A small Gaul village is still resisting the annexation by the Roman Empire in 50 B.C., so Caesar envisages a plan: his architects will build a Roman city near the Gaul village, which will attract the Gauls to move there, interact with the Romans, become dependent on them and eventually merge into the Roman Empire. Surprisingly, the plan works: Asterix, Obelix and Getafix get into an argument with the village chief and decide to rent an apartment in the Roman town. The Romans buy fish from the Gauls, and thus the Gauls become dependent on their cash. However, since there are so many new people in the area, the wild boars disappear, causing Obelix to become weak from hunger, and to thus get captured by the Roman soldiers. Since Getafix is also arrested, there is nobody who can make the magic potion for the Gauls anymore, so the Roman soldiers attack them. Getafix is freed, makes a potion, gives it to the Gauls, and thus the Roman soldiers are beaten once again.
"Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods" is the first good Asterix animated film in 28 years, ever since "Asterix in Britain" unwillingly became 'the last bastion' of quality of the film series, and the first CGI animated film in the entry. The main plot is at first weird—Caesar wants to build a Roman city near the Gaul village in order to make the Gauls interact with the Romans, get seduced by their money and urban life, until they will become assimilated—but when carried out, it actually turns into a surprisingly sane and coherent strategy of subtle colonialism. The jokes are much better this time around, and thus feel fresh: in the opening sequence, Caesar, in his palace, is finalizing said plan with his associates, but then contemplates about how he should call it. He then has an idea, he will call it "The Mansions of the Gods". Cut to the opening title of the film, but then the movie cuts back to the previous scene with Caesar, who is suddenly having second thoughts, trying to think of a better title, but then just settles with the one he has, and the movie cuts again to the title, "Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods". There are a lot of good jokes later on, as well: in the Colosseum, right before the fight of the Gladiators, a Roman kid is playing by hammering his two toys off each other, and the parents wonder where does he get such aggressive behavior; the long back-and-forth between the Romans cutting off trees from the forest to make room for their construction site, but Asterix and Obelix keep throwing magical seeds on the place which causes trees to grow instantly on the same place; the spoof on contrarianism when the heroes give Roman slaves the magic potion so that they can escape the Roman captivity, but a slave gives the counter-intuitive reply: "But isn't freedom just another form of slavery?"; the whole sequence where Asterix feigns he is drinking a nonexistent magic potion in order to fool the Roman army, so he stages a fake fight with the chief. The inspiration falls substantially in the second half, where a certain routine and occasions of 'empty walk' creep in, so the movie doesn't return to its fun roots all until the charming finale (including even a chicken that accidentally drank the magic potion), yet it still gives an impression that the famous animated character was rejuvenated in this edition.
Grade:++
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