Despite what some of my elementary school teachers may claim, I learned to read thanks to my friends, Asterix and Obelix.  If you don’t like reading, and prefer movies, then what are you doing reading this review?  Go away.  Watch something.  The rest of you, keep reading.

The Asterix comic books, written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo, are set in Gaul, which is now part of modern France, during the reign of Caesar Augustus.  Astérix and Obélix: God Save Britannia is a live-action mash-up of Asterix in Britain and Asterix and the Normans.  Asterix and his intrepid friend, Obelix, are asked to take a cask of their village’s famous potion to Britain to help save the island nation from the invading Roman legions.  The subplot with the Normans, while charming, is pretty much shoehorned in for the sake of reel time.  That is my only complaint.  Okay, that and Dogmatix, Obelix’s little dog, getting left behind in Gaul.  The movie lives up to all the comedic gold the Asterix series is famous for.  An array of pop-culture references, puns, and slapstick are delivered with excellent timing along with the classic Asterix stereotyping that is done in such a playful way that you can’t help but enjoy it.

I highly recommend this playful romp of a film, with the warning to the anglophones out there that it was filmed in French.  You will have to read subtitles.  So again, if you don’t like reading, go away.  The rest of you, do enjoy!

If you want to watch the trailer with English subtitles, you will have to go to IMDB.  For those who, like me, took twelve years of French but, unlike me, actually retained some of that schooling, here is the trailer in its original francophone glory: