Line #12 WesternAnimation/AsterixConquersAmerica


1	%%English-language quality swaps done here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1648933823047123100
2	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/asterixamerica.png]]
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4	''Asterix Conquers America'' (French: ''Astérix et les Indiens''; German: ''Asterix in Amerika'') is a 1994 French and German animated film directed by Gerhard Hahn. It is the first (and to this day, only) ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' film not to be made in a French-speaking country, and loosely adapts the comic book ''Recap/AsterixAndTheGreatCrossing''. Two songs of the film were performed by the French band Zouk Machine. Asterix is voiced by Creator/RogerCarel in French and by Creator/CraigCharles in English.
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6	Circa 50 BC, UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar has had enough when yet another of his Roman legions is smashed to pieces by that one indomitable Gaulish village because of the magic potion of their druid Getafix, so he decides to tackle the problem at the root before conspiratorial senators exploit his humiliation. He orders his sycophant Lucullus to capture Getafix the druid (who they believe to be immortal) and throw him over the edge of the world (which they believe to be flat as a pizza).
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8	Lucullus kidnaps both Getafix and Obelix's pet dog Dogmatix and sets sail on the Atlantic ocean, with Asterix and Obelix chasing them. Following a storm, Asterix, Obelix, Dogmatix and Getafix think they have reached the edge of the world... only to find out they have landed in a strange and beautiful [[UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica new world]]. They meet and end up befriending a tribe of Natives (believing to be in India), and soon antagonize the tribe's evil medicine man. Meanwhile in Gaul, Caesar now sees his chance to overrun the village, and besieges it.
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10	!!''Asterix Conquers America'' provides examples of:
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12	* AdaptationalAttractiveness: In ''Asterix and the Great Crossing'', TheChiefsDaughter is unattractive and pudgy, and [[PleaseDumpMe escaping marriage to her]] is the reason the Gauls decide it's time to go back home. In this film, she is an IndianMaiden with the body proportions of a bathing suit model and a much prettier face, and [[AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul Obelix is understandably sad when he has to leave her]].
13	* AdaptationExpansion: While the film cuts the subplot with the Vikings, it adds two new subplots to the story:
14	** Caesar wanting Getafix tossed off the edge of the world so he can conquer the village without having to face magic potion-empowered villagers anymore.
15	** The evil Native American medicine man wanting to get his hands on the magic potion after Getafix uses it to best him in a magic duel.
16	* AdaptedOut: The film mainly adapts ''Asterix and the Great Crossing'', but the Danish Vikings of the comic book's climax don't appear in this version. They were later [[AdaptationAmalgamation amalgamated into]] ''WesternAnimation/AsterixAndTheVikings'', the 2006 adaptation of ''Recap/AsterixAndTheNormans''.
17	* AnachronismStew:
18	** The evergreen anachronism of the franchise, this time by the French [[TheNarrator narrator]]: the Colosseum ''DID NOT EXIST CIRCA 50 BC'' (at the time of UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic). It was built 120 years later, in 70 AD, at the time of UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire.
19	** Romans talk about pizzas. The pizza was invented in the 19th century.
20	** Getafix drops the name "Amerix" to name the land in the French version. That's over 1500 years before the man whose first name would be used to christen the Americas, UsefulNotes/AmerigoVespucci, was born.
21	* AnimalStampede: TheChiefsDaughter is introduced being chased by a herd of buffalos. Obelix saves her from it.
22	* ArtisticLicenceGeography: Asterix and Obelix trek across a bizarrely wide array of North American landscapes ranging from East Coast forests to South Dakota and Arizona in about one day ''on foot'', while Getafix could not have been catapulted further than the shores of the East Coast (and that catapult's range is already ToonPhysics).
23	* ArtisticLicenceHistory: Romans did not believe in the FlatWorld theory.
24	* ArtShift: There's a brief switch to CGI during the chase on the Atlantic ocean.
25	* AscendedExtra:
26	** Getafix. In ''The Great Crossing'', he stayed in the village and only appeared at the very beginning and very end of the comic. Here, he is abducted by the Romans and ends up in North America along with Asterix and Obelix.
27	** Also the Romans, who in the comic only appeared at the start of the story and are not on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle. Here, they cause the conflict by abducting Getafix, and come very close to finally bringing the Gaulish village to its knees. And they get their asses kicked again at the end.
28	** TheChiefsDaughter, whose personality is more fleshed out along with the AdaptationalAttractiveness. Obelix saving her from a [[AnimalStampede buffalo stampede]] is the key to gain the trust of the villagers, and she has a personal score to settle with the evil medicine man, which she does with a bit of Getafix's [[SuperStrength magic potion]]. There's also a short lived love story with Obelix, instead of Obelix trying to flee marriage with her in the comics.
29	* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The Natives talk using a random mix of North American place names that were taken from words in the languages of the actual tribes that lived in those regions. Leading the medicine man to say such things as "Minnesota Manitoba MIAMI!".
30	* BearsAreBadNews: The evil medicine man unleashes a vicious grizzly on Asterix as he comes to free Getafix. Asterix makes quick work of it with the [[SuperStrength magic potion]].
31	* BigBadEnsemble: Lucullus and the Indian medicine man, although Lucullus is technically TheDragon to Caesar.
32	* ABirthdayNotABreak: Even on his birthday Redbeard can't avoid Asterix and Obelix destroying his ship.
33	* BulletCatch: Obelix catches a tomahawk that was thrown at Asterix and Getafix, who were tied to a totem.
34	* BurpOfFinality: Caesar's pet panther burps after eating Lucullus alive.
35	* CanonForeigner:
36	** Lucullus, the {{sycophantic\|servant}} Roman patrician who Caesar tasks with kidnapping Getafix and bringing him to the edge of the world, did not appear in any ''Asterix'' comic book before. He does [[FatBastard look (and behave)]] a little like Crustacius from ''Recap/AsterixAndObelixAllAtSea'', and like him he has a more gruesome fate than the average ''Asterix'' foe (Crustacius got turned to stone, Lucullus gets [[JustDesserts devoured by Caesar's pet panther]]).
37	** The evil medicine man does not originate in any of the comic books either.
38	* CatapultToGlory:
39	** Lucullus catapults Getafix from his trireme, thinking they have reached the edge of the world. He lands in North America.
40	** The centurion has the idea to catapult ''a lion'' on the village. Which lands right in the arms of Caesar.
41	* TheChiefsDaughter: Obelix saves the Native princess from a [[AnimalStampede buffalo stampede]], which is the key to gain the villagers' trust, and develops a crush on her, which seems to be mutual, but has to be put to rest when the Gauls have to leave America.
42	* DarkestHour: This story is the only one where the UndefeatableLittleVillage has been soundly militarily defeated by the Romans. With Getafix, Asterix and Obelix being stranded on the other side of the world, they don't have a source of SuperStrength anymore to negate the might of the Roman armies, and while they put up heroic {{last stand}}s during TheSiege, they end up prisoners to be brought to Rome for Caesar's triumph and thrown to the beasts in the Circus Maximus. Luckily, Getafix, Asterix and Obelix make it back to Gaul JustInTime.
43	* DressingAsTheEnemy: Asterix and Obelix knock two legionaries out and steal their clothes to infiltrate the Roman camp where the Gaulish villagers are prisoners and bring them magic potion in amphoras.
44	* EitherOrTitle: The English dub has also been released as ''Asterix in America'', though the on-screen title is still ''Asterix Conquers America''.
45	* ExactWords: Before attacking the Gaulish village at the beginning, the Roman centurion trains his legion by ordering it to form a "turtle" (testudo in Latin). They obey and form the shape of a literal turtle with their shields instead of the historical testudo battle formation.
46	* FantasyLandmarkEquivalent: The movie has an equivalent to [[RushmoreRefacement Mount Rushmore]] in UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica... in 50 BC, far from South Dakota, with the faces of four natives carved in the mountain, including those of the chief and the medicine man Asterix and Obelix stumble upon.
47	* FatBastard: Lucullus is as overweight as he is evil, complete with {{Evil Laugh}}s. Throwing Dogmatix to the sharks is particularly vile as KickTheDog acts go.
48	* FlatWorld: Both the Romans and the Gauls believe the world is flat. The Romans capture Getafix and plan to throw him at "the edge of the world" since they believe him to be immortal. The protagonists finding out about that new continent across the ocean proves them wrong.
49	* FreezeFrameBonus: One of the animators drew exposed genitalia on the beggar pretending to be legless for a couple of frames when he stands up to run out of the way of an oncoming chariot. This has managed to slip past censors even to this day.
50	* HeroicDolphin: Obelix's dog Dogmatix (Idéfix) is thrown at sea by Lucullus to be eaten by a ThreateningShark. He is saved [[JustInTime in the nick of time]] by a dolphin that heroically jumps in action, knocks the shark out and brings him back to Asterix and Obelix. The dolphin then leads them to the trireme of Lucullus.
51	* InjunCountry: Asterix, Obelix and Getafix land in a stange mix of every imaginable type of land inhabited by Native Americans instead of what should be just the Northeast woodlands. The local Natives meanwhile are portrayed with TipisAndTotemPoles.
52	* JustDesserts: The vile Lucullus ends up devoured by Caesar's pet panther while he was trying to escape at the end when the magic potion-empowered Gauls get freed and wreck the camp.
53	* KarmaHoudini: It is true that Julius Caesar never gets punished as much as his underlings are. But this story takes that to the extreme. After the Romans burn the village and capture all but four of the Gauls (which is pretty much as close as they come to winning in any ''Asterix'' story), all of their soldiers are beaten up and Lucullus is even devoured by Caesar's pet panther. Caesar though manages to [[MobileShrubbery hide in a barrel]] and escape the scene unharmed. It is notable too that while other stories will portray Caesar as a man of honor, he has no redeeming qualities here. And still, he is free to just casually exit the movie with his pet panther.
54	* KilledOffscreen: In the climax, Lucullus tries to escape when the Gauls break out of their cage and wreak havoc on the Roman camp as they're empowered by magic potion again, and he gets dragged inside a tent by Caesar's panther and devoured by it (and [[SwallowedWhole pretty quickly so]] without even having time to scream or get torn to pieces by the animal). That's a rare instance of someone actually getting killed in the ''Franchise/{{Asterix}}'' franchise.
55	* {{Leitmotif}}: There's a bombastic theme whenever someone drinks the magic potion and gains SuperStrength.
56	* MagicalNativeAmerican: The medicine man pretends to be one, but it's all smoke and mirrors, and he gets exposed by Asterix, Obelix, Getafix and TheChiefsDaughter.
57	* MobileShrubbery: Caesar uses a barrel to escape the Roman camp after the Gauls regain their magic potion and wreak havoc at the end.
58	* MsFanservice: As well as having a gorgeous face and the body of a swimsuit model, the chieftain's daughter dresses in a short skirt and a cleavage-exposing top.
59	* MushroomSamba: The evil medicine man's [[TaintedTobacco weed]] causes Asterix to have a nightmare in which the village is being besieged with the Romans starting to use incendiary projectiles on it (and [[DreamingOfThingsToCome it happens for real at the same time]] on the other side of the world). Obelix meanwhile wakes up and sees Asterix as a scary green buffalo, which causes him to run away in terror and crash into everything in his way.
60	* NamedByTheAdaptation: TheChiefsDaughter is named "Ha-Tschi" here while her name is not specified in the comic book (although the {{novelization}} [[invoked]][[RecursiveAdaptation called her]] Minihooha instead).
61	* NearVillainVictory: Caesar almost succeeds in conquering all of Gaul... until Asterix, Obelix and Getafix come back from America and give magic potion to the captive villagers. Cue the CurbStompBattle.
62	* NoNameGiven: The Natives are all unnamed, except the TheChiefsDaughter in German dub who's credited as Ha-Tschi.
63	* ObfuscatingDisability: In Rome, a "legless" beggar turns out to have legs and flees when the centurion DrivesLikeCrazy in the city's streets.
64	* PantheraAwesome: Caesar has a black panther as pet, which is somewhat similar to Cleopatra's lion from ''Recap/AsterixAndCleopatra'' in design and behavior, up to being prone to AmusingInjuries.
65	* PragmaticAdaptation: The comic has a RandomEventsPlot that would not work as a standalone film, so the story is altered heavily.
66	** In the album, Asterix and Obelix go out to sea to catch fish for the magic potion (which is needed to fight the Romans). However, the Romans have no role in the story, so this would only make sense to someone familiar with the series’ premise. The film has a much more reasonable inciting event (Getafix being kidnapped by Romans), and the Romans are portrayed as a consistent conflict that pose a genuine threat to the village.
67	** Asterix and Obelix have a proactive role rather than being [[PinballProtagonist Pinball Protagonists]] like in the original story.
68	** The characters’ stay in North America has an actual plot, with a medicine man as the antagonist, and TheChiefsDaughter is portrayed as an actual character instead of a plot device to encourage Obelix to leave.
69	** There is no HalfwayPlotSwitch where Asterix and Obelix are picked up by Vikings.
70	* ReusedCharacterDesign: The Roman centurion has the same character design as the one from ''WesternAnimation/AsterixInBritain'', which was already reused in ''WesternAnimation/AsterixAndTheBigFight''. It is clearly not the same character between films still.
71	* RunningGag:
72	** Once again, a Roman legion tries to conquer the Gaulish village at the beginning. And once again, it ends up on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle by the [[SuperStrength magic potion-empowered]] villagers.
73	** Redbeard and his pirates get sunk once again by Asterix and Obelix, only this time it's just because they happened to be on the way during the chase to rescue Getafix from Lucullus' clutches, with Asterix and Obelix simply crashing into them and not stopping by to say hello and kick everyone's ass.
74	* RushmoreRefacement: Non-vandalizing version, which also qualifies as ShoutOut, NationalStereotypes and AnachronismStew. Upon exploring America, Asterix and Obelix walk past a Mount Rushmore expy, which has the faces of four natives carved in the mountain, including those of the chief and the medicine man they meet later.
75	* {{The Savage Indian}}s: Natives are portrayed like this at first, attacking Asterix and tying him up to a totem with Getafix with both of them to be executed in a ritual. Then Obelix saves both of them and TheChiefsDaughter, defeats the resident [[TheBrute brute]] in a CombatByChampion and the trio befriends the tribe, which are shown to be otherwise normal villagers, save for the medicine man and his lackey.
76	* ShrugTake: At the end, when the Gauls are freed and demolish the Romans and their camp, Caesar escapes [[MobileShrubbery escaped disguised as a barrel]]. One of the Gauls spots him and asks "Halt! Who goes there?", to which Caesar (still in the barrel) answers "A barrel, you fool!", then Caesar runs away. The Gaul's response? "A barrel, uh?", then he shrugs, though he immediately does a DoubleTake but still doesn't chase after the walking barrel that just talked to him.
77	* TheSiege: With no more source of SuperStrength, the Gaulish villagers are forced to build heavy wood fortifications as they're now besieged by the Romans, who now know the Gauls can't resist for long.
78	* SlippingAMickey: The Indian medicine man tricks Asterix, Obelix, and Getafix into smoking a [[TaintedTobacco tainted peace pipe]] to knock them out. Getafix even [[AnachronismStew anachronistically]] says "He's slipped us a Mickey."
79	* StiffUpperLip: The slaves rowing the Romans' ship are [[QuintessentialBritishGentleman Britons]] and treat it like a boat race.
80	* StockFootage:
81	** The shot of the crumbling Roman siege tower is reused from ''WesternAnimation/AsterixAndTheBigFight''.
82	** The shot of the brawl resulting from Fulliautomatix and Unhygienix arguing over his fish is reused from ''WesternAnimation/AsterixInBritain''. It even starts for the same reason in both movies.
83	* SuperStrength: What the Gauls' magic potion grants, as always.
84	* TaintedTobacco: The Indian medicine man tricks Asterix, Obelix, and Getafix into smoking a tainted peace pipe to knock them out. Getafix even [[AnachronismStew anachronistically]] says "He's slipped us a Mickey."
85	* TipisAndTotemPoles: Asterix, Obelix, Getafix and Dogmatix land in the Northern woodlands. So why the local Natives live in tipis (generally only used by Great Plains tribes) and build totem poles (an artistic medium specific to tribes of the Pacific Northwest) is anyone's guess.
86	* WheelOFeet: Happens with the rows of Lucullus' trireme as he motivates the slaves onboard to row as fast as they can to outdistance Asterix and Obelix.
87	* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: The Romans realize getting rid of Getafix is the best way to finally bring the village to its knees, yet when they manage to capture him, they insist on tossing him off the edge of the world. Partly justified since they believe Getafix to be immortal, but they never even try to kill him on the spot to see if this is true.
88	* YouAreTooLate: Asterix, Obelix and Getafix make it back to Gaul, only to discover the Romans have succesfully ravaged their village and taken all the other Gauls captive once the magic potion reserves dried out, except for Cacofonix. Fortunately, the three are not too late to save their fellow Gauls, since they are locked in a big mobile cage in a nearby Roman Camp waiting to be deported to Rome.

Context WesternAnimation / AsterixConquersAmerica