Sick Product of a Sick System

One of my all time favorites.

Excellent but underrated film

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

I read Asterix cartoons over and over in my youth so know them well, but had never seen the animation until today and I'm sad to say I was disappointed. The film didn't have the language wit of the comic strip (the Latin asides) and the animation was naive. You can't say, "Oh but it was 1968" because look what Disney was doing then! It was entertaining and fun to watch but not great. The drawing was poor, which was proved when my film froze a few times to reveal the sketchiness of the artwork! It was similar to the comic in the design of the characters - they looked the same - but song and dance numbers? Really? Maybe I'm being too pedantic about a much loved comic book but there were many points where I thought it was lazy production. I didn't even laugh. I guess for older children, who this is supposed to be for, it would be okay, but it lacked continuity, was too stop-start, limited dialogue (I suppose they were keeping to the comic) so it seemed too simple and not entertaining enough and I got the impression it was trying to be Disney but falling well short. I think I'll stick to reading Asterix.

I know this movie form a long time, certainly for the past 18 years, and still I watch it occasionally. There are quite a lot differences in the language you watch this movie, and I have seen German, English & in Dutch.As has been mentioned the movie looks very fresh, and it is 40 years old. It's quite weird that France had to give up his colonies in for instance Africa in the last decade and a half before this film was made.I like a lot of the dialogs especially of Asterix and Obelix, Asterix is much smarter than Obelix, but some of Obelix's decisions tend to have a good effect in things that happen. The use that Asterix and Obelix make of the Panoramix magic potion works quite well for me, partly I think because they do not use it for every issue or problem. The magic potion cant help for instance when they can't find the way out of the pyramid. But in this movie the only problem is a limited amount of time. And even that is not a real a problem. I think that because of this, although it has shifted from time to time for me, the lack of real conflicts / problems/ confrontations etc I like a bit more the film le douze travaux d'Asterix. In this film there is a major problem with bureaucracy, and the way Asterix and Obelix solve it is very funny. Bureaucracy is also a theme I hardly see in movies.Because of the architecture and art, I think that some sort of Egyptological advice went into this movie. Otherwise the makers did do their homework and were much inspired bij for instance at that time quite recent discoveries ( Lake Nasser, from Montet & Carter f.i. ). Although a lot of art is not really accurate, because cartouches don't appear in the homes of citizens and not even in rich peoples houses. But I like to see the attention there is paid to it. Some animations have some puzzling objects. When Cleopatra takes a bath, there is a boat visible quite similar to an object that has been found in Tutankhamens grave, and the meaning of this particular boat is not clear.But I have some things that should have been done much better, even though a lot was not known about this in 1968. .I'm not optimistic (from experience) about this, but I hope that every viewer realizes that we are given a stereotyped view on the appearance of the Egyptians for instance. I could only find some truth in the portrayal of the Egyptians in regard to the to their ages. They are often young, consistent with the fact that most ancient Egyptians died between their thirties and forties, and the (early) childhood mortality rate was very high. But despite the relative low life expectancy and the relatively isolated geographical situation, the (ancient) Egyptians have a wide range of physical characteristics. There was even a king from the New Kingdom who had red hair. I had hoped that these aspects would have been included.

In this 1968 animated movie Cleopatra and Julius Ceasar (wait...they didn't co-exist) make a bet that her summer home cannot be completed within a couple of weeks. Cleopatra enlists Asterix, Obelix and Getafix to help in the construction. The Romans retaliate with their own tricks and "hilarity" ensues. It might have been funny if the hijinks were more imaginative and exciting and also if it weren't punctuated with some boring acid-trip musical numbers.The movie opens with an ironic explanation of why the cheap dubbing doesn't look natural. They should have extended this to explain why there are some things that just cannot BE translated and why there are frequent moments that just don't make sense. I guess some of the blame for this could be down to the fact that in 1968 French animation hadn't evolved to any level of sophistication. The choppy, crude drawings and awful music don't help much either.The comic-book is better.

This is probably one of the best French animated films to date. It surely is the best of all Asterix movies since its story holds more together than any of the others. Its comic parts are many, but they are not ridiculous as many found in the others. On the cover of the book there was this motto: "The Greatest Story Ever Drawn". Surely it says right. Although much of the animation seems to have been inspired by 20th Century Fox's "Cleopatra" (1963), still it is full of originality. There is never a dull moment - it is entertainment from beginning to end.