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ASTERIX IN BRITAIN
(Asterix Chez le Bretons)
Rating:  ½
Belgium/France. 1985.
Director – Pino Van Lamsweerde, Screenplay – Pierre Tchernia, Adaptation – Edward Marcus, Based on the Comic Book by Rene Goscinny & Albert Uderzo, Producer – Yannik Piel, Photography – Philippe Laine, Music – Vladimir Cosma, Animation Director – Keith Ingham, Art Direction – Michel Guerin. Production Company – Gaumont/Dargaud.
Voices:
Jack Bearber (Asterix), Bill Kearns (Obelix), Graham Bushnell (Anticlimax), Sean O’Neil (General Motus), Gordon Heath (Caesar)
Plot: The Romans invade Britain so the Britons go to enlist the help of their cousins in Gaul. In Gaul, Asterix and Obelix are bored with all the Romans being away and eagerly take the opportunity to go to Britain and help defeat Romans there. But there the barrel containing the magic potion that grants them super-strength that they take with them is confiscated by the Romans.
Belgians’ Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo created the comic-book character of Asterix in 1961. The character of the little man Asterix, his lovable oaf of a companion Obelix and the comic exploits of a single village in Gaul standing out against the entire Roman army proved a massive hit with audiences the world over. The characters passed through 30 books and were translated into 28 languages, the series ending with Goscinny’s death in 1977.
This film adapts the 1966 comic-book story direct and is quite faithful to the original. And as such it is all rather lively and entertaining, although the story does drag somewhat in the middle. As always (and as with the comic-book originals), while essentially children’s stories, there is another level of sly satire to the work – part of the reason that made the comic-books so popular with adults. Here the film gently satirizes the foibles of the English – with parodies of cricket and football, and the Britons breaking off in the midst of battle to have tea and refusing to conduct battles because of something called ‘the weekend’. The English-language voicing of Asterix is absolutely perfect, with Jack Bearber catching just the right sense of the diminutive man’s chirpy happy-go-lucky nature. Obelix however comes across as far more thicker than he does on the comic-book page. It is also slightly peculiar to see that when Asterix and Obelix reach Britain the signs are not, as one might expect in English, but in French.
Other Asterix films are: Asterix the Gaul (1967), Asterix and Cleopatra (1968), The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (1976) – the latter two both being co-directed by Goscinny and Uderzo – Asterix Vs Caesar (1986), this, Asterix and the Big Fight (1989) and Asterix Conquers America (1994), all made by the French animation company Dargaud; and the live-action productions Asterix and Obelix vs Caesar (1999) and Asterix and Obelix Meet Cleopatra (2002), with Christian Clavier and Gerard Depardieu as Asterix and Obelix respectively.
Copyright Richard Scheib 1993
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