The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (1976)
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The Twelve Tasks of Asterix Movie Review
The Twelve Tasks of Asterix is a 1976 French animated adventure comedy film directed and written by Albert Uderzo and Rene Goscinny. It’s one of the best movies in the series.
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“Brutus, stop playing with that knife.
You’ll end up hurting someone“
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A group of indomitable Gauls are challenged by Roman Emperor Julius Caesar to accomplish twelve impossible tasks. This was the only Asterix movie in the last century to not be based on any pre-existing comic book. In fact, Goscinny and Uderzo themselves were both writers and directors on this project and they created an entirely original story that mostly was terrific.
This is by far one of the most adventurous Asterix stories of all time. The movie functions so wonderfully as a spirited adventure flick with so many of these tasks making for wonderful ventures. Caesar trying to trick the Gauls by inventing these tasks for the two Gauls to go on was an ingenious idea and a great conceit for this entire film. Caesar himself was actually surprisingly likable and he received a happy ending, which was unexpected and delightfully strange.
The twelve tasks standing for the Twelve Labors of Hercules made for an interestingly mythological take on the series. The first task is just a race, but the second judo match saw Asterix outsmarting his opponent in a memorable way. Throwing a javelin task was just included to have a gag about the Native Americans, which was admittedly quite amusing.
The island of the sirens was too odd for this series, but the trippy music sequence was unforgettable. The hypnotic Egyptian made for another very funny task. And the Belgian cook in the sixth task failing to satisfy Obelix was also hilarious. The cave task was visually dazzling, but ultimately rushed and uneventful.
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The seventh task is easily the highlight of the entire picture. They have to get a permit document to get out of a huge building, but that proves to be almost impossible. This was such a brilliant critique of heavy administration and ridiculous bureaucracy that plagued so many countries before and is still a huge issue in my own country, which is why I found this segment highly relatable. It is a rare moment when an Asterix movie reached the sophistication levels of the comics themselves.
The ravine and the riddle segments are solid, but hardly memorable. The ghosts task was definitely more interesting and it was one of the moments that made me realize this was not your regular Asterix story. Here, Goscinny and Uderzo relied much more heavily on the fantastical elements. Couple that with a lot of artistically inclined animation and trippy scenarios typical for the seventies and you’ve got the strangest entry in the series by far.
The only thing that I really disliked in this otherwise terrific film is that final task. The gladiator arena and the circus proved to be too cartoony and messy for this movie that was otherwise much more interesting and sophisticated. They tried to bring other Gauls to the table to very disappointing results. The breaking the fourth wall finale was also too silly to be taken seriously.
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The Twelve Tasks of Asterix finds our main duo at their bravest and most competent. Obelix using his brawns and Asterix using his brains proved to be a great combo to tackle these tasks. The soundtrack was quite memorable and those musical segments were wonderfully surreal and weird. This movie begged the question if the Asterix series should have gone into more surreal territory in the comics as well. The animation is just so good here with the beautiful color palette, gorgeous backgrounds and those more abstract moments being perfectly executed throughout. They traded the humor for the adventure here, but the adventure was so great that I ultimately didn’t mind that.
The Twelve Tasks of Asterix is one of the best entries in the series without a doubt. It is the most surreal and artistically inclined movie of the bunch due to an interestingly trippy atmosphere, gorgeous animation style and a terrific soundtrack. It’s also the most fantastical movie to date with the tasks themselves being inspired by Greek Mythology. The resulting movie is consistently entertaining, adventurous and highly memorable.
My Rating – 4.5
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