Asterix And Obelix: Mansion Of The Gods review

There have been numerous movies based on the French/Belgian comic books about a village of Gauls resisting Roman occupation (including the dire live action movies starring Gerard Depardieu as Asterix’s pal Obelix), but this is the first 3D animated adaptation to come to the screen.

The story has feisty Asterix (voiced by British comedian Jack Whitehall) and Obelix (Frost) realising their peaceful village has been invaded in a new way by the Romans – Caesar (Broadbent) is building giant apartment buildings all around them for Romans to move into and create a new outpost of the Roman Empire.

While there are lots of fist fights, chases and slapstick as our heroes best the invaders, the movie feels surprisingly slow and isn’t helped by the English language voiceovers that don’t sync well with the original French animation. And despite the vocal cast being mainly made up of comedians and comic actors, the film isn’t very funny either, but at least it looks bright and slickly animated on the big screen, and stays true to the original Asterix stories to please fans of the comic book.