Asterix and The Big Fight (US Dub)

Asterix and the Big Fight (Astérix et le coup du menhir) is a 1989 French-German animated film directed by Philippe Grimond and produced by Yannick Piel. It is based on the Asterix comic book series. The film has a different plot from the book of the same name. It combines plot elements from Asterix and the Big Fight and Asterix and the Soothsayer. Although there is plenty of fighting — as usual for an Asterix story — the actual fight that the story is named for is not part of the movie's plot. The novelization was titled "Operation Getafix" (the German translation of the film was Operation Hinkelstein, a hinkelstein being a menhir). While the UK English dub is great, the US one is unfortunately a completely different story.

Plot
The Romans capture Druid Getafix (Vitamix in this dub), as part of their plan to deprive a rebel village of Gauls from the magic potion that gives them super-human strength. When the village attempts a rescue, Obelix accidentally hits Getafix with a menhir in the resulting chaos, causing him to be struck with amnesia and insanity. As the village comes to grip with this, a travelling soothsayer named Prolix arrives and begins deceiving some of the credulous villagers into believing a number of prophecies he predicts, despite the fact he is a fraud.

Knowing the Romans will quickly realise the village is in trouble without the magic potion, Asterix and Vitalstatistix (Bombastix in this dub) desperately attempt to have Getafix brew some. His concoctions quickly prove problematic, and alert a garrison of Romans into sending a spy into the village. Despite being camouflaged, he is captured and used as a guinea pig for some of Getafix's less dangerous creations. However, one of these makes him lighter than air causing him to float away, where he reports their problem. The Romans send a patrol to investigate, and come across the Soothsayer, whom they capture. Although Roman laws declare such individuals to be arrested, the garrison's centurion is convinced of Prolix's abilities and uses him to chase away the villagers.

Returning to the village, Prolix foretells doom if the village is not abandoned. Everyone leaves for a nearby island, except for Asterix, Obelix and Getafix. Shortly after the Romans move in, Getafix brews a very noxious potion whose vapors engulf the village, both restoring his memories and sanity, and driving off the Romans on the belief that Prolix's prediction was true. Getafix quickly brews the magic potion and convinces the villagers to test the soothsayer's abilities by having them attack the Roman camp. In the aftermath of the attack, Prolix is hit by a menhir after his abilities are discovered to be a fake, while the centurion is demoted for his failure, as the village returns to normal.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) Like with the 4kids One Piece dub, they completely butchered character's names. Some of them are changed like Getafix to Vitamix (Possibly due to his original name being a drug reference), Unhygenix to Fishstix and Impedimenta to Bonnemine (Yea that's her name in the original French version but why change her name?)
 * 2) Rosey Grier is seriously miscasted as Obelix (Not to be racist). It would've been better if an actor like Brad Garrett (who voiced Obelix in the English dub of Asterix and the Vikings) or Bill Fagerbakke would've voice him as actors like them could do a better voice for Obelix instead of Grier.
 * 3) * Similarly, Greg Burson doesn't do too bad of a job of voicing Cacofonix (renamed Franksinatrix in this dub), but the voice he uses is virtually identical to the one he used for Bugs Bunny, which ends up being distracting.
 * 4) Not only are the characters' names changed, but the terms are changed in this dub too. ie: "wizard" for druid, "fortuneteller" for soothsayer, "rockets" for menhirs, and "vitamin potion" for the magic potion.
 * 5) When Cacofonix (Franksinatrix in this dub) finishes his line, "Let me sing for him, he's bound to remember my talent." and before he starts singing Zonked, there's no lines even though his mouth moves, same thing happens to Getaflix (Vitamix) when he laughs.
 * 6) When the Roman soldier starts flying after drinking Asterix's potion, he starts to sound like a zombie from Call of Duty for no reason.
 * 7) They keep mispronouncing Obelix's name in the film.
 * 8) They still kept some sound effects like character's laughs from the UK dub.
 * 9) On the DVD release, they didn't even bother using the American English end credits. Granted the same thing was done in earlier dubbed Asterix films, but they could've at least tried.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Some of of the actors do a good job as their characters despite the stupid changes mentioned above, Winkler does a okay job as Asterix, same for Bliss as Impedimenta (Bonnemine).
 * 2) Tony Jay is a good narrator in the film.
 * 3) Zonked is still a good song in the film, and they didn't even change it to bad cover of whatever song was popular in 1989.
 * 4) The Piggy Wiggy scene is one of the few funniest moments in the US dub.
 * 5) The UK dub is a lot better, but it's only available on VHS.
 * 6) They pronounce Obelix's name right in the later half of the film.
 * 7) Other Asterix English dubs have little to no changes unlike this dub.
 * 8) It can be enjoyable in a "so bad, it's good" kinda way.

Reception
The American dub is considered inferior by fans of the original due to it changing parts of the script as well as character names (Getafix is changed to "Vitamix", Vitalstatistix to "Bombastix", Cacofonix to "Franksinatrix," Impedimenta to "Bonnemine" (her actual French name), and Unhygienix to "Fishstix"), and general dumbing-down for an audience assumed to be unfamiliar with the characters.

Trivia
This dub was commissioned by Disney/Touchstone Pictures for a planned US release in 1990, but never materialized and was shelved until French distributor Gaumont acquired the rights and included it on the DVD.

Videos
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