"Asterix and the Big Fight" concludes the second movies' period of the famous little Gaul. This statement is inaccurate but I've never really paid attention to the 1995' "Asterix conquers America" or "Asterix and the Vikings" made one decade after, and I'm fine with that. These two films failed to capture that spicy wit that made the Asterix's adventures so enjoyable, the lameness of their songs and the Americanization of their plots betrayed the marketed intentions of their makers. In others words, these films didn't have the secret ingredient of the magic potion.

And neither does "The Big Fight", but that's only because it's part of the plot. It starts with the Roman soldiers who had the misfortune of meeting two Gauls in the forest… well, not quite, as they try to explain to their centurion, there were not just two Gauls, they had one dog, plus two wild boars, so technically, they were five, what a relief: the honor is safe. Romans are much aware that the Gauls owe their force to the magic potion and therefore they plan to kidnap the druid Getafix. But their plot fails thanks to Obelix' providential intervention. He throws a huge menhir at them, convincing them to run away. But gravity is a bitch, and it's on poor Panoramix that the big rock concludes its doomed trajectory.

The consequence is a mix of amnesia and dementia putting Getafix in a child-like state. Obelix tries to make amends, précising that it was just a little menhir, but who is he kidding? As soon as Getafix opens his eyes, his hallucinations say enough about his medical condition. And this part leads to the first (and only) musical sequence where the well-meaning bard Cacofonix sings the film's defining song, a catchy Rock'n'Roll theme … that lasts one minute, but it would have been too patience-demanding for Fulliautomatix to let him finish. The ancestor of all musical critics puts the final note with his huge hammer. Granted Cacofonix' head is used to these displays of brutality so he'll not probably end up like Getafix.

This part of the plot belongs to the "Big Fight" album, but like "Asterix vs. Caesar", another album inspires the narrative, and not the least, "The Soothsayer". A mysterious man penetrates the village under a rainy storm, the kind that reminds us the Gauls' only fear: that the sky would fall on their heads, perhaps a metaphor for bad omen. Prolix, to name him, is welcomed to the village and shares a bowl of milk and some boar with Obelix (let's not guess who eats what). In an ominous and solemn voice, he reveals that he anticipated everything that would happen. How come? He's a soothsayer. The whole assembly is impressed, only Asterix, the smartest one have reasonable doubts and Obelix has no sympathy for someone who takes pride from being capable to read in dog's guts.

The merit of the "Big Fight" is to be based on an album totally set in the Gaul's village, no escapism, but a rather static adventure where the Gaul villagers play a significant part, notably the females. Vitalstatitix' wife is even one of the most important characters. No Asterix movies dared to keep the action in the village, which says a lot about the maturity of the makers, who trusted the originality of the album and knew they could make something out of an adventure where even Asterix and Obelix would spend most of their times watching the druid. The two plots mixes rather well, confronting the village to two dilemmas: the wisest man hasn't just lost his mind but can't even remember the magic potion's recipe and the soothsayer can manipulate them, to the point of convincing them to leave the village.

And with all this sensation of doom pending over their heads, "The Big Fight" features some hilarious sequences and great pieces of animation. The soothsayer is caught by the Romans, and when realizing that his 'I'm a soothsayer' rhapsody would cause him to be arrested, he then reveals he's a scam. But the Centurion who just learned he might be upgraded doesn't want to believe it, he submits him to a 'heads or tails' test, whose outcome is one of the film's greatest gag followed by Prolix' desperate to convince the Romans that he's not a soothsayer, he's just clever. The second part is a hilarious and fast-paced scene where a poor legionary is asked to taste the potions made by Getafix, slow-motion, shrinking, transformation, nothing is spared for the poor soldier. His capability to fly at the end feels almost like a consolation, starting a friendship with a very sympathetic owl.

"The Big Fight" evolves smoothly and confidently and never leaves an opportunity for a gag, even the druid's cure is followed by a hilarious attempt of Obliex to cure him with delicacy. The film culminates with a great fight that ends up with the Gaul's triumph, but there's something strangely melancholic and moving in the final score, when the Gauls leave the Roman camp, and the centurion realizes a bit too late that the soothsayer's predictions weren't worth the coin he flipped. The film concludes with the brave soldier flying away from the camp with his friend, the owl, into the sunset we see him again in the pale moonlight under the legendary banquet that concludes every adventure. And the rock'n'roll score is back. End of the story, a good one.

I'll never forget the day I saw the film for the first time, on a moody Sunday of 1991, those were the times where each Sunday featured a cartoon adventure, no 3D, nothing, just the simple power of images and imagination. Anyway, the "Asterix" movies couldn't have had a better conclusion, yes, they were others to be made, but when it comes to cartoon, they finish with the "Big Fight".

"Astérix et le coup du menhir" or "Asterix and the Big Fight" or "Asterix - Operation Hinkelstein" is a co-production between West Germany and France and as a consequence this film is once more (mostly) in the French language. This was released back in 1989, so it is over 30 years now and it is one of the older, but not oldest Asterix movies. Definitely also among the ones who have not seen by too many, but I shall get to that a little later. Maybe this also has to do with the fact that the director is Philippe Grimond here and, while he has been fairly active in other departments, this one here is his only career effort as the man in charge behind the camera. There also seems to be little information about where he is now, if he is still alive etc. Same applies to writers Voight and Kabatek with the key difference that these two have never worked on another film project at all, which is surely on the surprising side because writing a screenplay for an Asterix movie was kinda big back then too. I guess it is fitting that those writers who will always be remembered for these works are of course Goscinny and Uderzo with the former being dead for a long time now sadly and Uderzo left us not that long ago. This film runs for approximately 80 minutes, but the version I saw earlier today was even shorter I believe. Also they showed all these animated Asterix films not too long ago here, I think it was for Easter, and this one they did not show and wait until Whitsun now and this really makes it obvious that it is not one of the best, not one of the funniest and also not one of the most inspired films from the series.

A key difference here is for example that Asterix, Obelix and the rest stay at home and to not explore a new country or even continent. So this takes away some jokes already on the level of how much the Brits love their tea for example. The culture clash element is completely gone. Instead, it is more a clash if reason vs. Insanity. One example would be how the druid really loses it here because of an unlucky collision, but another example is also how the people from the village fall for a scam artist in a wold costume. I clearly remembered this guy from back then when I read the comic book(s) and saw the film on an earlier occasions, but I am still not sure if he is interesting enough to be basically included here as some kind of main antagonist from beginning to end. Oh well. It could also be called "mentir" instead of "menhir" you could say at the very end of the title. People that speak French will understand what I mean. So yeah, Asterix is getting away for me with the idea of the magic potion, with the idea of these few people being able to stand up to the Roman empire, but these scenes of the druid's insanity were really a bit exaggerated this time I must say. Too much and too over the top. Same applies for me to the transformations of one Roman soldier in the second half of the film when he becomes really big, then really small and goes through all kinds of other shapes before basically being turned into a balloon.

This Roman soldier nonetheless gave us one of the funnier moments, namely when we have Obelix grab him by his leg and pull him to become basically a lab rat and see if the druid manages to come up with the magic potion despite his insanity. That entire scene was just too much, but the brief process of pulling was fun. It was rather the small moments where the film delivered this time in terms of comedy. Obelix was severely undeused this time though. The character is so much funnier than he is allowed to put on display here. Another solid moment was when the Roman leader (not Caesar, he is not in the picture in person this time) is taking a bath and his genital gets exposed briefly for one of his guards to see (not for us to see of course) and he makes sure the guard does not react in an inappropriate manner. Maybe there really wasn't that much to see. And finally, involving sid Roman leader again, there is this moment of confrontation by Caesar's delegate which was decent too how he really loses it, even if the Gauls' laughing that followed immediately afterwards was slightly too much already. But it still can be said that the Romans never really got closer to defeating the villagers than they did this time. Oh and I must mention the scene of course when the Roman leader gives this famous quote about the entirety of Gaul being conquered and he says "Yes, all of Gaul" when being asked if he really means "all of Gaul". That was kinda memorable, almost in an epic way, not really in a funny way. But of course, he is proven wrong and in the end there is happiness all along once more. Not really for the singer though up there on the tree as usual. Sorry for not using the international names. I never remember them, except the two protagonists of course who have the same name almost everywhere I think. I watched the German dub once again, so also cannot comment on Carel, Tornade and the others. I'm sure they did a solid job though and still nice to see some alive. Chazel would be one example.

Okay, that is pretty much it. There are similarities again here and there with some of the other films. I mentioned some of those already. It's also nothing new that this minor Roman leader dreams of making it big here and getting hiw own Cleopatra. We have seen that on other occasions as well. The idea of Obelix's dog being considered a meal though is something new. That fraudulent seer surely must have been hungry. But I stand with my initial perception. He's not a character I find truly memorable or worth mentioning when speaking about the best there is from the Asterix books and films unfortunately. His (forced) back-and-forth from admitting he is a scam artist and pretending not to be one to please the Roman leader also did not work out in a comedic was as much as I hoped it would Same applies to some of the other jokes. I already said that Obelix's material here also was not exactly a revelation and this includes his take on curing the druid by doing the exact same thing again that caused this misery. I mean the idea was mildly funny, but also very absurd and Obelix trying to reap the honors afterwards was also not super funny. Not among the weakest of the film either admittedly. Overall, the outcome here, which is despite the short running time not even among the shortest Asterix films, is a fairly close call for me in terms of deciding if I should give out a positive or negative recommendation. I guess I will be generous this time though and say that it is worth seeing, but really you should see (almost) all other Asterix films before this one here. Maybe also read the book first and then decide if you want to watch the movie version as well. Depending on how much you like the story. These films are almost always pretty close to the books in terms of contents, so the issues are already a bit in the book(s) this time and you cannot be too harsh with the filmmakers. They tried their best. It's barely enough.

Before I critique the actual movie I should inform you that there are in fact TWO English dubs of this movie. The first features Bill Oddie once again as Asterix and keeps the plot and story as was originally presented in French. The American dub however changes names, changes plot details, adds a pointless narration, and has all of the Gauls speak with American accents. Make no mistake, this version is dumbed-down and I implore you to avoid it. The existence of this dub forces my score down to 4/10 when it would otherwise be 7/10.

The Romans, as usual, are camped outside the village waiting for a weak link to finally invade and conquer ALL of Europe. Obelix adjacently drops a Menhir on Getafix's head, making him forget the recipe to the magic potion. Meanwhile, a soothsayer arrives and cons the more gullible villagers into rewarding him. The Romans get wind of his scams and use him to clear out the village. The actual fight of the title does not happen in the movie as that part of the plot was lost when the adaptation was crossed with elements from another Asterix book.

The animation is lovely, the plot doesn't reach its potential, and voice acting is uncertain depending on what dub you are watching. Otherwise this movie ranks as an above average Asterix adventure.

Or "above averagix" if you like.