Asterix-Asterix in Britain (1986)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Audio Biographies-Character Notes-blurbs for all the Asterix movies
Rating
Year Of Production	1986
Running Time	75:27 (Case: 79)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Pino Van Lamsweerde
Studio Distributor	Shock Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	C-Button-Version 2
RPI	?	Music	Vladimir Cosma

    I have collected the Asterix comic books for many years, but I was unaware that the movies had been made. So it was with high expectations that I came to review these DVDs. Four movies have been 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 in Britain. This one is based on the book Asterix in Britain, and it follows the book quite closely. A few scenes have been abbreviated, but generally they have done an excellent job of sticking to the book - this is the only one of these movies that follows the book.

    There are some amusing touches - the sounds of modern firearms during a catapult attack is quite entertaining.

    The signs we see are in French - the worst is the inn, where the characters refer to the sign as The Jolly Boar, but the sign is in French; note that this is in Britain, so there's no excuse. 

Video

    This movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

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

    Colour is well-saturated, but completely without over-saturation.

    There are lots of film artefacts. Most are simple flecks, but there's a hair at the top of frame at around 30:40. At 57:23 there are some large white marks - possibly gouges in the film. There are traces of aliasing. There is quite a bit of shimmer in the backgrounds during the beach landing sequence (around 6:00 to 7:00). This is the worst of these movies for artefacts.

    There are no subtitles.

    The disc is single-sided and single-layer. 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 mostly clear, but a few words here and there are obscured.

    The score is fairly mundane - it is by Vladimir Cosma, the same composer as for Asterix vs Caesar.

    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.

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 movie is not available on DVD in Region 1.

    Asterix In Britain is an animated version of the Asterix book of the same name. This is not a good transfer, mostly because the film source used was not clean.

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

    The audio quality is reasonable.

    The extras are basic.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall