Asterix at the Olympic Games (film)
Asterix at the Olympic Games (original title: Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques ) is the third real film adaptation of the Asterix comics . The film is based in part on the eponymous Asterix tape by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo from 1972. It was released in German cinemas on January 31, 2008 and, with a production budget of around 78 million euros, is one of the most expensive productions in European film history. The shooting took place in Spain and Morocco , among others .
action
In ancient Greece in the 1st century BC The Gallic poet Romantix falls in love with the Greek princess Irina. Enchanted by his rhymes, she longingly waits for his arrival to marry him. When Romantix arrives at the palace and initially sneaks in there as a servant, however, he finds out that Irina's father, the Greek King Aderlas, already has other plans: He would like to marry his daughter to Brutus, Julius Caesar's adopted son, in order to be good with Caesar deliver.
However, he lets Irina convince him to marry her to the winner of the Olympic Games. Therefore, both Romantix and Brutus are now taking part in the games. Asterix and his friend Obelix are now traveling to Greece with Miraculix and Troubadix from their village to help Romantix win the Olympic Games.
Brutus set himself the goal of manipulating the Olympic Games in favor of the Romans, but above all in his own favor, and to become the ruler of the Roman Empire instead of his adoptive father Caesar. Therefore, he procures several magic drugs from the crazy inventor Doktormabus and his henchman Vielverdrus in order to win and to kill Caesar. However, all the attacks fail. The Gauls, who used their magic potion at the games, got into trouble because a “bug test” proved this form of “doping” to them. Obelix is therefore no longer allowed to participate and Romantix has a hard time competing against the trained athletes without a magic potion. Brutus, on the other hand, uses a doping substance called “EPO” (“Elixir Pro Olympia”), which obviously also leads to superhuman increases in performance, but cannot be detected in the bug test.
However, with Brutus' obvious magic drugs and the bribery of the Olympic referees, the games develop into a farce. After Asterix has convinced Caesar of the ridicule Rome would reap should they win like that, Caesar offers the crowd to declare the chariot race the decisive final discipline. The audience cheerfully approves.
Brutus has the druid Miraculix kidnapped the night before the race so that he can brew him the magic potion. In addition, he forces the referees to eat the beetles that are used to test the athletes for doping. Asterix and Obelix manage to free Miraculix. They come up with a plan to get in the way of Brutus.
At the beginning of the race Brutus tries to involve his opponents in accidents with unfair means. So he succeeds in eliminating all opponents except the Gauls and Schumix. Although he can sabotage Schumix Ferrari-red chariots, Schumix can switch to a replacement car (which was still possible in Formula 1 at the time). Since his sabotage does not lead to victory, Brutus infuses his horses with the magic potion during the race, and thus wins the chariot race ahead of Romantix and the fast Germanic Schumix. The beetle test requested by Asterix cannot be carried out because the beetles are missing. However, since Miraculix has mixed a dye into the magic potion, Asterix can prove the horses and Brutus himself that they have taken it, which disqualifies Brutus and declares Romantix the winner.
Finally, Brutus tries to overthrow Caesar with his guards. However, it turns out that the guards are standing by Caesar. So Romantix can now hug his Irina and they celebrate a wedding party, at which even new sports ideas for the referees arise. Brutus and his accomplices end up as rowing slaves on Caesar's galley.
background
occupation
Christian Clavier , who took on the role of Asterix in the first two real films, explained in advance that he would not be available as Asterix in a third comic adaptation. Four top athletes of today, the German seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher , the French soccer world and European champion Zinédine Zidane , the French tennis player Amélie Mauresmo and the French basketball player and two-time NBA champion Tony Parker make their acting debut in the film. Schumacher played the Germanic chariot race participant Schumix. The other three athletes only played in the final scene. His long-time Ferrari team boss Jean Todt will also appear together with Schumacher . In the soundtrack, Caesar's introduction to Ennio Morricone and his music for the film The Sicilian Clan is quoted.
Comic and film
The film is only loosely based on the comic book. The love story does not exist in the comic, neither does Brutus and the conspiracy against Caesar, who does not intervene in the games either. There, the reason for the participation for the Gauls is an "official visit" by a Roman centurion in the Gallic village with the request to stay away from the Olympic training of his athlete Musculus, because the Gauls unsettle him with their speed and strength. However, this fact only inspires the Gauls in the comic to take part in the Olympic Games. Musculus, an athlete who was insecure at an early age, is a central figure in both comics and films. In the comic, Asterix and Obelix later temporarily unsettle all other athletes, including the Greeks, with their superhuman performances. Here, too, doping is a central theme: The Gauls are banned from the magic drink and the Romans are caught in both versions of doping with the help of the stolen magic drink - in the comic, however, only once at the end.
The final competition in the comic - there a 24-stage running competition only for Romans - serves to appease the Roman occupiers after the Greek athletes are vastly superior to the Romans in all competitions. In the film, on the other hand, Roman and Greek athletes are about equally strong.
synchronization
The German dubbing was done by the dubbing company PPA-Film, Munich. Pierre Peters-Arnolds was responsible for the dialogue writing and direction .
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Asterix | Clovis Cornillac | Michael Pan |
| Obelix | Gérard Depardieu | Manfred Lehmann |
| Miraculix | Jean-Pierre Cassel | Rudiger Evers |
| Aderlas | Bouli Lanners | Hans Hohlbein |
| Alafolix / Romantix |
Stéphane Rousseau | Pascal Breuer |
| alpha | Luca Bizzari | Stefan Evertz |
| Assurancetourix / Troubadix |
Franck Dubosc | Benedikt Gutjan |
| beta | Élie Semoun | Steffen Wink |
| Brutus | Benoît Poelvoorde | Ulrich Frank |
| Claudius Cornedurus / Claudius Musculus |
Jérôme Le Banner | Ole Pfennig |
| Couverdepus / Vielverdrus |
José Garcia | Santiago Ziesmer |
| Doctorate | Santiago Segura | Kai Taschner |
| teller | Pierre Tchernia | Friedrich Schoenfelder |
| Francix Lalanix | Francis Lalanne | Jaron Lowenberg |
| Humungus | Nathan Jones | Tilo Schmitz |
| Jean Todt | Jean Todt | Alexander fur |
| Julius Caesar | Alain Delon | Thomas Fritsch |
| Majestix | Eric Thomas | Hartmut Neugebauer |
| Methusalix | Sim | Horst Sachtleben |
| Mme. Methusalix | Adriana Karembeu | Ranja Bonalana |
| Numerics | Stéphane de Groodt | Bernd Vollbrecht |
| Numerobis | Jamel Debbouze | Bernhard Völger |
| Numérodix / Zinédine Zidanis |
Zinedine Zidane | Valérien Ismaël |
| Obstinatus | Alexandre Astier | Pierre Peters-Arnolds |
| omega | Paolo Kessissoglu | Thomas Darchinger |
| Pasunmotdeplus / Redkeinstus |
Michael Herbig | Michael Herbig |
| Princess Irina | Vanessa Hessler | Dennenesch Zoudé |
| Schumix | Michael sSchumacher | Michael sSchumacher |
| PE teacher | Claus-Peter Damitz |
Reviews
The film was downright panned by the critics. The main focus was initially on the actors, who, according to the film service, “fell short of expectations”. While the internet platform filmstarts.de generally found a “weak character drawing” , the Berliner Zeitung particularly emphasized Vanessa Hessler's “lack of talent” in the role of Irina: “She [Vanessa Hessler] is in a constant acting state -by - regardless of whether she is supposed to mimic infatuation, cheekiness, deliberation or anger. "On the other hand, Alain Delon was praised by Bayerischer Rundfunk as the self-loving Julius Caesar," because the vain old star [Delon] at least still himself thanks to his lines of dialogue can caricature ”. The appearances of Michael Schumacher and Zinédine Zidane were dismissed as "superfluous".
The film itself lacks ingenuity despite "great effects and a hearty budget". It is a "bland European potpourri with [...] simple jokes", writes br-online. The Berliner Zeitung thinks the film is "dreary, pointless, yawning boring", in short, "a disaster". The film-dienst criticizes that the film replaces the ingenuity of the original with gross gossip and does not understand how to use the satirical elements of the original. The deviation from the original is also criticized by the Bayerischer Rundfunk: “The framework is provided by a script that is far removed from the original and bursts with bland gags and attempted allusions.” The whole thing appears to be a “soulless and failed sketch spectacle”. The "uninteresting love story, which gives rise to all sorts of annoying anal and copulation jokes" and takes up too much of the story, was also criticized.
Awards
Asterix at the Olympic Games won the Gérard du cinéma 2008, the French equivalent of the Golden Raspberry , the award for the worst film of the year 2008 and in two other categories.
literature
- Marlène Soreda: Goscinny and Uderzo present Asterix at the Olympic Games. The book about the film. (Original title: Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques ). German by Klaus Jöken. Egmont, Berlin / Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-7704-3174-8 , 55 pp.
Web links
- Asterix at the Olympic Games in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Asterix at the Olympic Games in the online film database
- Asterix at the Olympic Games at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- The occupation
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of release for Asterix at the Olympic Games . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2007 (PDF; test number: 112 424 K).
- ↑ Age rating for Asterix at the Olympic Games . Youth Media Commission .
- ^ Asterix at the Olympic Games. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Asterix at the Olympic Games in the Lexicon of International Films
- ↑ a b Christian Horn. Filmkritik filmstarts.de, accessed on March 5, 2008.
- ↑ a b Special leave in the Circus Maximus . In: Berliner Zeitung , January 31, 2008, p. 2 cultural calendar.
- ↑ a b c Markus Aicher: Page no longer available , search in web archives: Filmkritik Bayerischer Rundfunk, January 29, 2008, accessed on March 5, 2008.
- ↑ paris-premiere.fr ( Memento of the original from November 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
