The year is 50 B.C. , Gaul is entirely occupied by the Roman. 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 . In the village are our friends : ¨Asterix¨, the hero of this adventure , he's a shrewd , cunning little warrior , all perilous missions are immediately entrusted to him .¨Obelix¨ his inseparable friend , he's a menhir delivery-man by trading and addicted to wild boar , he's always ready to drop everything and go off on a new adventure with Asterix , so long as there's wild boar to eat , and plenty of fighting .¨Panoramix¨, the venerable village druid , gathers mistletoe and brews magic potions , his speciality is the potion which gives the drinker superhuman strength although also has other recipes up his sleeve . ¨Abraracurcix¨, the chief of the tribe , majestic , brave and hot-tempered , the old warrior is respected by his enemies , he has only one fear , he's afraid the sky may fall on his head tomorrow , but as he always says , 'Tomorrow never comes'. And of course ¨Cacofonix¨ , the Bard , opinion is divided as to his musical gifts , he thinks he's a genius , everyone else thinks he's unspeakable , but so long as he doesn't speak , let alone sing , everybody likes him.....

The film concerns Julius Caesar who offers the Gauls a covenant , they must prove if they're Gods by making twelve extremely hard works , similar to 12 works of Hercules , which are the following ones : Hercules vanquished the Amazons warriors , captured a wild boar and a bull of island of Crete , killed the Hydra , swept the stable of Ujias , murdered Gerion and Diomedes , he had apples of garden of Hesperides, he won a race against the clock to a deer , strangled Lion of Nemea , he shot arrows to birds at the lake Stinfano , he took Teseo from the inferno . Asterix and Obelix will be able to resolve twelve similar tasks that Caesar chose and if they fail they would turn slaves and the Gaul village would hand over the Roman empire . Among the dangerous missions our friends have to suffer are the following ones : the fighting a winner javelin thrower and against a judo-man , the lures of mermaids , taking on a celestial challenge with a God, combating a ghost army , the crossing an invisible bridge and confronting public officials , adding an extreme critique to the state bureaucracy , among others , and along the way including a lot of anachronisms , entertainment and fun . The picture will appeal to Asterix and Obelix comic-books fans.

"Les 12 travaux d'Astérix" or "The Twelve Tasks of Asterix" is a co-production between France and the United Kingdom from 1976 and the involvement of the latter surprises me a bit here because it really does not feel about anthing other than France here at all, not only because the key language is French of course. And because of the origins of the characters and the people who created them. I am of course talking about Goscinny and Uderzo. The former sadly dies not too long after this movie at a way too young age, so he sadly missed as well how his two heroes here and the rest of the gang kept entertaining new generations and got picked up again on several occasions for new movies. Very recently too. But now let's talk about this old one here. Goscinny and Uderzo are also the directors here and there are two other directors who are not famous really though. One worked a lot in the sound department and for the other this is one of only two directorial efforts. Goscinny and Uderzo also worked on the screenplay here and Goscinny could not continue this trend on future Asterix films for obvious reasons why Uderzo also stopped doing it for the most part. Pierre Tchernia took over in this department and he was also a collaborator here. So we have no less than four directors and three writers here for a film that stays under the 80-minute mark. Really a lot. And still it is by no means among the shortest Asterix films if we take a look at the older ones at least.

This is the third from the series and there was a gap of almost a decade between this one and the previous, so quite a lot of time passed. With the other films, they usually used books as background for the story, but if I am not mistaken, it is a bit different here with this one. The story is new and is basically a fun little adaptation connecting Hercules/Heracles with our heroes from the little village. Especially Asterix. By the mid70s they had discovered already that Obelix is an amazing character as well, but they kept going with only mentioning Asterix in the titles the way they did when it all started in the 1960s and in those films back then Asterix was really the one and only lead. Here not so much, especially if we are talking comedy. A few examples on that later on. By the way, the German title here is a bit different, basically means "Asterix conquers Rome" and gives you a brief little summary of the story here too, just a different one than they do with the English and French titles. As for the cast, there is really not too much to say here. I cannot talk a lot about the French actors because I am not too familiar with most of them, but Roger Carel deserves a mention for sure. He is certainly the most famous cast member here. I watched the German dub of course tonight and that was not the first time I watched the movie by any means. Actually, I saw it first when I was much younger, so basically grew up with it and it's nice to check it out here and there again when it's on television. It has always been my favorite from the series and even if some of the other films are closing the gap a bit now, I'd still say that this one here is my number one and I can understand very well why it is also the highest-rated Asterix film here on imdb.

It may be the third film from the franchise, but it is also a pretty good choice for a first watch if you have never seen anything else about Asterix. There is a little introduction at the start, funny with the people raising their hands at the theater, but even without that you're getting all the information you need here. Also in terms of the ending, this film would be really perfect closure to the series as it is basically the end. The Gauls have won. Caesar is retired and enjoying Cleopatra's food now. Not that there will ever be any need for closure. I'm kinda positive they will still be making new Asterix films 50 years from now. I may live to witness that. We'll see. As for this film, you can see from the title that they had to get in all these trials really and a dozen is a lot, so it feels a bit rushed here and there, but that does not take away from the quality. The sports are dealt with at the very beginning with the running, javelin and martial arts part. Sometimes wit is needed to win, sometimes the magic potion does the trick. Sometimes one of the two is basically defeated like Obelix with the German martial arts expert or Asterix at the island with these stunning (or "stunning") women. But it also shows their friendship how they get out of these situations again and again and when Obelix calls Asterix to leave, he follows with almost no hesitation. Pretty funny by the way how Obelix is missing real food on the island and I say that as a vegetarian. I think this island is neither among my favorite nor least favorite challenges. But one thing I remember there is how the women were complaining about housework. This was one of many, many references in here about modern issues. Kinda funny how they are rambling there. Another example would be at the very start all the garbage in the forest. Or the bureaucracy challlenger. Or at the arena in the end when we get an announcement that a visitor must come outside as there is something with his car, parked in the wrong spot or so. Like the equivalent to a football match announcement. Or any other sports event.

Speaking of events, the Gauls do turn the arena into a circus in the end. Circus Maximus. And Caesar admit that he lost and that the Gauls must be gods then. Interesting inclusion of the gods up there on the clouds too early on, even if that mountain sequence with the fabric softener is perhaps my least favorite challenge and the comedy idea of this turning basically into a commercial did not do a lot for me. The other parts felt more inspired. No matter which one we are talking about. All of them basically, I cannot mention one favorite I have. It probably wouldn't be this cave or whatever they enter where nobody got out again as this is one of my least favrites too. This one is maybe more about the adventure than any other Asterix film, but it makes sense because the challenge is gigantic and the reward will be huge. Reward means of course that the little Gaul village becaomes the center of the Roman Empire. There even if a road named after Asterix in the end and this is what Caesar calls his home now apparently. Okay, that was maybe a bit too much of a provication. Caesar has some solid moments too, but Obelix will always be my hero. Just take a look at how he wants to beat up Caesar so badly. Perhaps the funniest moment of the movie, even if the village's boss is also fairly hilarious how he is clearly so incompetent and clumsy and also not taken seriously by the villagers and his wife and everybody else, but yet he cannot wait to receive the laurel wreath from Caesar himself. A bit of a running gag we have here.

I could certainly also say something about every individual challenge, but I will leave it at that and instead focus a bit on the general premise. There was some great attention to detail in literally every challenge. Just take the javelin part where the Indians think somebody declared war on them. And Obelix gets his eating challenge as well, which was hilarious of course how he drives the cook to deparation and says that his stomach had only just warmed up when the cook gave him everything. Maybe it is this kind of humorous variety that lifts Obelix above Asterix for me even. I mean Asterix is cool too, but with him it is always about wit and basically using the people's own weapons against them, which applies to the German fighter, the people at the bureaucracy challenge or the hypnotist as well. The ending was a bit underwhelming because honestly the challenge at the arena was nothing too challenging I'd say after all they managed before basically. But it was meant as a highlight for the crowd really and Caesar would not know about the magic potion, but we do of course and seeing them take care of the gladiators and also the wild animals afterwards in this circus reference was highly expected. I also think the animation is nice and has some kind of retro charm that still works very well nowadays that this film is only five years away from its 50th anniversary. Almost half a century. Wow! It's the dialogues that entertain nicely, but also the more subtle parts in how characters interact with each other. Look at their face expressions on several occasions.

Also it is really charming how this film still feels so relevant. I mean everybody knows women like these two chatting in the bureaucray segment and everybody who had to deal with institutions for whatever reason know how accurate some of the stuff here is. So it's pretty nice to see Asterix turn the tables on these folks there and give them a bit of their own medicine for sure. And that time they the employees go crazy and it's not the visitors. The visitors we saw completely losing it before Asterix and Obelix enter the building. This film easily gets away with over-the-top comedy as well. It's always easier in animation than in live action, but this movie here is really a prime example on how to do it right. By the way, sorry if my review feels a bit all over the place here and not one bit chronological. Just going for the brainstorming approach this time. Forgive me for that. Another thing I want to say is that the film, even with all its comedy, also never felt try-hard to be funny. The best example is the small little man, the observer and how he is so neutral really and unbiased, even if for example his statement that it was nice to have known the two on one occasions makes it obvious that he also does not expect the two to succeed. But he is not against them. He is basically just a referee you could say. And they did not try to make him funny because it would not have suited the character. Best example is when he talks about the crocodiles. Great film. Watch.

I'm mostly a rather introvert person. When a comedy makes me smile it has succeeded, when it makes me chuckle it is a rousing success. The climax of this film made me fall from my cinema seat laughing.

This film is not based on any of the Asterix comic books as most of the Asterix films. Asterix faces 12 tasks, one more daunting than the other (I can't remember why, it was over 20 years ago),building up to the last one, the most difficult of the lot. Do not, under any circumstances, including hurricanes and invading Mongolic hordes, leave the cinema before that scene!