Astérix and Obélix-The Mansions of the Gods, Review: Caesar’s seizure
Astérix and Obélix-The Mansions of the Gods, Review: Caesar’s seizure
Adventures of French cartoon characters Asterix and Obelix, created by René Goscinny (stories) and Albert Uderzo (illustrations), were originally serialised in the magazine Pilote, in 1971, and translated into English in 1973. They have been made into films too. This is the first Asterix film animated in 3D, and was released in France on November 26, 2014, with DVD, VOD and Blu-ray versions arriving on June 9, 2015. In India, the dubbed-in-English version is being released this week. Astérix and Obélix-The Mansions of the Gods is a passably funny film, with the situations designed to make younger viewers laugh-out-loud on gag value. Characters are well-defined in terms of physical attributes, and the rubbery bodies soft on the eye, yet the escapades have a very strong adult sub-text and socio-political under-current.
With the intent to wipe out the Gaulish village in Brittany (France) rebelling against him, Emperor Julius Caesar plans to seize their land and absorb the villagers into Roman culture, by establishing a Roman colony, called the 'Mansions of the Gods'. The project is led by the architect Squaronthehypotenus (one among a host of hilarious names), who orders an army of slaves of various nationalities to pull down the trees in the Gauls' forest, to make way for the colony. With the help of Getafix's magic, Asterix and Obelix plant replacement trees magically, enhanced by one of the druid's potions, to reach mature size almost immediately; whereupon an increasingly erratic Squaronthehypotenus threatens "to work the slaves to death".
Taking this literally, Asterix gives the slaves a magic potion that will provide them the strength to rebel. The slaves do rebel, but do not stop work and leave, as Asterix had wanted them to. Instead, they negotiate better working conditions, regular pay, and freedom after completing the first building of the Mansions of the Gods, in the way some modern trade unions function. Upon hearing that the slaves are better paid than them, the Roman legionnaires go on strike, for similar and better conditions for themselves. Since the freedom of the slaves depends on constructing at least one building, the Gauls allow the work to proceed.
Finally, the first building of the Mansions of the Gods is built, and inhabited by Roman families: the first of these consisting of a patrician husband and wife, selected by lottery, and literally ordered to move to France. These Romans then go shopping at the village, which, before long, turns into a market town, selling "antique" weapons and fish to the Romans, and gets embroiled in price wars.
Over the decades, Asterix is probably the only ‘anti-hero’ to boast such a collection of success stories and heroic feats. Throughout his adventures, where his legendary wile and the precious magic potion, concocted by the druid Getafix, allow him to escape from the direst situations, often covered with glory. Asterix has made off with Caesar's laurel crown, won a gold medal at the Olympic Games and completed, with honours, the 12 tasks, as decreed by Caesar one day, when he was foolish enough to risk a bet with incorrigible Gauls. The Britons discovered tea and the Belgians were inspired to make French fries thanks to Asterix!
Although he had only a minor role in the first adventure, Obelix quickly became an essential character that his authors developed, as they went along. Some opinion polls place Obelix at the top of the list of favourite village characters. Incidentally, there are a mind-boggling 36 Gauls, 53 Romans, 34 others (Goths, Egyptians and Pirates) in the stories.
In the adventures, we find him by turns easily offended (who’s fat?), sensitive (we have seen him cry at a romantic happy ending), and definitely a glutton. An overgrown child who grew up too quickly, and who is not yet aware of his own strength (in his defence, it must be said that not everyone falls in a cauldron of magic potion when he’s a little boy!), Obelix is an inexhaustible source of gags.
(In French, the two names are spelt with an acute over the e, like é).
Directed by Louis Clichy (Director, Screenwriter, Director of Photography, Production Designer) who created shorts like A quoi à a sert l’amour? before animating at Pixar on WALL·E and Up, Mansions of the Gods is co-directed and co-written by Alexandre Astier (Asterix at the Olympic Games, LOL, David and Mrs. Hansen, Pop Redemption, We Three or Nothing). Two more names share writing credits, Jean-Rémi François and Philip LaZebnik.
French is a more verbose language compared to English and the French are known to be garrulous. As a result, the English version moves at such a speed that makes the dialogue often unintelligible. With so many characters, and hilarious but unwieldy names, it comes a strain on the viewer to keep pace. When both visuals and audio go pounding away together, disorientation results. Caesar and Obelix are interesting contrasts in shape and size—the Emperor being skinny, short and long-faced, the bum rotund and gigantic. A few sequences are repeated more than once for effect, the point having been already made latest by the second go.
Property sharks, fixed lotteries, labour v/s management negotiations, opportunistic fast bucks, Machiavellian moves, ecological issues and other very serious matters that concern 20th and 21st century France (and often the world) are the clear symbols of a social commentary, under the camouflage of magic potions, instant tree-growing seeds, disgruntled mercenaries and shrewd trade unionists. Yet, the film works best a comic fest for youngsters.
On reading the names of the voices, they appear to be the French version credits. No credible list of English and/or American voices could be located. Performance-wise, they are largely on par, with the British accent being unduly pronounced.
A bit dated in terms of technology, Astérix and Obélix-The Mansions of the Gods is worth an outing. Background awareness will help you enjoy it better.
Rating: **1/2
Trailer: https://youtu.be/_Npe5FV_dTA
The Creator
René Goscinny was born in Paris in 1926. Shortly afterwards, the Goscinny family left for Argentina, for professional reasons. René spent his childhood there and went to the French Lycée (school) in Buenos Aires, where he earned a reputation for clowning about. He did his BA and studied fine art. René was still a teenager when his father died and he had to find a job quickly. Soon, he became an assistant illustrator in an advertising agency. Later, he went to New York, at the invitation of an uncle, who had settled there.
The American dream did not work out, and Goscinny went to France do his military service in the French Army. He then went back to the United States, where he met the team from the niche humour publication, MAD Magazine (Willy Elder, Harvey Kurtzman), who give him enough work to survive. In New York, he met the cartoonists Jijé and Morris. The latter introduced him to Georges Troisfontaines, boss of World Press, and Yvan Chéron, head of International Press. They worked out an idea, and a few weeks, later René arrived in Paris to work with them. That was in 1951.
One fine morning in 1951, Albert Uderzo, who was working for World Press/International Press, was told that someone new, called 'Gossini' was coming to join them. When Albert heard this name, he felt a fellow Italian was going to be his companion. But he learnt that the newcomer’s name was spelt G.o.s.c.i.n.n.y, he was French, and he's moving there from the United States. Nevertheless, the two hit it off immediately, and were to work on numerous joint projects. The partnership resulted in many heroes, including Oompah-Pah, whom many see as a precursor to Asterix.
Then, in 1959, an important project comes the two friends' way: to create a magazine called Pilote, with François Clauteaux as the editor. After exploring the history of France, Albert and René agree on Gaul and the Gauls.
And so, on 29 October 1959, the first issue of Pilote presented its readers with the first ‘plate’ of the Adventures of Asterix, the Gaul, on page 20. The magazine was an immediate success: more than 300,000 copies sold! René Goscinny explained that his hero's name, with its initial «A», was a clear advantage with regard to alphabetic classification in any future comic book encyclopaedias.
Asterix became a major French comic strip hero in 1977, with his popularity increasing album by album. Albert and René, by now, had also founded a cartoon film studio, called Studio Idéfix.
On 5 November 1977, René Goscinny died during an exercise ‘stress test’ in a medical check-up. He was just 51.
Gaul and the Gallic Wars
{gal'-ik}
Julius Caesar's campaigns in Gaul (58-51 BC) are collectively termed the Gallic Wars. In 58 BC, Gallic agitation against the Suevi, a German tribe that had recently conquered territory in Gaul, and the threat of invasion by the Helvetii, a Celtic tribe from the area that is now Switzerland, gave Caesar a pretext to advance his career through war. In the same year Caesar's army defeated and killed the Suevi's leader Ariovistus in Alsace after a hard campaign.
In 57, Caesar successfully met the attacks of the Gallic tribes of the Belgae and Nervii, and established Roman control over what is now Belgium and northern France. The following year, he conquered the Atlantic coast, thus isolating the central Gallic tribes, and massacred the German Usipites and Tencteri, who had entered Belgium. His invasions of Germany (55) and Britain (55 and 54) accomplished little, but provided much publicity for Caesar.
The winter of 54 and most of 53 were spent in suppressing sporadic revolts in northern Gaul. The biggest threat came in 52, when a coalition of tribes in central Gaul under Vercingetorix (chieftain of the Averni) rose against the Romans. Caesar finally besieged Vercingetorix at Alesia. Famine overcame the defenders while Caesar's troops defeated a Gallic rear attack. Vercingetorix was brought to Rome, exhibited in Caesar's triumphal march, and executed. Serious Gallic resistance had now ended, but minor uprisings caused Caesar considerable frustration, during 51 BC. The Gallic Wars provided Caesar with wealth, a trained loyal army, and enormous popularity to use against his rivals at Rome.
Gaul
{gawl}
Gaul (from the Latin Gallia) was the ancient name for an area roughly equivalent to modern France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany west of the Rhine. In Italy, the Po Valley was called Gallia Cisalpina ("Gaul this side of the Alps") by the Romans. The Celts, whom the Romans called Galli (Gauls), began to cross the Rhine into Gaul c.900 BC.
(Due credit to the research of Allen M. Ward, Professor of History, University of Connecticut, Storrs. Source: The New Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Release #9, ©1997. Used non-commercially, purely to provide a historical perspective to readers).
