Asterix & the Big Fight

Asterix & the Big Fight
Original Title	Astérix et le coup du menhir
Original Language	French
Dubbing Studio 1	World Wide Sound
Dubbing Studio 2	B&B Sound Studios
Voice Director 1	George Roubicek
Voice Director 2	David N. Weiss
Translation & Adaptation	George Roubicek (UK version) David N. Weiss (US version)
Recorded	1990
Dub Country 1	United Kingdom
Dub Country 2	United States
Original Country	France Germany
Year	1989

Asterix & the Big Fight (Astérix et le coup du menhir) is a French-German animated film based on the comics created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. It is the sixth animated film starring the characters.

Synopsis When the druid Panoramix is attacked by some Roman soldiers, Obelix drives them away by throwing a menhir on them - which accidentally hits Panoramix. After this the druid has lost his memory and can not remember the formula of his magic potions, especially the one which gives superhuman strength.

Dubbing History

Two dubs of the film were produced simultaneously in 1990; the first dub was produced in the United Kingdom, featuring an all-star cast, and was released on May 4, 1990.

An American produced dub was commissioned by Disney/Touchstone Pictures for a planned US release in 1990, but never materialized and was shelved. This version features more mainstream pre-lay voice actors, as well as all-star actors Henry Winkler and Rosey Grier. The dub was first released in 1995 for the UK Mollin Video VHS release, rather than using the British dub. The American dub is considered inferior by fans of the original due to it changing parts of the script as well as character names, and general dumbing-down for an audience assumed to be unfamiliar with the characters.

The American dub assigns stereotypical Italian comedy accents to the Roman characters, features a narrator (voiced by Tony Jay) explaining the plot to the audience, several anachronistic jokes, and makes changes to the terminology of the original story, substituting "wizard" for druid, "fortuneteller" for soothsayer, "rockets" for menhirs, and "vitamin potion" for the magic potion.

Cast

Image	Character	Original Actor	Dub Actor (UK)	Dub Actor (US)
	Asterix	Roger Carel	Bill Oddie	Henry Winkler
	Obelix	Pierre Tornade	Bernard Bresslaw	Rosey Grier
	Prolix	Julien Guiomar	Ron Moody	Bill Martin
	Impedimenta	Marie-Anne Chazel	Sheila Hancock	Lucille Bliss
	Getafix	Henri Labussière	Peter Hawkins	Danny Mann
	Centurion Voluptuous Arteriosclerosus (General Caous)	Roger Lumont	Brian Blessed	Ed Gilbert
	Decurion Totalapsus (Decurion Crysus)	Patrick Préjean	Michael Elphick	Danny Mann
	Ardeco	Gerard Croce	Andrew Sachs	Greg Burson
	Cacofonix	Edgar Givry	Tim Brooke-Taylor
	Vitalstatistix	Henri Poirer	Douglas Blackwell
	Fulliautomatix	Jean-Claude de Goros	Sean Barrett	Bill Martin
	Unhygienix	Yves Barsacq	Kerry Shale	Ed Gilbert
	Geriatrix	Paul Bisciglia	Ian Thompson	Danny Mann
	Mrs. Geriatrix	Jeanine Forney	Kathryn Hurlbutt	Mona Marshall
	Bulbus Crocus	Jean-Claude Robbe	Geoffrey Mathews	¿?
	Mrs. Fulliautomatix	Paule Emanuele	Elizabeth Proud	¿?
	Bacteria	Danièle Hazan		¿?
	Narration	N/A		Tony Jay
	Dogmatix	Roger Carel

Additional Voices

UK Dub

• Ian Thompson - Legionaries

Notes

• Due to the release plans falling through, some prints of the US dub don't include voice actor credits, and on the UK Optimum Releasing DVD release, the German credits are used instead of the proper credits.
• The end credits for the US dub recycle the scrolling credits from the UK dub, as such, the crew members of that dub are mentioned as well.
• While the UK Dub utilizes the established English character names, the US dub renames many of the casts to its own tongue-in-cheek names.
  • Getafix is named 'Vitamix'.
  • Vitalstatistix is named 'Chief Bombastix'.
  • Cacofonix is named 'Franksinatrix'.
  • Impedimenta keeps her original French name of 'Bonemine'.
  • General Caous is named 'Bossa Nova'.
  • Decurion Crysus is named 'Optione'.
  • Ardeco is named 'Sergeant Noodles'.
  • Unhygienix is named 'Fishstix'.
• There are moments in the US Dub where dialogue from the British version is utilized as background audio, and moments where character laughs are recycled from both that dub, as well as the French version and certain other dubs.
• Greg Burson is only credited in the US dub for voicing Chief Bombastix/Vitalstatistix, leaving his roles as Franksinatrix/Cacofonix and Sergeant Noodles/Ardeco uncredited. Similarly, Ed Gilbert is only credited for voicing Bossa Nova/General Caous, Danny Mann is only credited for voicing Vitamix/Getafix, and Bill Martin is only credited for voicing Prolix, leaving all their other roles uncredited.

Video Releases

Distributor	Year	Format	Dub	Region	Country
Palace Video	1990		U.K.	PAL	United Kingdom
Mollin Video	1995		U.S.
Optimum Releasing	2006*			2 PAL

*In a Box Set with Asterix the Gaul, Asterix & Cleopatra, The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, Asterix Versus Caesar and Asterix in Britain.

External Links

• Asterix & the Big Fight on the Internet Movie Database