Lucky Luke: The Ballad of the Daltons

The Dalton brothers had an uncle and he has died. The will is read: the whole fortune goes to the four brothers, on one condition. They are to do away with the judge and the members of the jury who hanged him. All four agree at once. But there is another clause: for the business to look lawful a witness must go with them. Lucky Luke is named as the witness. Luke does not want it but is obliged to carry out the will. They set off. Every target is in a different town and something goes wrong every time. Morris directs with René Goscinny. It is a French production and animated. The source is the Lucky Luke comics, drawn by Morris and written by Goscinny. Goscinny died before the film opened; it was among his last works. The narrative turns the western into parody and the jokes rest on the clichés of the genre. There is a dream section in it and that is its freest part. The narrative proceeds in pieces; each target is a separate scene and the links between them are weak. Music and songs are used inside the narrative. The film reached a wide audience in France and is among the best known animations in the series. Its limit is structure; the narrative repeats, the characters are one dimensional, and the ending is where expected. Who it is for: viewers who like French animation and comic adaptations. Who it is not for: it is episodic, simple, and the ending easy.