How Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion brings a quintessentially French story to an international audience

One of the most patently French characters ever created is heading abroad – again. Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion, the latest animated film to document the adventures of the famous Gaul, is now out in cinemas in the UK, almost nine months after its debut in France. For Louis Clichy, who co-directed the movie with French filmmaker Alexandre Astier, the idea of bringing Asterix’s story outside of the confines of the Hexagon (as France is lovingly known to its own nationals) is a bit of a head-scratcher. On the one hand, it seemed important to make sure the story made sense to an international audience. But on the other hand, the movie’s creators were unwilling to strip the Asterix franchise of its Frenchness – even if that meant some references would elude international viewers.

“We’re very chauvinistic,” Clichy says in his native French. “This was a film first and foremost for people who know Asterix and speak French.” The film, he says, assumes some knowledge of the Asterix franchise, though Clichy took care to remind the audience of its most basic elements (resolute Gauls resist Roman invaders thanks to their druid’s magic potion, which brings them superhuman strength).

But Clichy and Astier’s refusal to tone down Asterix’s overwhelming Frenchness isn’t just the result of national pride, or a refusal to tailor a beloved French story to an international audience. It’s also a way of preserving the storytelling and the appeal of the original franchise. “In order to talk about Asterix with the whole planet, you’d have to remind the audience of a lot of things,” Clichy adds – and that would be boring for those who are already up to date.

Watching the film in English as a French national is an interesting experience. The way I saw it, Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion works on several levels – much like a Pixar movie. There’s the overall plot (the village’s druid Panoramix, or Getafix as he’s called in the English version, realises that retirement is looming and resolves to find a successor with whom he’ll share his secret magic potion recipe), which can be understood by any viewer regardless of their nationality. Then there are specific references that might not be crystal clear to non-French viewers (Pectin, a girl who must pass for a boy in order to be accepted by Panoramix’s fellow druids, is instructed to answer any question that might come her way by making a “pffft” sound with her mouth – a typically French response that signals a lack of knowledge and/or interest, which isn’t a prominent part of the conversational repertoire outside of France). And to top it all off, there are references that even some French people might miss – namely to Astier’s series Kaamelott, a retelling of King Arthur’s legend that remains a fan favourite in France but might not be known to younger viewers.

Pixar, where Clichy worked for about three years (he animated scenes in Wall-E and Up), has built an entire brand out of releasing movies that are for children on the surface but contain deeper references for adults, without diminishing anyone’s enjoyment. The same applies here: if people miss out on a Kaamelott reference here and there, Clichy says, “it’s no big deal” – there’s still plenty for them to focus on.

The timing of Asterix’s UK release is certainly interesting. After all, aren’t Asterix, Obelix and the rest of the Gauls part of a closed-off country whose main goal is to protect its identity against outside influences – a narrative that takes on additional relevance in Brexit times? “It’s true that the overall story of Asterix is quite funny vis-à-vis what’s happening there,” says Clichy – though he points out that the film’s story, at its core, is that of Panoramix, rather than the diplomacy that has been part of the franchise’s DNA for six decades now.

So how does one bring a franchise such as Asterix abroad? First, Clichy and Astier (who also partnered on 2014’s Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods) delivered the film in French. Technically, they each had separate tasks, clearly outlined in their contracts, but naturally, boundaries blurred once they started working together. Still, Astier wrote the story and Clichy supervised much of the animation process. Then came the translation part, which was handled for the most part by the producers. Still, Clichy got involved to some extent – and surprisingly enough, found that some aspects of the film worked better in English than they did in French.

One such example is Panoramix’s English name, Getafix. In French, Panoramix is derived from the word “panoramique”, which means (shocker) “panoramic” – a cute pun, but not the wittiest imaginable. Getafix, however, takes on a whole other dimension when it’s applied to a character whose main skill is to make a superhuman strength potion – in other words, a doping product. “[The name] is so much better in English than in French,” says Clichy. “It’s very funny. I find it really amusing. Some things do work better in English than in French.”

Quality puns aren’t the English-speaking world’s only contribution to Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion. Clichy’s time at Pixar came into play when it came to crafting the film’s story, too. In the world of American animation, Clichy says, “story is king”. “You really have to make sure the story works, even if it means having to do things again, or if it means getting rid of a good joke that doesn’t serve the story,” he says. “That’s their logic. Overall, they have incredible skills that have helped me enormously.”

Clichy, an animation man through and through, isn’t fond of Asterix’s past live-action incarnations. There have been four so far, released between 1999 and 2012. “By default, I don’t like live-action adaptations of comic books. You lose everything. You have to paste human features on things that aren’t supposed to be human.” Only one of the four live-action films, the 2002 Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (a classic reference for French people born in the Nineties), finds favour with him. “Like everyone else, it made me laugh… I find all the other ones very bad. I don’t see the point.”

What about Marvel movies, then? They certainly seem to have succeeded in bringing comic books to the live-action screen. “Marvel has such a realistic approach to comic books. The characters are fully human, and they evolve. I think it’s a better medium [for live-action adaptations],” Clichy concedes. “But this trend of turning all Disney movies into live-action films… I think it brings absolutely nothing new to the table, apart from reviving a very well-known franchise that’s going to bring in some money.”