Asterix and the Big Fight (1989)
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Asterix and the Big Fight Movie Review
Asterix and the Big Fight is a 1989 French animated comedy film directed by Philippe Grimond and starring Roger Carel and Pierre Tornade. It’s another terrific Asterix movie adaptation.
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“I thought the Romans were going to cut down on inflation.
Promises, promises“
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This was a French/German co-production and the last Asterix movie to be released in the eighties. It isn’t as well regarded as the previous entry in the series, but in my opinion it is immensely underrated as it’s a joy to watch throughout.
Similarly to ‘Asterix Versus Caesar’, this flick also adapted two different comics and mashed them together into one single film. The comics in question are ‘Asterix and the Big Fight’ and ‘Asterix and the Soothsayer’. The first story saw the druid being accidentally hit by a menhir thrown by Obelix and losing his mind and memory while the second is all about this false prophet coming to the village and trying to trick the Gauls in order for them to leave the village for the Romans to settle.
Unlike the aforementioned movie, this one isn’t as seamless in its mixing of these two different comics as I would have liked, but at least it adapted both of them very faithfully, though the emphasis on the latter was much more prominent than on the former for better and for worse.
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Getafix is hilarious in this flick. Him losing his mind led to so much funny slapstick and the highlight was everything that they did to that poor Roman, who was made to drink the druid’s terrible potions, which made him huge, green, light as air etc. That last gag was particularly funny and it also proved to be a great final gag for the movie. There is an added owl gag that wasn’t in the comic, but was here surprisingly well executed and quite amusing.
Prolix the prophet was also a terrific character wonderfully depicted and developed in this adaptation. He was at first quite unlikable and villainous, but eventually you come to care for the guy and his plight with the Romans, who are also memorable in this story as they received some of the best and funniest roles to date. Asterix and Obelix themselves are solid, though hardly the standouts here while the other villagers also got fine arcs with Impedimenta and Fulliautomatix getting the most to do.
Asterix and the Big Fight features stunning hand-drawn animation that is even better than in its predecessors, all featuring beautiful visuals as well. But here the backgrounds are super detailed and just breathtaking to witness, especially the forest scenes as those looked truly impressive. The characters are also well designed and the highlight was that hallucinatory sequence with the various magic potions. That was the trippiest and most surreal scene in a film that is otherwise more straightforward in approach.
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The score is also superb as was the sound and the voice acting with each actor delivering excellent work here. I missed the songs this time around, but at least the story did not need it as much as it flowed very well throughout. Yes, the two comics being mashed together into one not that coherent narrative was an issue and thematically speaking this isn’t the most sophisticated Asterix movie, but it is among the more entertaining ones nonetheless.
Asterix and the Big Fight is one of the most underrated Asterix movies. It adapts two different comics and it mashes them together into one story with middling results, but it is still one of the most entertaining and funniest movies in the series thanks to excellent humor, superb characterization and a couple of very memorable and well crafted plot points. The highlight is its gorgeous hand-drawn animation with particularly impressive backgrounds.
My Rating – 4
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