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Asterix Versus Caesar Movie Review

Asterix Versus Caesar is a 1985 French-Belgian animated adventure comedy film directed by Paul Brizzi. It’s one of the best movie adaptations of this series.

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“They really are not very polite“

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Asterix and Obelix are on a mission to rescue two Gaul friends captured into slavery by the nasty Romans. The dangerous journey that brings them to Rome involves gladiators, slavers and bureaucracy. This movie was actually based on two Asterix volumes instead of one. It adapted both ‘Asterix the Gladiator’ and ‘Asterix the Legionary’. This was a brilliant choice that paid off in spades.

I loved ‘Asterix and Cleopatra’, but that film featured too many songs that padded the story quite a bit. But this movie is so briskly paced and polished that it begs the question whether all Asterix adaptations should focus on more than one volume as just one does not suffice for the feature-length treatment. Unfortunately, it would be difficult to pair most of these comics together into a coherent plot, but with these two it worked as they are quite similar in setting and storylines.

Most of this movie is quite faithful to its source material, which was crucial as these classics really should not be meddled with. They were paired remarkably well and even some weaker sections from these books were cut off for good measure, including most of the battle in Africa. The added sequences mostly include the subplot with Dogmatix, which was definitely overlong, but it mostly worked as it was so adventurous and cute. Dogmatix being so proactive here was wonderful to witness.

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Other highlights include Obelix and his crazy hijinks. He is just as hilarious here as he was in those two books. Him learning to be “polite” made me laugh so much while the emphasis on his stupidity produced a lot of hefty chuckles from me. Asterix is great as well and the two’s friendship is heartwarming as always.

Getafix did not get much to do here unfortunately and Cacofonix was entirely brushed aside, which bothered me as he got in that first book his best story arc to date. Panacea and Tragicomix are boring, but they functioned as solid plot devices. Some of the Romans made quite an impression here with the conniving Caius being a great villain and of course Caesar being an imposing presence once again.

Asterix Versus Caesar featured absolutely stunning animation. It was very much Disneyesque in some of the character designs and gorgeous scenery. The backgrounds are truly remarkable. The prison and flooding scenes were even artistic in their darker hues and eerie atmosphere. This just might be the best-looking Asterix movie as it’s beautiful to behold throughout.

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The score is fantastic as well. This is the most eighties-sounding movie in the franchise and I loved it as a big fan of that decade in music. It’s so lively and vibrant that it perfectly accompanied the carefree energy of the material at hand. The editing and pacing are mostly quite good, though some scenes are rushed and some are overly protracted. The tone is as diverse as in the books with the darker elements perfectly contrasting the lighter ones. The voice acting is different this time around, so it takes time getting used to, but eventually you come to appreciate their comedic delivery.