ASTERIX AND THE BIG FIGHT (1989)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

I've never been much of an Asterix fan in any medium, but in this ARCHIVE essay I confessed a mild liking for the album entitled ASTERIX AND THE BIG FIGHT. However, the 1989 animated film given that title in some markets only borrows one subplot from the album, and takes its main plot from an installment I've not read, ASTERIX AND THE SOOTHSAYER.

The principal story concerns Prolix, a phony soothsayer who comes to the village of Asterix and begins sponging off the Gauls by issuing dire presentiments of doom. All of the Gauls are shown as being victim to groundless superstitions, particularly the fear that the sky might fall on their heads. Only sensible Asterix perceives that Prolix is a phony. Meanwhile, since the story needed an excuse for the heroes to beat up Romans, a Roman officer decides to have his men abduct Getafix, the only druid capable of brewing the magical potion that gives the Gauls superstrength. (The latter subplot is all that the movie really took from BIG FIGHT.)

The two plotlines barely manage to dovetail, and hardly any jokes land, slapstick or otherwise. It's never clear why Asterix is so sure that the soothsayer is phony, and his attitude sounds a little too much like that of a modern-day unbeliever, rather than as a barbarian who's spent his whole life associating with a druid who can make a magic elixir. I suppose in the creators' minds, ASTERIX was usually a "one-gimme," in which the elixir was the only marvelous thing the heroes encountered. But that doesn't really account for the pint-sized pugilist's seeming materialism.