Gaston Lagaffe is a 2018 live-action comedy film adapting André Franquin's Franco-Belgian Comics character of the same name. It is co-written and directed by Pierre-François Martin-Laval.
Aupetitcoin is a French start-up managed by one Léon Prunelle (Martin-Laval) specialized in repurposing and selling defective items, such as oversized ski pants, thumbless mittens or pairs of shoes with two right feet. On his return from vacation he has two bits of news waiting for him: the powerful businessman Aimé de Mesmaeker (Jérôme Commandeur) is dead set on buying the company (with the company's perpetually absent owner giving Prunelle the green light and the responsibility to conduct the operation) , and there is a new intern at the company, one Gaston Lagaffe (Théo Fernandez) , a lazy young man with an inventive mind and an unstoppable destructive streak. Due to a misunderstanding, Prunelle believes Gaston to be the owner's son, and has to contend with his antics. Too bad his antics keep putting the De Mesmaeker buyout in jeopardy while the company's standing keeps getting worse.
Despite the Shared Universe of the Franquin comics, it has no ties to either HOUBA! On the Trail of the Marsupilami or The Adventures of Spirou and Fantasio (which aren't connected either).
Gaston Lagaffe provides examples of:
- Adaptational Explanation: Unlike the source material, the movie explains the nature of De Mesmaeker's contracts.
- Adaptational Jerkass: While De Mesmaeker was often angry in the comic, he was often completely justified and was sometimes pretty friendly until he got hurt by one of Gaston's inventions. In this movie however he's a full-on Jerkass.
- Adaptational Job Change: Comes with the Setting Update. While most jobs aren't stated, some can be made out:
- Prunelle: editor in the comics, vice-president in the movie.
- Lebrac and Jeanne: cartoonist and archivist respectively in the comics, members of the marketing team in the movie.
- Boulier: accountant in the comic, CFO in the movie.
- Sonia: secretary in the comic, receptionist in the movie.
- As for Gaston, see Reimagining the Artifact below.
- The Alleged Car: Gaston's car, of course, which gets more and more of Gaston's inventions piled on it as the movie goes on. When Gaston crashes it towards the end of the movie against a glass door of all things, it compacts like a tin can.
- Antagonist in Mourning: Longtarin finds no more joy in life during Gaston's retirement.
- Ascended Extra:
- Prunelle might as well be the protagonist of the movie.
- Boulier and Sonia also appear much more prominently in the movie than they did in the comic book.
- Bizarre Instrument: In addition to Gaston's infamous gaffophone, Jules plays a drum set-like construct made of PVC pipes, and Betrand "plays" by throwing a basketball against closed window blinds.
- Brick Joke: During his stay at the beach, Gaston build a nearly life-sized lighthouse as a sandcastle. The Stinger then shows a cargo ship beached from mistaking it with a true lighthouse.
- Canon Foreigner:
- The boss' son Ederne.
- It's unclear whether marketing team members Raoul and Jeff are these, or expies of the Van Schrijfboek brothers, with Jeff being named similarly to Jef, and Raoul looking the part.
- The Comically Serious: CFO Boulier, who claims to be unable to imagine anything because of his job.
- Composite Character: In addition to her namesake, Sonia also seems to represent the unnamed secretary who started going out with Lebrac in the comic, as he is attracted to her in the movie.
- Demoted to Extra: A prominent character in the comic, Yves Lebrac is barely in the movie.
- The Ditz: Gaston is so oblivious, one has to wonder whether by the end of the movie, of all the things that happened, he even understood anything at all.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Gaston can build pretty much anything he wants. Too bad his inventions are poorly thought-out and keep hurting others.
- Named by the Adaptation: Inverted with the company's owner. In the comic book, Editions Dupuis was owned by the real-life Charles Dupuis, but here, the big boss doesn't get a name.
- No Smoking: Prunelle does not smoke in the movie. Averted with Cigar Chomper De Mesmaeker.
- Oblivious to Love: Jeanne's attempts to flirt with Gaston go completely over his head.
- Reimagining the Artifact: While Gaston had no explicitly stated job title in the comic other than a meta "hero without a job", in the movie he is explicitly an intern who Prunelle can't bring himself to fire due to a misundertanding.
- Sealed with a Kiss: Jeanne tries to invoke this in the end when Gaston saves the company by telling him that this might be the time to kiss. Gaston, being clueless and Oblivious to Love, proceeds to giving everyone cheek-to-cheek kisses.
- Setting Update: The original comic book is set in the Belgian publishing company Editions Dupuis, during a time period spanning from The '60s to The '90s. The movie is set during the The New '10s in a French start-up business, and is completely divorced from Spirou or Editions Dupuis.
- Shout-Out: The captain of the beached cargo ship seen in The Stinger is clearly Captain Haddock.
- The Unintelligible: Mlle Kiglouss mostly communicates through gasps and whimpers.
- Wheelchair Woobie: In-Universe, Prunelle softens up to Gaston when he first sees him sitting in a wheelchair. Needless to say, this sympathy goes out of the window the moment Gaston stands up.
- You Don't Look Like You: Subverted with De Mesmaeker, who is bald in the comic book and has hair here, that is until he loses his wig halfway through the movie.
