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AsterixObelixTheMiddleKingdom.jpg

The Colossal Flop Shaking the French Film Industry: 'Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom'

By Alberto Cox Délano | Film | February 22, 2023 |

By Alberto Cox Délano | Film | February 22, 2023 |


AsterixObelixTheMiddleKingdom.jpg

Please check this trailer, as it is, and write down your impressions in the comments. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know French, does this look like a good movie?

British readers are probably more familiar with these characters, but an introduction is always welcome. When most people in the Anglosphere think of the Top 5 biggest Comic Book series, most will say Spider-Man, Batman, The Avengers (but only recently), Superman, and The X-Men. Some might swap the latter for Tintin. Well, allow me to correct things. In reality, the Top 5 biggest Comic Book series are Spider-Man, Batman, The Avengers (mostly because of the MCU), Tintin, and Asterix & Obelix.

The latter concentrates its popularity in French-speaking countries and Continental Europe, but the series is especially popular in countries that speak a Romance language, which is very fitting for a series set in the early Roman Empire. Basically, if you speak French, Spanish, Italian, Catalonian, Romanian, or Portuguese, you probably learned to read with Ásterix. If you’re in a Latin American country, that’s mostly the case for upper-middle class people, because comic books are expensive, but the albums (self-contained arcs) are a staple of every public or school library.

The story goes like this, quote words many of us know by heart:

The year is 50 BC. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely … One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders. And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium…

The main characters are Gaul warrior Ásterix, a cunning short king, and his BFF and life partner Óbelix, a gentle giant and manufacturer of megaliths. The villagers are aided by a magic potion giving them super-human strength, whose secret is only by their druid, Getafix (Pánoramix in the original). Co-created by writer René Goscinny and illustrator Albert Uderzo, it might be one of the most brilliant concepts ever created: An anti-imperialist cartoon for children. Goscinny imprinted a sense of humanism and social critique throughout the stories he wrote, alongside cartoon fistfights, wordplay (which survives the translations to Romance languages), and a kind-spirited parody of cultural mannerisms and stereotypes. There are elements that are problematic, for example, the graphic depiction of Black people. Nevertheless, there is enough nuance in the 24 albums written during Goscinny’s lifetime to write a PhD. After him, Uderzo took over, and it has been diminishing returns ever since. Still, it is now one of the tenets of French culture.

There have been several animated movie adaptations, all pretty popular (and we’ll get to the recent ones in a minute). But in 1999, the first live-action adaptation was released, Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar, with Christian Clavier and Gérard Depardieu as Ásterix and Óbelix, respectively, plus Roberto Benigni as the antagonist. It was the biggest French production ever at the time and it became a huge Global hit. It was shite. The kind of movies 10-year-old me could realize were shite. Nevertheless, they kept making sequels, four in total, including the last one, Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom. Each dumber than the last (for one of the smartest comic series out there), and they were all expensive. Save for the second-to-last one, Astérix and Obélix: God Save Britannia (2012), they all turned a profit somehow (the third entry made $133 million on a $110 million dollar budget), I guess because of the generous funding and tax rebates available for European films, but also, probably, because one the biggest cinema chains in France and Europe is co-owned by Pathé and Gaumont, the largest film production and distribution companies in the Continent.

Undeterred by the poor critical reception and diminishing box office returns, Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom premiered three weeks ago. They went all out, with Guillaume Canet (Tell No One and Little White Lies) taking over directing duties and the role of Ásterix, Vincent Cassel as Julius Cesar, Marion Cotillard (Canet’s wife) as Cleopatra and a cavalcade of European stars in supporting or cameo roles, like footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović or popstar Angèle. The movie has the duo journeying to China, the budget was $72 million dollars. Three weeks in, it might struggle to cross half that amount at the French box office. The results over Europe have also been midding. The film wasn’t just savaged by the critics, but by the people in the trailer’s comments, making the best out of the French wit and humor that the Ásterix comic books embody. Some demanded to be reimbursed just for having to watch the trailer, others thanked the studio for condensing in two minutes everything wrong with the movie.

The movie had a lot expectations riding on it, mainly, that of saving French theatrical releases, after a dire 2022 at the box office, where US pictures reigned supreme. For reference, throughout the last decade, at least five to eight French films would be in the top 25 highest earners (not counting Luc Besson outings or the Despicable Me franchise). They are mostly broad comedies, not the kind of things you picture when thinking of French movies, but the industry had been solid so far. But what the producers behind this flop failed to consider (other than the spirit of Ásterix) is that there was no need to compete against Disney with VFX spectacles. The second biggest French movie of all time is a comedy of manners, and the most successful one is The Intouchables.

But the real wrong thing about these live-action adaptations is that you can’t adapt Ásterix as live action, because it is first and foremost a cartoon. Proudly so. Here’s a panel for reference:

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Ásterix can only be adapted as an animated film. Period. Otherwise, it just looks grotesque. Indeed, two 3D animated adaptations were released in 2014 and 2018, they look great, funny, faithful to the original’s spirit and they were huge hits. So once again, we are facing a case of studios losing millions of Euros because they don’t respect animation. An animated series was announced for 2023 … on Netflix. I guess it’ll do.

Alberto Cox here to tell you that a new imprint called Papercutz will be bringing Asterix’s comics to the US, among other European classics.