SHEER GAUL

SWIG THAT MAGIC POTION AND STEP INTO THE RING FOR ASTERIX & OBELIX: THE BIG FIGHT

- NICK SETCHFIELD

FOR ALAIN CHABAT, history is repeating. Not the kind of history that could ever be unearthed by archaeologists, but the one recorded by the combined genius of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. A colourful, knockabout past, bursting with killer puns and sorcerous potions, plucky Gauls and hapless Romans. A past forever fixed at 50 BC.

“I love this universe,” Chabat tells SFX. “I could do this as a job, just doing Asterix, all my life. I love the characters. They're funny and they’re charming. They have a lot of heart.”

In 2002, Chabat wrote and directed Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra, a live-action take on the scrappy Gaul warriors. Now he’s one of the key creative forces behind Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight, a TV mini-series that brings the world of Goscinny and Uderzo to vivid life through 3D CG animation.

“It was a great way to get back to this world while being very different,” says Chabat, who again serves as writer and director. “It’s animation. It’s not a movie; it’s a series. So there was plenty of new territory to discover.”

“It gives you more freedom,” says fellow director Fabrice Joubert of the move to computer animation. “You have a budget, but you can create whatever you want visually, especially with this one, where we had to create the whole set for the fight.”

“The Big Fight is supposed to be like the ancient version of a big Las Vegas match,” says Chabat.

Joubert nods. “There was something about giving it scope that we were able to do in CGI, definitely.”

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