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Asterix and the Vikings

So I saw Asterix and the Vikings the other day. I must confess that, after reading some less than positive reviews, my hopes weren't particularly high, but I was pleasantly surprised. Indeed, I'd put it pretty high up on my list of favourite Asterix films, if not at the very top.

In comparison with the slipshod Asterix Conquers America, the art and animation in this film are absolutely magnificent, looking for the first time like the whole thing was drawn by Uderzo himself (no small feat given that it was animated at various studios around the world). The characters, backgrounds, props and colours have all been transferred pretty faithfully from the original books (although the design of Chief Vistalstatistix has been simplified somewhat through the removal of the stripes on his trousers, something that none of the other films did).

The plot itself deviates quite a bit from the book on which it is based, Asterix and the Normans, although when it does follow the book's storyline it does so almost to the letter. Of the changes made, the most obvious are the addition of a new character, Abba, who is the sassy daughter of the Viking chief, and the transposition of a large portion of the story to the Viking homelands. None of these changes really hurt the plot, and in fact result in some very funny gags, the biggest howler being an arranged wedding between Abba and the loutish Olaf (another new character).

It's not a flawless film, though. Specifically, the inclusion of a number of pop songs, at least two of which are actually supposed to be taking place within the narrative, comes across as pretty jarring, while the constant foregrounding of the character of Vitalstatistix's nephew, Justforkix, takes the focus away from the true protagonists, Asterix and Obelix, often relegating them to the status of secondary characters (which didn't happen in the original book). Also, a running gag involving a carrier pigeon who delivers text messages sticks out like a sore thumb. Anachronistic jokes have always been a staple of the Asterix series, but I have a hard time imaging Goscinny writing a joke like this if he'd lived long enough to see the invention of mobile phones. (At the very least, I suspect he'd have done a far subtler job of it.)

Still, I really enjoyed the film. At just under 70 minutes (not counting the end credits), it's a decent length (although I do feel that, perhaps, if it had been slightly longer, they wouldn't have had to rattle through the first few pages of the book so quickly), and the quality is extremely high throughout. Hopefully this will be released on DVD before too long. In the meantime, I've ordered the book of the film from Amazon.fr.

7/10

Note: I version I saw was a French dub, which actually worked very well. To be honest, I actually suspect that the English original will turn out to be inferior, judging by the names that have been attached to it, and the way Asterix Conquers America went. For me, as for most people, Roger Carel is the voice of Asterix (and Dogmatix), not... Paul Giamatti (???).

15:31