Customer Reviews

Asterix in Britain [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Years ago, I enjoyed this movie many, many times with my 6-year old daughter. We both laughed so hard that it hurt! But then we are tuned into the corny humor that pervades the Asterix series - puns, bad accents and everything. The movie also explains why tea is a popular drink in Britain. I am planning on giving this video to my 7-year old son now.

This Asterix cartoon isn't as good as Asterix Vs. Ceaser,12 Tasks of Asterix, and Asterix and Cleopatra. But good never the less. In this one Asterix must help his cousin from Britain fight off a group of Romans trying to invade their village.

This is a great Asterix movie. This movie is about Asterix and Obelix when they go to save Britian from the Romans. While Asterix and Obelix go to bring some magic potion to Britian, Caeser tries to stop them. Anyone who has seen Asterix movies or read Asterix comic books will love this one!

Goscinny and Uderzo have splendid fun with anachronisms in this adaptation of arguably their best-loved book. The Britons all speak with plummy 'I say' accents, insist on gentlemanly behaviour, play cricket, obsessively tend their gardens, drink beer and eat food other Europeans find grossly inadequate. The resistance against Roman invasion is interrupted for lunch breaks and weekends. We even discover how tea became the national beveage, a spirit-fortifying drink analogous to the Gauls' magic potion. For once the dubbing, so often a distraction in these films, is absolutely necessary, the actors having great fun with various pinched English dialects.

The Gauls' entry is delayed in this superb film to concentrate on the Invasion Of Britain. The terrifying scale of Roman might is demonstrated by comparison with an absurdly optimistic pirate ship easily smashed by the incoming fllet. As the chalky white cliffs of Dover line the horizon, something strange happens in the guts as we watch a country who would spend the subsequent millenia invading other countries themselves over-run. The 'what ho!' insouciance in reaction to this reveals some of the best aspects of the British character - humour; perspective; generosity; sportsmanship and good-fellowship - but also an ingrained (and rather shocking) complacency.

Mirroring the situation in Gaul, the entire country is taken over, with the exception of one brave little village. Its Vitalstatistix-lookalike chief fears they cannot hold out against the Romans much longer, and sends his friend Anticlimax to Gaul to request the help of his distant cousin Asterix. The druid Getafix prepares a large wine barrel of magic potion to be transported to England by Asterix, Obelix and Dogmatix. When the Romans discover this plot, every wineshop in the country is ransacked.

The potential problem with the Asterix formula is that it risks becoming predictable - if Obelix et al are so powerful, then no-one can defeat them and there is no drama or suspense. 'Britain' avoids this pitfall not by repeatedly confronting our heroes with physical force, but by constantly diverting them from their quest, forcing them on their wits. Not only do they have to evade Romans, but sneaky London thieves with slavering dogs and Obelix's untimely inebriation too.

Visually, 'Britain' is the most accomplished of the Asterix films - the recreation of Roman Britain, with small, shadowy thatched huts and labyrinthine backstreets uneasily co-existing with huge, spacious, bright, classical, offical Roman buildings, is smart and detailed. Subjective flourishes are few, but there are some excellent comic action sequences, and London by night becomes an eerie, treacherous place. The portrait of the Romans has been given energy in the wake of 'The Life Of Brian' - they are doubly mean and doubly incompetent than before; the film's comic highlight being a winetasting manoeuvre to find the magic potion - the classically ordering of barrels and troops soon disintegrating into drunken chaos, just as our little subversive band of individualists defeat the anonymous might of the empire. Well, it is an 80s film...

This french cartoon is one of my favorites. If you or your child, of any age, speaks or is learning to speak French, I would strongly recomend this video.

Asterix in Britain is a wonderful video that mixes in a bit of history, some great fun, and a healthy dose of puns. The latter are more prevalent in the comic books than the videos though. The authors poke gentle fun at most everything from tea to turf. Throughout the series, an appreciation of cultures and cuisines lurks in the background. The translators have done a marvellous job in bringing the stories to english.

Asterix in Britain is another well done Asterix movie. Not nearly as good as Asterix vs. Ceaser, and 12 Tasks of Asterix but good never the less. I strongly recommend this video for family viewing.