The Twelve Tasks of Asterix

Unhappy with the look of the first two Belvision adaptations, René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo founded Studios Idéfix in Paris with publisher Georges Dargaud on 1 April 1974 and made this film there, directing it themselves. Henri Gruel and Pierre Watrin hold a separate credit for carrying that direction out. Its shortage of animators marked French animation permanently. Per the CNC, Idéfix arranged with the Paris chamber of commerce for an animation course at the Gobelins school, with a job promised to graduates. Idéfix did not survive Goscinny’s death and shut on 1 April 1978, 4 years to the day after opening. This is the first film in the series not adapted from an album. Caesar’s terms are plain: all 12 tasks done, the empire passes to the Gauls; one failed, the village surrenders to Rome. Its most quoted stretch is the House That Sends You Mad, where permit A38 is obtained; in Germany Passierschein A38 became a byword for absurd bureaucracy, and Mönchengladbach still lists an application of that name in its online services. The film sold 2,202,481 tickets in France. A good fit if you can take tasks that never connect, each running one joke to its end. Not for anyone hoping for a story known from the albums; this one is built outside them.