Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion (2018)
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Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion Movie Review
Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion is a 2018 French animated comedy film directed by Louis Clichy and starring Christian Clavier. It’s a pretty flawed, but solid flick.
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“You’re not handling ingredients,
you’re collaborating with matter“
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Following a fall during mistletoe picking, Druid Getafix decides that it is time to secure the future of the village. Accompanied by Asterix and Obelix, he undertakes to travel the Gallic world in search of a talented young druid to transmit the secret of the magic potion. This was the second Asterix animated feature after ‘The Twelve Tasks of Asterix’ to not be based on any preexisting comic book. It is entirely original for better and for worse.
The first half of this movie almost fully worked while the second one was quite inferior. The movie was clearly modernized in its approach as the filmmakers clearly wanted to take stock of the popularity of superhero and fantasy storytelling. The result is a third act that is overly action-oriented and frenetic, focusing too much on potion making and not enough on other more sophisticated elements from this IP.
The first half worked much better as the storytelling was more confident and mysterious back then and the movie actually seemed as if it was adapted from a comic book. That is how faithful to the original series it was in comedic approach and characterizations. Sulfurix is a very memorable new character as this fun and intriguing druid rival to Getafix who will stop at nothing to get the magic potion formula. His voice and design were great and he was a competent villain overall.
The main issue of this movie is that in developing and focusing so much on the villain, they sidelined the other characters to the point that they all felt unimportant to the story. Obelix was particularly discarded, which was quite problematic, though Asterix had his moments. The other villagers and Romans also got rather minor roles.
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The Secret of the Magic Potion is beautifully animated and that CGI animation turned out to be the highlight here surprisingly enough. Yes, it was too modern and polished, but the character designs were faithful to the original ones and the landscapes and interiors all looked lovely. The humor was excellent at first, but the second half was much less comedic and/or entertaining. The French voice acting was superb, but the dialogue and themes were far from sophisticated.
Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion has dazzling CGI animation, some solid humor and a pretty good premise. The first half is a lot of fun and quite faithful to the spirit of the source material. The second half was the problem here as it became too action-oriented, overly modern and not as engaging as the first. The movie focused too heavily on the fantastical elements and not enough on the sophisticated dialogue and humor that should be the staples of the series.
My Rating – 3.5
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