Asterix the Gaul (film)

Movie
German title	Asterix the Gaul
Original title	Asterix le Gaulois
Country of production	France , Belgium
original language	French
Publishing year	1967
length	70 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6
Rod
Director	Ray Goossens
script	Willy Lateste , Jos Marissen , László Molnár
production	Raymond Leblanc
music	Gérard Calvi
cut	François Ceppi , László Molnár, Jacques Marchel
synchronization
chronology
Successor  → Asterix and Cleopatra

Asterix the Gaul (original title: Astérix le Gaulois ) is the first Asterix cartoon from 1967. The Franco-Belgian co-production is based on the first comic book of the same name by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny .

action

While in 50 BC When all of Gaul was conquered and occupied by the Romans , the inhabitants of a small Gallic village on the Aremorica coast continued to offer resistance. In order to be able to survive against the Roman overwhelming power, they use a magic potion brewed by the druid Miraculix , which gives superhuman strength. One of the bravest warriors in the village is the shrewd Asterix . He is friends with the good-natured, but somewhat simple-minded Obelix .

Gaius Bonus , the centurion and commander of the Roman camp Kleinbonum, is annoyed that the Gauls village has been besieged for more than five years and not getting any further. Together with Marcus Schmalzlockus, he forges a plan to finally discover the secret of the superhuman strength of the Gauls: A Roman spy disguised as a Gauls is to be smuggled into the village. Since there is no volunteer, the game “Journey to Rome” is organized, in which the legionnaire Caligula Minus loses. He is sent as a supposed prisoner of the Romans into the forest, where he is actually freed by Asterix and Obelix and brought to the village. He told the Gauls that he was a tourist guide from Lutetia by the name of Kannwenix Minimix. Miraculix lets him taste the magic potion. However, he is subsequently exposed when his false beard falls off during traditional dance.

The spy flees back to Kleinbonum and reports to Gaius Bonus, who now absolutely wants to get the recipe for the magic potion and therefore has the druid Miraculix kidnapped. Asterix lets himself be driven to Kleinbonum on a merchant's ox cart and ends up hidden in the hay in the camp, where he finds the captured Miraculix and then surrenders to the Romans. Gaius Bonus wants to overthrow Julius Caesar with the help of the magic potion and gain power in the Roman Empire. He therefore demands from the druid that he brews the potion for him, which the latter does in the end. After all the Romans have drunk it, the supposed magic potion turns out to be a strong hair restorer. Miraculix agrees to brew an antidote, taking the opportunity to brew the magic potion for Asterix on the side.

Just as Miraculix and Asterix want to flee from Kleinbonum, Julius Caesar reaches the camp with an overwhelming number of legionnaires. When the Gauls report that Gaius Bonus wanted to march to Rome with the magic potion in order to overthrow Caesar, Gaius Bonus was transferred to Mongolia as a punishment. In gratitude, Caesar releases Asterix and Miraculix and they both return to their village.

publication

The film was shot without the knowledge of the two authors Goscinny and Uderzo. Originally, the company had Belvision planned to film several Asterix albums and divide them as a series for television. After a test demonstration by Asterix the Gauls , Uderzo and Goscinny were very angry about the project and particularly complained about the drawing style. Nevertheless, they gave their consent for the theatrical release, but they stopped the almost finished filming of " The Golden Sickle " in order to start their own, more complex project. The film negatives for “The Golden Sickle” had to be completely destroyed.

The DVD release of the film contains the 88-minute documentary René Goscinny - A Life for Humor (original title: René Goscinny: Profession humoriste ) by Michel Viotte from 1998 in French with German subtitles.

synchronization

There are three different German dubbed versions of the film: In addition to the version for the German cinema premiere on July 16, 1971, a new dubbing including partially changed music was created for the cinema re-performance on April 6, 1984; the GDR was on display. For the release of the film on video and DVD on December 27, 2001, an additional dialect version was created in Saxon , in which the original music was used again. The Blu-ray was released in 2014, with the dubbed versions from 1971 and 1984.

role	Original voices	German version (1971)	German version (1984)	Saxon version (2001)
Asterix	Roger Carel	Hans Hessling	Frank Zander	Peter Reinhardt
Obelix	Jacques Morel	Edgar Ott	Günter Pfitzmann	Wolfgang Kühne
Miraculix	Pierre Tornade	Klaus W. Krause	Friedrich W. Building School	Michael Pan
Majestix	Lucien Raimbourg	Eduard Wandrey	Michael Chevalier	Tilo Schmitz
Troubadix	Jacques Jouanneau	Hugo Schrader	Arne Elsholtz	Andreas Mueller
Caligula Minus	Jacques Jouanneau	Dieter Kursawe	Santiago Ziesmer	Gerald Schaale
Gaius bonus	Pierre Trabaud	Martin Hirthe	Horst Niendorf	Engelbert von Nordhausen
Marcus Schmalzlockus	-	Klaus Miedel	Dieter Kursawe	Klaus-Dieter Klebsch
Julius Caesar	-	Jochen Schröder	Christian Rode	Reinhard Kuhnert
Tullius Octopus	-	Michael Chevalier	Karl Schulz	Lutz Schnell
Dealer	Pierre Tornade	Erich Fiedler	Edgar Ott	Frank Turba
teller	Bernard Lavalette	Joachim Cadenbach	Friedrich Schoenfelder	Friedrich Schoenfelder *

* Friedrich Schoenfelder spoke the text for the dialect version a second time.

Reviews

“The first Asterix film disappointed in the German version due to its lack of dialog humor. The re-performance 13 years later took place in a noticeably better re-dubbing. "

- Lexicon of international film

"Has developed a patina, but remains fun."

- Cinema

Soundtrack

• Gérard Calvi : Asterix le Gaulois. Excerpts from the original soundtrack . On: Astérix au Cinéma. 33 titres en version originals . Play-Time (FGL) / BMG, Paris 1996, sound carrier no. PL 961226/3017682 - Excerpts from the original recording of the film music conducted by the composer.

literature

• Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny: Asterix the Gauls. Ehapa-Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-77-040001-1 or ISBN 978-3-7704-0001-0 .

Web links

• Asterix the Gaul in theInternet Movie Database(English)
• Asterix the Gaul in the online movie database
• Asterix inrotten tomatoes(English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Due to the PAL acceleration , the film has a length of 65 minutes on DVD and TV broadcasts.
2. ↑ Asterix the Gauls on bluray-disc.de
3. ↑ Asterix the Gaul. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .  
4. ↑ cf. cinema.de