Asterix the Gaul (1967)
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Asterix the Gaul Movie Review
Asterix the Gaul is a 1967 Belgian-French animated comedy film directed by Ray Goossens. It is the first movie in the Asterix franchise and it’s quite underrated.
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“That’s not fair. What are things coming to
if one Gaul can’t trust another?“
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Determined to uncover the secret of the Gauls’ strength, the Romans send one of their own to infiltrate the village as an undercover agent. This was the first Asterix movie adaptation. It adapted the very first comic in the series. It remains quite unpopular among fans due to the lack of involvement of the creators as Goscinny and Uderzo were not involved in any capacity.
For me, it is underrated. Yes, it has its numerous flaws, but for the most part the film is very entertaining and charming. It is extremely faithful to the source material mostly for the better as that story is among my favorite in the series and here it was mined for some great laughs. Yes, the comic was much funnier, but the film is still quite amusing throughout.
The voice acting is very strong. Roger Carel did a great job as Asterix and he is the standout. The sound quality isn’t the best in this early installment, but the voices are uniformly strong and the line delivery was excellent. Asterix is terrific in this film and so is Getafix. The two shared many very funny and endearing sequences. Obelix is sidelined, but much less so in the film than in the comic as he got some great lines about strength and boar thrown in there.
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The Romans are the highlights here just as they were in the book. Caesar was very memorable in the final sequence while the main general is very funny in his stupidity. But the standout is actually the merchant character. He is a side character who steals the movie from everybody else with his childish and dumb remarks.
The humor is overall quite good. It’s not as funny as the comic, but the voices elevate the scenes, and the childishness of the characters’ behavior made each moment highly enjoyable and endearing. The dialogue is smartly lifted straight from the comic itself, but again in that extremely faithful approach, the movie became more tedious than the comic as you already know all of the plot points if you’ve read the source before seeing the film.
Asterix the Gaul is the first movie in this franchise, so clearly it was never going to have the best animation out there. While most criticism directed toward its visuals is fair, I would still argue that it doesn’t look bad at all. It just looks cheap. But in that cheapness and simplicity is a lot of charm to be found, so I ultimately didn’t mind it as much. The backgrounds are okay, but the character designs are faithful to the material and the characters’ movements are mostly polished.
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The score is by far the best part of this film. There are so many wonderful comedic touches employed in its sound, but the overall soundtrack is fantastic with a couple of very cozy dancing and singing scenes that made the movie feel very much lived-in. The running time is just right at around an hour, but the film needed better editing and pacing as some panels from the comic are given too much extended runtime. It was great seeing the comic literally come to life, but a bit more originality and additional sequences would have elevated it more.
Asterix the Gaul is the first movie adaptation of the very first Asterix comic and it’s quite underrated, though undeniably very flawed. Yes, it’s never as funny or as enjoyable as the comic itself, but it is very faithful to the source material, and it features a terrific score and excellent voice acting. It’s not well edited, but it’s still cozy and charming throughout.
My Rating – 4
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