Asterix - Sieg über Cäsar

The first Asterix adaptation not to be taken directly from one of the books but instead is a combination of Asterix the Legionary and Asterix the Gladiator. The cut-and-shut story is a bit disjointed as a result, which might test your patience, especially if you don't like seeing the books jumbled.

Life continues as normal in the Gaulish village as Panacea, the niece of Chief Vitalstatistix, returns fro her studies in Rennes (then called Condatum) and Obelix falls head-over-heels in love with her. Too bad she already has a boyfriend in the shape of Tragicomix, a handsome stud. The surrounding Roman outposts warn Decorian, a new recruit, to not anger the Gauls out of fear of a yet another pounding. Decorian does not heed this warning and manages to capture Panacea and Tragicomix. But before Asterix and Obelix can rescue them they have already been re-captured by slave traders and sold off to be butchered in the Colosseum.

Asterix and Obelix then go undercover in order to get them back, pounding many Romans along the way. The animation is wonderful and the humor is enough to keep you chuckling through-out, but I can't help but think that the books it was adapted from would have made better individual movies. Caesar's presence feels arbitrary and it lacks a decent villain.

Still a fun time.

As bob the moo notes, "Asterix et la surprise de Cesar" (or "Asterix Vs. Caesar" in English) is based on two of the Asterix books. The problem with this movie is that the books in question - "Asterix the Gladiator" and "Asterix the Legionnary" - are two of the best of the lot, and either one would have made a good tale on its own, but in adapting them as one movie screenwriter Pierre Tchernia didn't do either one any favours, in addition to throwing in some odd new material (check out the attendant at the sauna Obelix visits at one point - the indication that the former is... um... checking out the latter is a bit out of place among the sternly heterosexual series).

The animation is okay, but nothing to write home about; and hearing the inhabitants of the small village of indomitable Gauls speak with American accents is distracting (though not as distracting as "Asterix Conquers America," the worst of the animated movies, which had our hero speaking in the Liverpudlian tones of Craig Charles in the English release). And note the presence of Plastic Bertrand singing over the opening and end credits (insert famous Belgian joke here).

The earlier films in the series, especially "Asterix and Cleopatra" and "The Twelve Tasks of Asterix," are better; and it's a tough call on whether this or the live-action "Asterix and Obelix Take On Caesar" is preferable - in terms of bringing the characters to the screen and in terms of entertainment and competence this one is, but then again this one doesn't have Laetitia Casta...

Obelix develops a crush on a local girl only to find that she has a boyfriend already. When both the girl and her partner are captured by Romans and taken to the legion outpost, Asterix and Obelix set out to free them no matter what it takes. Their quest takes them into the Roman Army, across deserts, into Gladiator school and up against Julius Caesar himself.

Where most of the Asterix films are iffy, those that stay close to the books can't really go wrong. Most do and are OK but some don't and suffer from it. This is a mix of at least two books – Asterix the Legionnaire and Asterix v;s Caesar and hence it isn't as good as either book as it has some new material. However it's not terrible and much of the wit of the original(s) comes through.

The animation is also better and has depth and shadow in it, although at times the colours leave much to be desired. Even the character voices are better than usual – although Obelix still gets done as a childish buffoon! This is a minor complaint however and the majority of it is good.

Overall, it's not terrible but the mix of stories and the wandering away from source will annoy many fans. Oh and it opens and closes with the cheesyiest Euro-pop ever….nasty!

Watched the Danish dub

Some movies should stay in your nostalgic mind as it always was. A fun classic that you could put on every day of the week, but this one, even this one was one of my least favourite VHS´s to put on for some reason. When something is even uninteresting to you as a kid, you know it's not the best. I must say this is not at all the worst movie I have watched from my childhood, but it´s just not the most interesting thing either.

Obelix falls in love with a young gall girl who sadly is already in love with a young gall. They are kidnapped by the Romans and Asterix and Obelix most set out to rescue them, always being one step behind.

The animation is absolutely stunning! So many wonderful hand drawn backgrounds and great character designs, if not a little bit of their time and comics. There are so many stunning images here like the two young galls in the dessert and every architectural background in Rome looking like a blueprint with a lot of details to them. This is a feast for the eyes and the character animations and designs are all great and has so much character.

It´s fun how a childhood sadness still upsets you till this day. The drowning and dog in sewer scenes still upset me to this day like they did when I was a kid. It is ingrained in my body somehow and I don´t like Asterix and Obelix not being friends! They can be upset and bigger but never be not friends.

That is also a huge complaint I have about this movie. Obelix doesn't really seem like himself. He is dumbed down significantly for my liking ,being a huge dumb child. Asterix is as he should be, clever but also cunning. The village wizard is also not quite right. There are a bit too many character deviances for my liking making some very recognizable characters to me seem nearly unrecognizable.

The other big complaint to me is the overall pacing and plot here. The movie seem so slow and boring and that's a bad thing for a kids movie. The overall plot seems senseless and just events happening without much impact. The ideas are good. Asterix and Obelix enlisting in the Roman army, that's fun! Them fighting in Coliseum, great, a love story, yup, but having them all half-done is just not that fun to watch. It wants to do too many things here in one movie and they don´t have that much of an impact sadly. The love story is barely a thing, the enlisting doesn't really affect anything and that is the word of the day, unimpactful. There are too many plot elements that are just things happening for having something to look at, they barely synch up with the overall mission and the stakes are never really felt here. The urgency should be higher so we the audience care more. Even the coliseum fight seems boring and doesn't have enough screentime. Focusing on maybe 1 or 2 of these aspect might have made the movie more fun and interesting as we then could fully utilize the idea and gimmick used here.

The humour is a bit hit or miss but overall pretty fun. The movie have to really get going though. I would say the movie really first pick up at the enlisting, 20 minutes into the movie, that is a lot of the runtime that just feels a bit boring.

I liked this movie a little less this time around that I remembered but is it bad? No but just rather boring and just not living up to the hights I know this series can be. It is also still a fun nostalgic look no matter what but man this movie just needed a bit more of a second draft and maybe even being 2 entirely different movies, utilizing all the ideas to their full potentials instead of being just a lot of ideas thrown at the wall.

I don't understand the <7× rating, this is my absolute favourite Asterix film. The plot device to visit Rome is flawless, the drawn characters feel more real than life action, and all slapstick (!) lands! If anyone asked me what an "Asterix" is, I would show them this exact movie. Perfection. Going forward, I would want Asterix and Obelix to visit space. Let's fast forward, it's no more 50BC but AD50 and the two mount a spaceship. After all, an alien did visit them in one of the most recent comic books. The Asterix spirit won't disapappear: The original Star Trek show and the show Stargate, both, have plenty of references to ancient Greek gods. Let Asterix find a few tribes that left earth long ago.