Western Animation / Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods

aka: The Mansions Of The Gods

Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods (Astérix: Le Domaine des Dieux) is the ninth animated Asterix movie, directed by Alexandre Astier and Louis Clichy, and released in 2014. It is the first Asterix animated movie to be entirely made in CGI, and the last one where the eponymous character was voiced by Roger Carel in the French version.

The plot is mostly based on the story of the same name — Caesar has a massive housing project built near the Gaulish village, with which he hopes to entice the Gauls to adopt Roman ways — but it also considerably expands the story, notably by building on the Roman couple designated to be the first inhabitants.

A sequel, The Secret of the Magic Potion, was released in 2018.

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Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods provides examples of:

• Adaptational Attractiveness: Dulcia is slimmer and overall better-looking than her (unnamed) comic book counterpart (and is slightly more level-headed as well), looking actually more like Géraldine Nakache, her voice actress in the French dub. This goes along with the Adaptational Heroism the couple underwent.
• Adaptational Heroism: The Roman couple that gets coaxed into taking residence in the title mansion ends up befriending and helping the Gauls (the husband is crucial in rescuing Getafix and the wife is briefly seen bashing Romans soldiers along with the Gauls). In the comic they were mainly comic relief and were scared by the Gauls into leaving the mansion to let Cacofonix move in (while it does happen in the movie as well, this time it's because the Romans throw them out and the Gauls learn it only afterwards).
• Adaptational Villainy: The slaves end up joining the Roman army and get punched by Asterix as a result. This did not happen in the comic. On the other hand, they give a fairly good reason for not using the magic potion to escape, in that it is much better for them to buy their freedom than becoming runaway slaves.
• Adapted Out: Mrs. Geriatrix is noticeably absent.
• Animated Credits Opening: Well, The Mansion of the Gods is an animated movie in CGI, but the opening (minimalist, and in 2D) has a quite different style.
• Audible Sharpness: Dulcia's hair pin, when she pulls it off.
• Badass and Child Duo: Obelix and Appeldjus really get along, with Obelix giving Appledjus piggyback rides, and taking the boy boar hunting.
• Badass in Distress: Obelix ends up gettig captured by the Romans when his hunger undermines his ability to fight.
• Bad "Bad Acting": The Gauls are not very good at faking being hit by an allegedly magic-potion-enhanced Asterix. However, while the Roman Centurion is obviously not fooled, his legionaries are.
• Beleaguered Boss: The Roman centurion keeps trying to convince his troops that the Gauls are out of magic potion, but they've been beaten by the Gauls too often for them to believe it. When they finally come to him for orders, he's since Stopped Caring (helped by the fact that they've gone on strike to demand things like being ordered politely and better living conditions than the slaves who built the titular luxury condominiums). The fact that he's played by Alexandre Astier means Kaamelott viewers feel right at home.
• Berserk Button:
  • You should know this by now, but... don't call Obelix fat.
  • Damaging a tree is a sure way to get bitten in the fundament by Dogmatix.
  • Obelix is touchy about the Magic Potion. When the slaves don't seem to be sufficiently grateful he barks and forces it on them, and when the Roman soldiers nearly help themselves to a fresh batch, he glowers at them from across the ladle.
• Big Ball of Violence: The Gauls, as always, form one during their daily brawl. When Obelix jumps in, the dust cloud becomes a mushroom as a chicken flies out of it.
• Birdcaged: After being taken captive, Getafix and Appledjus are locked up in a cage suspended from the ceiling in the front desk area of one of the mansions.
• Blood-Splattered Warrior: Parodied with Obelix sporting the look... except he's covered in food.
• Brick Joke: Asterix and Obelix first appear arguing over who gets to catch a boar, later having much the same conversation (substituting a legionary for the boar).
• Butt Biter: Dogmatix, as usual. Squareonthehypotenus gets introduced to him when feeling his teeth embedded in the buttock while marking a tree, which Dogmatix strongly objects to.
• Canon Foreigner: Apeldjus did not exist in the comic.
• Casting Gag: Alexandre Astier voices a Roman Centurion Surrounded by Idiots. This is pretty much his role as King Arthur in Kaamelott.
• Chekhov's Skill: The husband of the Roman couple is a skilled mosaic maker and can instantly spot a flaw in a mosaic being made. This proves very useful later on.
• Comically Missing the Point: Asterix tells the villagers that they've become avaricious morons. Unhygenix retorts that they've always been morons. He's... not wrong.
• Cool Chair: Caesar's throne has a massive golden eagle on it.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Obelix's parting gift to Apeldjus is a tiny menhir. He explains menhirs are the only thing he knows how to carve.
• Cue the Falling Object: Once Asterix and Obelix have finished beating up the whole Roman camp, in the background a soldier is seen dangling from a tower of the wooden fence. He then slowly slips and falls down on the walkway underneath with a wet sound.
• Darkest Hour: Unlike the original comic, the movie actually explores the consequences of the Romans almost fully converting the Gauls to their way of life, followed by an extended climax where the legions are prepared to raze the village, the Gauls have no potion anymore, and Obelix is weakened from starvation due to the disappearance of the boars. In fact, it's only thanks to Caesar ordering the food from the banquet to be thrown away... right in the hole where Obelix is trapped that the movie doesn't end with a complete Roman victory.
• Deadpan Snarker: Alexandre Astier being the screenwriter, this is a given. Especially in his role as the centurion.
• Death by Adaptation: Not actual death, but a different fate: the architect, the Roman Centurion and the Senator become gladiators as punishment for their failure. Although in the movie gladiators are handled as wrestlers, this is usually seen as a serious punishment in the Asterix verse and does not happen often in the books (and especially not to those three in the book the movie is based on).
• The Door Slams You: Obelix topples one half of the large wooden portal at the entrance of the Roman camp on top of a pair of soldiers as part of his Big Entrance.
• Dramatic Irony: After Asterix, Obelix, Getafix and Cacofonix move into the Mansions of the Gods, Obelix wishes he knew which apartment Apledjus and his family were in so they could visit, unaware the family had just been thrown out of that very apartment to make room for them.
• Epic Fail: Asterix, Getafix and Obelix's early attempts to scare away the Romans living in the Mansion with things like rain and rotten fish. The Romans either appreciate these "disasters" (the rain was quite refreshing), or conclude that things are still better than in Rome.
• Everything Makes a Mushroom: When Obelix jumps in the Big Ball of Violence caused by his fellow Gauls' daily brawl, the dust cloud becomes a mushroom.
• Evil Is Not Well-Lit: Caesar's palace is huge and gloomy, with the regularly placed lamps barely providing any illumination.
• Evil Laugh:
  • Caesar has one, amplified by his extremely echo-ey throne chamber. There is a small discussion as to whether his laugh sounds "diabolical" or "maniacal".
  • Obelix has one, of sorts: it's the laugh of a Boisterous Bruiser about to do what he loves best.
• Everyone Has Standards: The Gauls will gleefully wreck unprovoked havoc on the legions, but they won't lay a finger on slaves or civilians, Roman though they may be.
• Evil Overlooker: Caesar in the movie poster.
• Facepalm:
  • Asterix is facepalming on the poster in reaction to the idiocy of his fellow Gauls falling for the appeal of the Mansions of the Gods.
  • The Centurion double-facepalms as Cacofonix is singing and causing a panic among the civilians, and he can't even command his legionaries over the sound.
  • Caesar pinches the bridge of his nose when a beaten-up Squareonthehypotenus welcomes him to a banquet in the middle of the chaos.
• Gladiator Games: Treated as modern Professional Wrestling, complete with merchandise (children's toys) and complicated named moves that require both participants to work.
• Graceful Loser: Caesar, like his book counterpart.
  Caesar: Oh well, Veni, Vidi, no Vici. Can't Vici every time. Alright everyone, back to Rome!
• Grievous Harm with a Body: As usual, a common fighting tactic for Obelix. Notably in the climax, after emerging from the ground and giving the assembled Romans a Death Glare, he grabs a legionary by the leg and start hammering the others with him.
• Growling Gut: Obelix's belly starts growling louder and more frequently to show that he's starving.
• Hairpin Lockpick: After Asterix and Dulcia's husband fail to break open the door to the building in which Getafix and Appeldjus are being held captive, Dulcia pulls out one of her hairpins and picks the lock within seconds.
• Hero-Worshipper: Appledjus is a huge fan of Hercules, and ends up adoring Obelix when he sees the Gaul is just as strong as the Greek hero.
• Hiccup Hijinks: Happens to Asterix when he drinks the incomplete Magic Potion, which instead of empowering him sends him into a hiccup fit.
• Hitler Cam: Various camera tricks are employed to make Obelix seem that much more terrifying, sometimes appearing to be three meters tall.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Caesar, by ordering to get rid of the banquet, which he has no time to indulge in, and the Romans by subsequently dropping all the food in the basement where a starving Obelix is imprisoned.
• Hypocritical Humor: Apeldjus is several times seen playing with his toys, pretending them to fight. At one point, his father wonders where he finds such ideas. The scene happens when the family is watching a gladiator fight.
• Indy Ploy: When the Gauls are without any magic potion as the Romans attack, Asterix and later the others pretend that they do.
• Killer Rabbit: A magic-potion-imbibed hen pitted against a Roman centurion.
• Leeroy Jenkins: The Indy Ploy goes well until Vitalstatistix orders the Gauls to chase the retreating Romans. When they run out of breath, the Romans realize they haven't drunk any potion, and then the roles are reversed.
• Loud Gulp: A collective gulp comes from the slaves when Squareonthehypotenus threatens to work them to death.
• Loud of War: As usual, this is how Cacofonix is weaponized. Subverted in that where this was the final straw in the book, here it's interrupted by the Gauls, who just learned they can now live in the Mansions of the Gods.
• Mama Bear: The wife of the Roman couple stops at nothing to find her son once she learns he may be in danger. This involves following a river up to its source on top of a mountain and back, apparently in the space of a few hours (and without magic potion).
• Meat-O-Vision: A starving Obelix hallucinates anthropomorphic boars when he meets the legionaries.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: Impedimenta and Dulcia are seen slamming two legionaries in the ground back and forth during the final battle.
• Mythology Gag: The movie contains many references to other Asterix books:
  • Asterix using a catapult to escape an army happens in Asterix and the Soothsayer.
  • People staging being under the influence of the magic potion occurs in Asterix and the Roman Agent, only that time, it was the Romans doing it.
  • A starved Obelix hallucinating wild boars happens in Asterix and the Great Crossing. This time, however, it is much more comedic.
  • Obelix being granted a sip of the magic potion in order to perform an even more spectacular feat than usual is a famous scene in Asterix and Cleopatra (though here, toppling four buildings certainly beats destroying a pyramid door).
  • Obelix (and Dogmatix) bonding with a kid is taken straight from Asterix in Spain.
  • When slaves have drunken magic potion, the way they build looks very similar to the construction in Asterix and Cleopatra.
• Naked People Are Funny: While relaxing in the sauna of the mansion, Fulliautomatix and Unhygienix see a naked Roman walk by, so they shrug and discard their own towels, much to the chagrin of Geriatrix (who was hidden in the steam, and thus gets to see everything). Embarrassed, the two men quickly cover their privates.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Getafix giving the magic potion to the slaves allows them to complete the mansion in no time — while it was supposed to allow them to revolt against the Romans, preventing the mansion from being built at all.
  • The other Gauls also interrupt Cacofonix while he is on the process of getting them rid of all the Romans (which is what happens in the comic book).
  • Despite their bad acting, the Gauls manage to convince the Romans that are about to destroy their village that they still have magic potion, and they retreat. Then they ruin it by chasing after them, but quickly exhaust themselves due to the lack of magic potion. When the Romans see the exhausted Gauls, they realize the deception and attack again.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • Had Caesar not decided to throw away the banquet, it would not have reached a starving Obelix who happens to be imprisoned in the basement.
  • Caesar does it earlier in the movie, too — having learned his ploy to lure the Gauls into Roman culture is working better than he'd ever anticipated, he overreaches and returns to the ham-handed militarism that has failed him repeatedly. His decision to eradicate the village with military force is exactly what the Gauls need to wake up and rally themselves.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • Obelix gorging himself on the whole discarded Roman banquet would probably have been a sight to behold.
  • We are not given to see the effect of a sip of magic potion on Obelix up close. Just the result: four buildings toppling down in short order.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Asterix and Getafix, as in the comics, are the only villagers who don't get entranced by the Roman way of life (Obelix as well, but it's mainly because he's too aloof to notice).
  • On the other side, the Roman Centurion has a lot of trouble with his soldiers.
• Ornamental Weapon: Averted; Asterix actually uses his sword for combat when attempting to rescue Getafix and Appledjus without magic potion.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: How the villagers plan to deal with the Roman civilians at first. Since it's them, they get pretty worked up about it while planning:
  Fulliautomatix: I'm warning you, if I pass a Roman civilian in the forest, I'll give him THE DIRTIEST LOOK OF HIS LIFE!
  Unhygienix: I'm warning you, if a Roman civilian is lost, I'll give him directions... BUT I WON'T CARE IF HE GOES THE WRONG WAY!
  Geriatrix: And I'm warning you, if a Roman offers to help carry my basket, I'll say thank you... BUT I WON'T MEAN IT AS ALL!
• Pass the Popcorn: The Roman civilians are eating appetizers while watching the legionaries and the Gauls fighting at the center of the Mansion of the Gods domain.
• Phlegmings: Visible in Obelix's mouth when he yells "Nobody calls me FAT!"
• Quieter Than Silence: When the heroes get back to the deserted village, a tumbleweed is seen rolling around. And no, those shouldn't be found in Gaul....
• Rain of Arrows: The Romans begin their attack of the empty village with a thick volley of arrows. Asterix, the only one present, takes cover under a table. Unfortunately, an arrow ends up piercing his Magic Potion gourd.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: While Asterix pretends to beat up his fellow Gauls to make the Romans think he still has magic potion, he uses the opportunity to call them all out their behavior and how they allowed things to escalate this far.
• Right Out of My Clothes: One of the soldiers punched during Asterix and Obelix's curb-stomp of the Roman camp ends up naked, his clothes and armor flying up before himself.
• Rock–Paper–Scissors: A pair of legionaries are seen playing the game just as they're flying in mid-air from being punched by the Gauls.
• Rolling Pin of Doom: As per usual, Impedimenta tries to defend herself with one of those, at first inefficiently. As soon as she has drank magic potion, however, she beat down Romans with it.
• Security Cling: When a menhir thrown by Obelix almost crushes Petiminus on landing, he jumps into his wife's arms in fright.
• Shout-Out:
  • Most of the dialogue could have come straight from Kaamelott, since Alexandre Astier wrote it. At one point, you hear a Roman soldier — dubbed by Frank Pitiot, no less, who plays Perceval in Kaamelott — muttering: "C'est pas faux...", one of the series' catchphrases.
  • In the French version, Vitalstatistix at one point quotes Charles de Gaulle's "JE VOUS AI COMPRIS !" address to Algeria on June 4, 1958. (The English version goes for "YES, WE CAN!" instead.)
  • Getafix standing in front of his cauldron of magic potion as the Romans gather around... "YOU! SHALL NOT! PAAAASSS!" Subverted in that Cubitus just shoves him out of the way... and comes face-to-face with Obelix.
  • When the Gauls are about to drink the Magic Potion raining on them, Unhygienix lifts an unconscious Asterix above his head in the same posture as the iconic "Rafiki lifting Simba" scene from The Lion King.
  • In the English version, the Gladiator games at the end (featuring the architect, the Roman Centurion and the Senator) are called "Who Wants to be a Gladiator?"
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: The members of Caesar's inner circle don't understand animal metaphors very well. Later, Caesar even pauses to make sure that they understood what "Imperial Eagle" implies.
• Simpleton Voice: A recurring complaint from critics is that Obelix's voice is too childish.
• Slave Liberation: Nope. The slaves use their newfound power to become free... legally. The leader even becomes a legionary by the end of the movie, which pisses Asterix off.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The poor slaves. Instead of taking the opportunity given to them by the Gauls to escape and living happily ever after, their leader Duplicatha points out that they would be living as runaway slaves and probably captured again as soon as the effects wore off. They instead use the potion to negociate their way to legal freedom, but they need jobs afterwards, which pay misery wages that cover exactly their rent, leading them back into, basically, slavery with more steps. In search of paid work, they eventually join the Roman army, which makes them enemies that the Gauls barely hesitate to barrel down.
• Stab the Sky: The statue of Caesar on top of the column at the Domain's center is in a triumphant pose with gladius pointing at the sky.
• The Stinger: One last line from Cubitus over the end of the credits.
  Cubitus: And I said to him, I says, "our demands are not negotiable, perius."
• Surrounded by Idiots:
  • The Roman Centurion. Voiced by Astier himself, who became famous for playing such a role in Kaamelott.
  • Check out Asterix in the movie poster up top.
• Take That!: The Roman slave driver ("Giveusabonus" in English), is named "Travaillerpluspourgagnerplus" in the French version, a play on Nicolas Sarkozy's favorite slogan — "Work more to earn more." Again, he's a slave driver.
• Theme Naming: Among the legionaries with speaking parts are Radius, Humerus and Cubitus.
• This Is Gonna Suck: A legionary tries to take a sip of magic potion, only to come face-to-face with Obelix.
  Cubitus: Ah... I'm in a pretty pickle, aren't I?
• This Is What the Building Will Look Like: The movie begins with what appears to be the village... then a giant hand appears out of the sky to pick up Asterix's hut.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Asterix throws his sword at the rope holding the cage with Getafix and Appledjus, to keep it from falling to the ground. It works, but it leaves Asterix without a weapon.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: When the Mansions are destroyed and the Roman citizens are thus forced to return to Rome, Asterix demands from Caesar that he will provide them all with a new home.
• Title Drop: At the start, when the eponymous structure is named. The Episode Title Card shows up right on cue, but Caesar hesitates about naming it The Mansion of the Gods, making the music sputters and the title card disappears. Then he decides it's fine after all, and the title card is back for good this time.
• Unwilling Suspension: Because Cacofonix's sole contribution to drive the Romans ends up being sabotaged by the Gauls and he just joins the crowd in driving out the Romans, he ends up being left out in the final party and hanging on a tree. At least he's not gagged, but he still didn't sing.
• What Is This Feeling?: Obelix has no idea what is happening to him when he begins to weaken, since he never before went without food for this long.
• Worf Had the Flu: Obelix ends up being captured, but this is solely because he has gone without food for too long, which weakens him. Once he gets to eat, he is soon back to his old self.
• Would Not Shoot a Civilian: The Gauls refuse to attack the Roman civilians. Caesar is even counting on it for his plan to succeed. During the climactic battle, the Gauls beat up all the legionaries, and at the same time politely escort the civilians out of the buildings while carrying their stuff.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: The Senator definitely got his job thanks to his intelligence.
  • Gauls keep ruining their building project during the day? Work during the night!
  • A slave uprising means nobody is willing to work and they demand housing? Demand rent so they need to get back to work anyway.
  • The building project is finally done but nobody wants to move there? Hype up a contest then threaten the winner with death if they don't want to move.
  • Asterix wants an apartment but now they're full? No problem because he has already predicted what will happen if Gauls gets pressured into Roman culture and a willing Gaul is an opportunity too good to pass on.

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