Asterix Conquers America (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Audio Biographies-Character Notes-blurbs for all of the Asterix movies
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	81:23 (Case: 79)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Gerhard Hahn
Studio Distributor	Shock Entertainment	Starring	Craig Charles John Rye Howard Lew Lewis Geoffrey Bayldon Henry McGee
Case	C-Button-Version 2
RPI	$29.95	Music	Harold Faltermeyer

    I have collected the Asterix comic books for many years, but I was unaware that movies had been made. So it was with high expectations that I came to review these DVDs. Four movies are released in the first batch: Asterix vs Caesar, Asterix in Britain, Asterix and the Big Fight, and Asterix Conquers America. Others are to follow. To keep things consistent, each review will start with the same information - feel free to skip the first three paragraphs when you're reading the other reviews.

    These stories are set in the days of Julius Caesar, when all of Gaul (France) was ruled by the Romans. Well, almost all of Gaul - one village holds out against Rome because its inhabitants are supplied with magic potion by their druid; the magic potion gives them superhuman strength, and they use that strength to beat the stuffing out of the Romans on a regular basis. The lead warrior in the village is Asterix. His best friend is Obelix (a menhir delivery man); Obelix's dog is Dogmatix. The druid is Getafix. The chief of the village is Vitalstatistix. The village elder is Geriatrix. The blacksmith is Fulliautomatix. The bard (who can't sing) is Cacofonix. The fish seller (who gets his fish fresh from Paris by oxcart) is Unhygienix. I think you begin to get the idea...

    On to this particular story: Asterix Conquers America. This is not based on any of the books, although it does take a couple of scenes from Asterix and the Great Crossing (the only book in which they visit America). This story is a bit different from the others: it introduces ideas that are not found in any of the other movies, nor in any of the books. Obelix is presented as rather more bellicose than is normal. The movie opens with credits over a slow zoom in on a flat Earth. They also mention an idea that druids are supposed to be immortal, thus justifying an idea that the Romans should kidnap Getafix and fling him off the edge of the Earth.

    That's the basic idea behind this movie.

    Understandably, the Romans fire Getafix off a catapult a long way out into the Atlantic, but he lands on America, rather than flying off the edge of the world. And, as you'd expect, Asterix and Obelix go to the rescue. The movie-makers' grasp of American geography is fairly weak. Anyway, our intrepid heroes confront native Americans, including a a shaman who wants the secret of the magic potion. In this movie, the chief's daughter is quite pretty, busty, and wears a short skirt. In the book she is not especially attractive - the boys head off home to avoid marrying her.

    Oh, watch out for the unbelievable scene where Dogmatix is rescued by a dolphin (Flipper's ancestor?). And the whole idea of crossing the Atlantic in a canoe is rather far-fetched (in the book they hitch a ride with Vikings, which is rather more believable).

    I did quite enjoy the lecture on the care and use of the "lion launcher" - the heavy Italian accent of the centurion seemed excessive, but apart from that it was fun.

    I recognised the voice actor playing Asterix in this movie: it's Craig Charles, who played Lister in Red Dwarf. He is using exactly the same vocal style as he used in Red Dwarf, even to the accent and mannerisms. 

Video

    This movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. I suspect that the original aspect ratio was wider, but I have no indication of what it might have been.

    The image is fairly soft, both on backgrounds and foregrounds.

    Colour is clear and strong, especially foreground colour. The backgrounds are less pastel than in other movies.

    There are lots of film artefacts (white flecks, black spots), plus spots on the camera. There's a heck of a lot of mosquito noise on the picture - that's probably the dominant artefact. There are a few MPEG artefacts on the backgrounds, including some pixelization. The film could have done with a good cleaning before telecine.

    There are no subtitles.

    The disc is single-sided and single-layered so there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is a single soundtrack on this disc - an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack without surround encoding. I think it is actually mono, because I heard nothing that sounded stereo.

    Dialogue is clear and relatively easy to understand. The native Americans don't speak an understandable language. They seem to be reciting a series of American place names, all of them probably derived from native American words.

    The score is quite good, but it does include a performance of Ging Gang Gooly - oh dear. There are a number of songs, including one called Say Goodbye performed by Bonnie Tyler. There's some decent bass in some of the score, especially the opening sequence. 

    The surrounds and subwoofer are not used by this soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    The extras on most of the Asterix DVDs are the same, but this one has an extra one (sorry, couldn't resist that).

Menu

    The main menu is static, with music - quite ominous music.

Songs

    This is two short segments of the movie, presenting two of the songs: We Are One People, and Say Goodbye.

Characters

    These are profiles for six of the characters: Asterix, Obelix, Vitalstatistix, Getafix, Cacofonix, and Dogmatix.

Other Titles

    Although this is headed Other Titles, it is a list of all the titles, including this one. There is a two page summary of each title attached to the picture.

    This appears to be the first release of this movie on DVD - it is only available on VHS in Region 2, and not at all in Region 1.

    Asterix Conquers America is constructed from bits of an Asterix book, plus some bits that don't fit within the Asterix world as we know it. It's not awful, but you'd probably enjoy it more if you don't know Asterix too well.

    The video quality is rather poor.

    The audio quality is quite good.

    The extras are still basic.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall