Lucky Luke and the Daltons (Les Dalton in French) is a 2004 French Western comedy film directed by Philippe Haïm and starring Éric Judor and Ramzy Bedia. It is a Live-Action Adaptation of the characters from the comic book series Lucky Luke created by Morris (and stories in it by René Goscinny), the second one on film after 1991's Lucky Luke with Terence Hill.
In The Wild West, four criminals, the dimwitted Dalton brothers, try to impress their mother by robbing a bank. Various obstacles stand in their way, from their incurable stupidity all the way to one Lucky Luke (Til Schweiger).
It shares no continuity with 2009's Lucky Luke, although Jean Dujardin happens to have appeared in both.
Lucky Luke and the Daltons provides examples of:
- Adaptational Dumbass: The second tallest Dalton brother, William, is almost as gullible as Averell despite not being anywhere near that in the comics. It doesn't help that he falls for pranks pulled by his elder twin brother, known as Jack.
- Adaptational Jerkass: A Jerkass to One example, while Jack used to be on good terms with his brother William in the comic books, here he seems to be a bigger jerk towards William in a similar way both of them did when they called each other out in The New Adventures of Lucky Luke.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Averell, originally portrayed as a gluttonous screwball in the comics, here is depicted as a blabbermouth who won't shut up until Joe smacks him.
- Between My Legs: This page's poster (which also serves as DVD cover), with the Daltons being seen between Lucky Luke's legs. The position of Luke's arms gives the impression that he's urinating.
- The Ditz: All four of the Daltons are particularly stupid.
- Logo Joke: The UGC logo at the beginning is set to harmonica music, to set the Western mood.
- Meta Casting: Jean Rochefort voiced Luke's horse, Jolly Jumper. In Real Life, Rochefort was fond of horse riding and famously enjoyed commenting equestrian competitions.
- Race Lift: Out of the four Dalton brothers (who are white Americans in the comics), two (Averell and Jack) are played by actors of North African descent (Ramzy Bedia and Saïd Serrari) and one (Joe) is played by Éric Judor, who's mixed race (Afro-Carribean on his father's side).
- Smoky Gentlemen's Club: Parodied. The meeting room in a railroad carriage where Lucky Luke meets the politicians who hire him is covered in a large, thick, barely transparent cloud of tobacco smoke, descending to as low as waist level.
- Villain Protagonist: The Dalton brothers are the main protagonists, especially Joe and Averell due to the starring duo of Éric Judor and Ramzy Bedia. The French title (Les Dalton) makes it pretty clear, the international title (this page's) less so.
- Wolverine Publicity: The English language title of the film (and several other languages as well) emphasizes Lucky Luke's presence while he's far from being the protagonist (the Daltons, and particularly Joe and Averell, are), as does the page's poster.
- You Don't Look Like You: Minus the height, the four Dalton brothers (as well as Ma and everyone else in the family) all look identical in the comics. It's not the case here.
