Asterix-Asterix and the Big Fight (Astérix et le Coup du Menhir) (1989)

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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	1989
Running Time	76:49 (Case: 79)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Philippe Grimond
Studio Distributor	Shock Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	C-Button-Version 2
RPI	$29.95	Music	Michael Colombier

    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 and the Big Fight. There is a book called Asterix and the Big Fight, but this movie takes only the start of that book. Right at the start of the movies the credits say "based on the adventures of Asterix the Gaul, written by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo" - in other words, even though it has the same name as a specific book, they are not guaranteeing to follow it. And it shows, too. They don't even bother to use the right names for the characters. The druid Getafix is now the "wizard Vitamix". The magic potion is called "vitamin potion". The village chief is called "Bombastix". The bard is called "Franksinatrix". And the fishmonger is referred to as "Fishstix". 

    There's a musical number performed by the bard, who can sing - that's very untrue to the Asterix stories.

    The closing credits don't match the usage in the movie, either. The druid is "Miraculix", and the chief "Majestix". There are references to "Troubadix" (I guess that's Cacofonix) and "Methusalix" (Geriatrix, I think). Not too impressive.

    It seems clear that the screen translator never bothered to consult the English translation of the Asterix books, and the credits were done by someone else again. It is quite annoying to see familiar characters with the wrong names - I'm glad this is the only movie which made these mistakes. 

    This movie starts with the same premise as the book Asterix and the Big Fight, that the druid loses his memory after being hit on the head with a menhir. But it completely misses out the Big Fight, which is the point of that book. Instead it then proceeds with the storyline of Asterix and the Soothsayer, a completely different book. The soothsayer (called a fortune teller in this movie - I guess they thought we would have problems with the word "soothsayer") is called Prolix (one of the few names that is accurate!).

    There are a few elements salvaged from the book Asterix and the Big Fight - the druid mixing up explosive potions, and the Roman who is forced to sample them. But these are the least important. The sub-plot involving the owl who becomes obsessed with the Roman who pretends to be a tree is rendered trivial by leaving out the owl's thoughts.

    The Romans are speaking with heavy Italian accents - a bit over-the-top, but mildly entertaining.

    If you are a keen fan of Asterix you may find this the least satisfying of the movies, because it is a mish-mash of two stories, leaving out some of the best parts of both.

Video

    This movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which is probably not the original aspect ratio.

    The image is reasonably sharp. Backgrounds are fairly soft, but that matches the drawing in the books. There's no visible low level noise.

    Colour is clear and strong, especially foreground colour. The backgrounds are a bit more pastel, but they look fine.

    There are plenty of film artefacts. The artefacts are small white and black flecks, and are not too bad. There are traces of aliasing, but it's never troubling. There is some shimmer on the backgrounds.

    There are no subtitles.

    The disc is single-sided and single-layered, hence 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 generally clear and understandable, but a couple of the voice actors are less easy to understand.

    The score is not obtrusive - many scenes don't have any music.

    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.

Menu

    The main menu is static, with music.

Characters

    There are profiles for six of the characters: Asterix, Obelix, Vitalstatistix, Getafix, Cacofonix, and Dogmatix. It is interesting to see that they have these names in the extra, even though their names are not right in the movie, and are wrong (in a different way) in the credits.

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.

    As far as I can ascertain, this movie is not available in Region 1. It is available on DVD in Region 2, in Germany, but I cannot tell you if that DVD is better or worse than this one.

    Asterix And The Big Fight is a movie made from pieces of two different Asterix books. It is quite annoying because it is not true to the Asterix world we know.

    The video quality is adequate, but there are lots of (small) artefacts.

    The audio quality is good.

    The extras are basic.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall