Movie Review – The Twelve Tasks of Asterix

Brings out charming childhood memories

It was one of the movies in my list which I was hesitant to watch. So, I procrastinated it for a long time. But thanks to the time constraint, I decided to watch upon this movie. With only 1.15 hours, it was an easy watch. Easy on eye as well as on heart with a discreet charm of watching school days evening time cartoon. Not in cartoon network but in DD metro, which was more charming and more earthy. Cartoon Network post school cartoons were good but still flashy when compared to ‘Chip and Dale’ and ‘DuckTales’ of DD Metro.

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Although I haven’t watched ‘Asterix’ cartoon in TV I came to know of it, thanks to ‘Tamasha’. When someone like Imtiaz Ali who resonates so much with me, made an Asterix reference I was sure that it’d be something special. Already he made me add Corsica to the bucket list and now this. The movie was as simple as it could get, you need not know the characters in Asterix series to appreciate it, because it’s a plain old movie where Asterix and Obelix are made to do twelve tasks. If they win, they’d get the Roman Empire from Caesar and if they fail the Gauls had to surrender to Rome. What are the twelve tasks and how they do them is what the film is about.

The tasks are of course childish and funny. But it’s childish in a way that it brings out the child in you and in the same way, it can be shown to your child too. Seriously I’m annoyed with the cartoons off late like ‘Chhota Bheem’ and ‘Dora’ with absolutely no creativity and with no sense of respect. Of course, kids will watch anything animated but these things only make fool of them. The cartoons of the past were so nice and intelligent which people of any age could watch and relish.

The Gauls assign Asterix and Obelix to perform the tasks which is a piece of cake for them because they are super powerful. It’s how they do it with such disdain that attracts us. They don’t stutter at any tasks. Asterix gets kind of tempted in the “Isle of Pleasure” and Obelix loses his calm in the building where they had to get permit document. But thanks to the other person in both these tasks, they come out victoriously.

It was a nice pun in the end when the Roman empire is defeated by the Gauls and Caesar enjoys a retired life in a garden house. When we think whether they’re trying to imply anything out of the story, Asterix simply breaks the fourth wall and answers that it’s a mere cartoon and anything can happen in it. In that way they don’t leave the humor till the very end. As a retirement benefit, both settle in the “Isle of Pleasure”. Asterix with women and Obelix with his wild boar. Quite unknowingly this movie gave me a respite from heavy movies and made me watch it without thinking anything.