments for sure. And even those who do not like it too much cannot deny how muchof a trailblazer it was for the film sthat followed immediately afterwards, but also for those much later. I mean there have been new animated Asterix films not too long ago with a completely different style and I think there's still new books being released. I really wanna read all of them at some point (again).
So this film is a bit of a gem that still needed some polishing and it happened with the following films in the 1960s and 1970s. I want to continue a bit about the voice acting in the German version. Frank Zander, a musician who is still alive today, was in charge of Asterix and Günter Pfitzmann, who died almost two decades ago, did Obelix's voice, but I think they were added in some later versions, so not sure they were already in charge back then in the 1960s/1970s. The movie was not really clear on that during the credits. One thing I quite enjoyed here was the music. It was always fun and kinda playful and the Asterix main theme is just super catchy and no surprise at all that it is still used nowadays for new movies. As for the animation, ou must keep in mind this is the 1960s, so you should not expect Pixar level, but I liked it. It had charm and felt smooth. As for the funny moments, I could mention a lot here, even if it's not the same amount as in later releases. The strawberry scene was good already, but also for example how the singer is ousted as aways. Or how the soldiers who got beaten up by the spy cannot wait to have their revenge. The humor here was definitely a bit on the politically incorrect side and also a bit harsh as you can see from the comments about cutting the fella open to get the magic potion. But then again, it is very family friendly as we see for example by the words used from that Gaul kid running around and saying what she (I think it was a girl or Obelix in tiny) would like to do with the Romans. As for reasons of logics and how it all made sense, I think we can go easy on the makers here with the magic potion at the center of it all. It is a historic fantasy film if you want to call it that. Only one thing stays a bit memorable for me for all the wrong reasons, namely how they basically treated the Gaul hostages when that hair restorer was in full force. A bit more threatening or violence or torture would have been accurate. But even there we had decent moments. All in all, a good watch. Go check it out.