"Astérix et le coup du menhir" or "Asterix and the Big Fight" or "Asterix - Operation Hinkelstein" is a co-production between West Germany and France and as a consequence this film is once more (mostly) in the French language. This was released back in 1989, so it is over 30 years now and it is one of the older, but not oldest Asterix movies. Definitely also among the ones who have not seen by too many, but I shall get to that a little later. Maybe this also has to do with the fact that the director is Philippe Grimond here and, while he has been fairly active in other departments, this one here is his only career effort as the man in charge behind the camera. There also seems to be little information about where he is now, if he is still alive etc. Same applies to writers Voight and Kabatek with the key difference that these two have never worked on another film project at all, which is surely on the surprising side because writing a screenplay for an Asterix movie was kinda big back then too. I guess it is fitting that those writers who will always be remembered for these works are of course Goscinny and Uderzo with the former being dead for a long time now sadly and Uderzo left us not that long ago. This film runs for approximately 80 minutes, but the version I saw earlier today was even shorter I believe. Also they showed all these animated Asterix films not too long ago here, I think it was for Easter, and this one they did not show and wait until Whitsun now and this really makes it obvious that it is not one of the best, not one of the funniest and also not one of the most inspired films from the series.
A key difference here is for example that Asterix, Obelix and the rest stay at home and to not explore a new country or even continent. So this takes away some jokes already on the level of how much the Brits love their tea for example. The culture clash element is completely gone. Instead, it is more a clash if reason vs. Insanity. One example would be how the druid really loses it here because of an unlucky collision, but another example is also how the people from the village fall for a scam artist in a wold costume. I clearly remembered this guy from back then when I read the comic book(s) and saw the film on an earlier occasions, but I am still not sure if he is interesting enough to be basically included here as some kind of main antagonist from beginning to end. Oh well. It could also be called "mentir" instead of "menhir" you could say at the very end of the title. People that speak French will understand what I mean. So yeah, Asterix is getting away for me with the idea of the magic potion, with the idea of these few people being able to stand up to the Roman empire, but these scenes of the druid's insanity were really a bit exaggerated this time I must say. Too much and too over the top. Same applies for me to the transformations of one Roman soldier in the second half of the film when he becomes really big, then really small and goes through all kinds of other shapes before basically being turned into a balloon.
This Roman soldier nonetheless gave us one of the funnier moments, namely when we have Obelix grab him by his leg and pull him to become basically a lab rat and see if the druid manages to come up with the magic potion despite his insanity. That entire scene was just too much, but the brief process of pulling was fun. It was rather the small moments where the film delivered this time in terms of comedy. Obelix was severely undeused this time though. The character is so much funnier than he is allowed to put on display here. Another solid moment was when the Roman leader (not Caesar, he is not in the picture in person this time) is taking a bath and his genital gets exposed briefly for one of his guards to see (not for us to see of course) and he makes sure the guard does not react in an inappropriate manner. Maybe there really wasn't that much to see. And finally, involving sid Roman leader again, there is this moment of confrontation by Caesar's delegate which was decent too how he really loses it, even if the Gauls' laughing that followed immediately afterwards was slightly too much already. But it still can be said that the Romans never really got closer to defeating the villagers than they did this time. Oh and I must mention the scene of course when the Roman leader gives this famous quote about the entirety of Gaul being conquered and he says "Yes, all of Gaul" when being asked if he really means "all of Gaul". That was kinda memorable, almost in an epic way, not really in a funny way. But of course, he is proven wrong and in the end there is happiness all along once more. Not really for the singer though up there on the tree as usual. Sorry for not using the international names. I never remember them, except the two protagonists of course who have the same name almost everywhere I think. I watched the German dub once again, so also cannot comment on Carel, Tornade and the others. I'm sure they did a solid job though and still nice to see some alive. Chazel would be one example.
Okay, that is pretty much it. There are similarities again here and there with some of the other films. I mentioned some of those already. It's also nothing new that this minor Roman leader dreams of making it big here and getting hiw own Cleopatra. We have seen that on other occasions as well. The idea of Obelix's dog being considered a meal though is something new. That fraudulent seer surely must have been hungry. But I stand with my initial perception. He's not a character I find truly memorable or worth mentioning when speaking about the best there is from the Asterix books and films unfortunately. His (forced) back-and-forth from admitting he is a scam artist and pretending not to be one to please the Roman leader also did not work out in a comedic was as much as I hoped it would Same applies to some of the other jokes. I already said that Obelix's material here also was not exactly a revelation and this includes his take on curing the druid by doing the exact same thing again that caused this misery. I mean the idea was mildly funny, but also very absurd and Obelix trying to reap the honors afterwards was also not super funny. Not among the weakest of the film either admittedly. Overall, the outcome here, which is despite the short running time not even among the shortest Asterix films, is a fairly close call for me in terms of deciding if I should give out a positive or negative recommendation. I guess I will be generous this time though and say that it is worth seeing, but really you should see (almost) all other Asterix films before this one here. Maybe also read the book first and then decide if you want to watch the movie version as well. Depending on how much you like the story. These films are almost always pretty close to the books in terms of contents, so the issues are already a bit in the book(s) this time and you cannot be too harsh with the filmmakers. They tried their best. It's barely enough.
A key difference here is for example that Asterix, Obelix and the rest stay at home and to not explore a new country or even continent. So this takes away some jokes already on the level of how much the Brits love their tea for example. The culture clash element is completely gone. Instead, it is more a clash if reason vs. Insanity. One example would be how the druid really loses it here because of an unlucky collision, but another example is also how the people from the village fall for a scam artist in a wold costume. I clearly remembered this guy from back then when I read the comic book(s) and saw the film on an earlier occasions, but I am still not sure if he is interesting enough to be basically included here as some kind of main antagonist from beginning to end. Oh well. It could also be called "mentir" instead of "menhir" you could say at the very end of the title. People that speak French will understand what I mean. So yeah, Asterix is getting away for me with the idea of the magic potion, with the idea of these few people being able to stand up to the Roman empire, but these scenes of the druid's insanity were really a bit exaggerated this time I must say. Too much and too over the top. Same applies for me to the transformations of one Roman soldier in the second half of the film when he becomes really big, then really small and goes through all kinds of other shapes before basically being turned into a balloon.
This Roman soldier nonetheless gave us one of the funnier moments, namely when we have Obelix grab him by his leg and pull him to become basically a lab rat and see if the druid manages to come up with the magic potion despite his insanity. That entire scene was just too much, but the brief process of pulling was fun. It was rather the small moments where the film delivered this time in terms of comedy. Obelix was severely undeused this time though. The character is so much funnier than he is allowed to put on display here. Another solid moment was when the Roman leader (not Caesar, he is not in the picture in person this time) is taking a bath and his genital gets exposed briefly for one of his guards to see (not for us to see of course) and he makes sure the guard does not react in an inappropriate manner. Maybe there really wasn't that much to see. And finally, involving sid Roman leader again, there is this moment of confrontation by Caesar's delegate which was decent too how he really loses it, even if the Gauls' laughing that followed immediately afterwards was slightly too much already. But it still can be said that the Romans never really got closer to defeating the villagers than they did this time. Oh and I must mention the scene of course when the Roman leader gives this famous quote about the entirety of Gaul being conquered and he says "Yes, all of Gaul" when being asked if he really means "all of Gaul". That was kinda memorable, almost in an epic way, not really in a funny way. But of course, he is proven wrong and in the end there is happiness all along once more. Not really for the singer though up there on the tree as usual. Sorry for not using the international names. I never remember them, except the two protagonists of course who have the same name almost everywhere I think. I watched the German dub once again, so also cannot comment on Carel, Tornade and the others. I'm sure they did a solid job though and still nice to see some alive. Chazel would be one example.
Okay, that is pretty much it. There are similarities again here and there with some of the other films. I mentioned some of those already. It's also nothing new that this minor Roman leader dreams of making it big here and getting hiw own Cleopatra. We have seen that on other occasions as well. The idea of Obelix's dog being considered a meal though is something new. That fraudulent seer surely must have been hungry. But I stand with my initial perception. He's not a character I find truly memorable or worth mentioning when speaking about the best there is from the Asterix books and films unfortunately. His (forced) back-and-forth from admitting he is a scam artist and pretending not to be one to please the Roman leader also did not work out in a comedic was as much as I hoped it would Same applies to some of the other jokes. I already said that Obelix's material here also was not exactly a revelation and this includes his take on curing the druid by doing the exact same thing again that caused this misery. I mean the idea was mildly funny, but also very absurd and Obelix trying to reap the honors afterwards was also not super funny. Not among the weakest of the film either admittedly. Overall, the outcome here, which is despite the short running time not even among the shortest Asterix films, is a fairly close call for me in terms of deciding if I should give out a positive or negative recommendation. I guess I will be generous this time though and say that it is worth seeing, but really you should see (almost) all other Asterix films before this one here. Maybe also read the book first and then decide if you want to watch the movie version as well. Depending on how much you like the story. These films are almost always pretty close to the books in terms of contents, so the issues are already a bit in the book(s) this time and you cannot be too harsh with the filmmakers. They tried their best. It's barely enough.