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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Asterix-Asterix and Cleopatra (Astérix et Cléopâtre) (1968)

Asterix-Asterix and Cleopatra (Astérix et Cléopâtre) (1968)

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Released 13-Nov-2001

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Animation Main Menu Audio
Biographies-Character
Rating Rated G
Year Of Production 1968
Running Time 69:29 (Case: 75)
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Lee Payant
Studio
Distributor

Shock Entertainment
Starring None Given
Case Alpha
RPI $29.95 Music Gerard Calvi


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Pan & Scan English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio Unknown Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    If you have never heard of Asterix, then you might want to read my reviews of other Asterix discs, because they contain a short introduction (see Asterix and the Big Fight here, Asterix vs Caesar here, Asterix in Britain here, or Asterix Conquers America here).

    Asterix and Cleopatra was one of the first Asterix stories (the second one written, I believe). It also appears to be the first one made into a movie, judging by its copyright date. As the first movie made from the Asterix books, it has an excuse for the errors / mismatches between the movie and the book, and there are errors (although not as egregious as some of the others...); one of the more subtle errors comes in Obelix's eating song (yes, I'll get onto the songs shortly) - it says that he likes eating boars and drinking beer. This is wrong - Obelix doesn't drink beer. There are some primitive jokes that don't belong in an Asterix book - Asterix is known for the subtlety of the humour. Obelix's fighting style is quite wrong.

    The voices are somewhat ill-cast, but that is true of all of the Asterix movies. Hard to say exactly what's wrong, but Edifis, for example, has a voice which sounds utterly wrong. Cleopatra has been cast to sound like Liz Taylor (hmmmm).

    Ah, yes, the songs - this movies features three songs, none of which belongs. I suspect that they have been included because this movie was made in the 60s. The worst is Cleopatra's bath song, including a singing lion (male, but no mane), and singing dancing girls with tambourines. Actually, the music in general is quite poor - like a combination of Merry Melodies and silent movie music.

    The movie holds fairly true to the book (unlike several of the other Asterix movies). There are a few deviations, but only the songs are exceptionable.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. This is definitely not the original aspect ratio (even though I cannot discover the original aspect ratio) - some of the picture is clipped on either side. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is soft, although it looks sharper than it is because of the strong black lines around each character - it's not edge enhancement, it is how they are drawn. Being animation, there's no shadow detail to discuss. There is what looks like low level noise, but it isn't.

    Colour is fairly strong, but possibly a little less saturated than other Asterix movies. There is no colour bleed.

    This is a demonstration disc for most kinds of minor artefacts. We get plenty of film artefacts, in various sizes from minute to fairly noticeable, but never huge. For example, we have water spots around 27:30, and even a light burn at 28:46. There's both background shimmer and mosquito noise throughout the film. There are reel changes markings (placed unusually at the middle of the right side, rather than at the top). There's even a frame slip in the telecine at 42:53. There is surprisingly little aliasing. It is fairly clear that this disc has been made from a VHS master, and consequently has lower resolution. Video Unlimited gives away their use of a VHS master with their logo sequence - it shows a VHS cassette.

    There are no subtitles.

    The disc is single-sided and single-layered. Consequently, 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. The content is mono.

    Dialogue is occasionally garbled, but some of this is probably inherent in the source material; the lion and the parrot are particularly obscure.

    The score is rather poor. It comes from Gerard Calvi, who must have served his apprenticeship writing music for music boxes. 

    The surrounds and subwoofer are not used by this soundtrack.

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

Extras

    This Asterix DVD has fewer extras than the earlier batch.

Menu

    The main menu is static, with music. It rapidly grows annoying.

Characters

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

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    As far as I can ascertain this disc, like all of the Asterix animations, is not yet available in Region 1.

Summary

    This is an entertaining story, on a poorly made DVD.

    The video quality is not awful, but it exhibits a huge range of artefacts.

    The audio quality is adequate.

    The extras are barely worth mentioning.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Tony Rogers (bio-degrading: making a fool of oneself in a bio...)
Sunday, December 16, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDArcam DV88, using Component output
DisplaySony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE
SpeakersFront Left and Right: Krix Euphonix, Centre: Krix KDX-C Rears: Krix KDX-M, Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

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