Asterix and Obelix All at Sea (1996)
Asterix and Obelix All at Sea Review
Asterix and Obelix All at Sea is the 30th volume of the Asterix comic strip series that was written and illustrated by Albert Uderzo. It was published in 1996 and it was the weakest installment up to that point in the series’ history.
Caesar tries to retrieve his stolen galley from the slaves while Obelix drinks the potion and transforms into a child. Eventually, the Gauls go to Atlantis. This is such a messy installment. Uderzo threw so much into this story while not sticking to anything of real substance. What this volume is all about is beyond me. It has no discernible historical or any other significant angle whatsoever.
Uderzo also imbued the story with so many fantastical elements that the end result is a series that has now become a full fantasy world. The section set in Atlantis even included human-animal hybrids reminiscent of ‘Fantasia’. It was a totally unnecessary inclusion that wasn’t even all that enjoyable. These scene were rushed and there wasn’t enough time to do proper world building.
The only storyline here that I mostly enjoyed was the Obelix one. He finally got to drink the magic potion and he became a baby. This is a tired cartoon concept of turning an adult into a child, but here it worked because Obelix was very funny in those moments. Some of his lines were terrific.
The illustration work here is stupendous. The details are fantastic, the colors vibrant and a lot of the imagery is quite beautiful. It’s a shame, then, that the plot is so problematic. The subplot with Caesar and the slaves was entirely underutilized, which was a shame as it had solid potential. The title would suggest that this is some sort of nautical adventure, but there was very little of it in the actual story.
