Asterix: The Immersive Journey

“The year is 50 BC. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely…” Ok, so it’s 2024, and the Atelier des Lumières is entirely occupied by excited small children and their grown-ups. Well, not entirely …. because I am there too. I’ve come to the digital art center in the 11th arrondissement to see one of their current productions. If you recognized the opening words, with which many Asterix stories begin, you’ll have guessed that the show I chose is Asterix, the Immersive Journey.

And immersive is the operative word. This show, a barrage of color and sound, plays out all over the walls and floor of the huge space which used to be a foundry, but has been reconfigured as a digital art space. The Asterix show runs on a continuous loop and I’d arrived mid-film, so I decided to copy some of the smaller guests and do some exploring before settling down to watch once the beginning came round again. Children darted and pointed, some settled for a while on the seats scattered through the hall, others climbed the stairs to a balcony overlooking the whole display. I even saw one or two hugging the walls, in a bid to get right inside the action.  Excitement ran high. 

This work, specially created for the Atelier des Lumières, is a celebration of the Asterix stories which have been delighting French and worldwide audiences for nearly seven decades. Cleverly, the plot is designed to draw on highlights from many previous stories while continuing the theme of plucky villagers from one little corner of Gaul holding out against the Romans who have conquered everywhere else. Favorite characters are here, led by the shrewd, moustachioed hero, Asterix, and his corpulent sidekick Obelix, slow of thinking, but blessed with superhuman strength thanks to the magic potion he drank as a child. And the fast-paced adventure, which takes us all round the world, ends – how else? – in a roast boar feast back in their home village.

The Romans kidnap Panoramix (Getafix in English) who, as the only character who can make the magic potion, must be rescued at all costs. Asterix, Obelix and their trusty canine Idéfix (Dogmatix in English) are thus licensed to set off around the globe, having numerous adventures along the way, to track him down. Their swift passage through many lands, from Gaul and Hispania to Persia and the United States, allows a reprise of settings from many well-loved Asterix stories, all drawn with witty attention to detail and no small sprinkling of clichés. In foggy Britain they sweep through the Tower of Londonium to the tune of God Save the King, in India they brave tigers and a monsoon, in Egypt there’s a torchlit jeopardy scene when they get lost among the tombs and are told: “You will never get out.” 

The pace is furious. The characters zip from camel to magic carpet, they are in near-constant peril from monstrous waves or lions’ dens, the dangers and near escapes are highlighted in shouty, capitalised speech bubbles – PLATCH, BOING, BOUM. The colors are bright, the images enlarge and sway over and beneath you, the musical accompaniments veer from classical to rock to pop, the action never slows, the dialogue is fast and witty (and French!). 

But it is also captivating, an attention-grabbing journey of appreciative nostalgia for anyone who knows the Asterix back catalogue. The smaller children, presumably unfamiliar with all the references zipping past them, are enjoying the sensory overload anyway. 

The frenetic pace does slow at the end, when photos and archive footage of the original authors, René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, roll by to the music of Georges Brassens. Artistic Director Patrick Vuittenez says this is his favorite moment. Tense scenes, such as when the audience finds itself mid-storm on the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by giant waves, pull you right in, he says, but for him nothing beats the emotional hommage to the writer (Goscinny) and illustrator (Uderzo) who created Asterix the Gaul in 1961 and have enjoyed worldwide acclaim ever since. This final section gives him goosebumps every time he sees it, he says. 

For Vuittenez, the project has always revolved around respect for the original Asterix books, an attempt to produce something the original authors would be proud of. His aim was to combine key details, in visuals, text and sound as he puts it, into a new story. The idea of a global search for the kidnapped Panoramix allowed the team to draw on settings from the original works while keeping the overall theme of little Gaulois villagers taking on – and outdoing – the mighty Romans.  As ideas evolved, the illustrators got to work, coordinating as they went with Studio Cutback over design and production and with Start-Rec for the soundtrack. The result will surely enchant all Asterix fans, who will delight in the multi-layered references of the final product.

It would be hard to conceive of an entertainment more characteristically French. Asterix and friends may travel the world, but they pass first through Lutèce, Lugdunum and Massilia – or Paris, Lyon and Marseille in modern French – and when abroad they dream of roasting boars by the village fire back in Armorica, that is modern-day Brittany. Such is the standing of the brand that in 2015, after the murder of seven cartoonists at the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine, Alberto Uderzo, then in his late 80s, came out of retirement to draw two Asterix pictures in honor of the victims. Thus Asterix, a childhood favorite of generations of children, made a dignified contribution to the battle for free speech which the Charlie Hebdo atrocity represented. 

The current program at the Atelier des Lumières includes other shows such as The Orientalists, about the travels to the Orient of the artists Delacroix, Ingrès and others, and Egypt of the Pharoahs, both of which will run, like Asterix, until January 5th.  They are both subjects which lend themselves to the all-encompassing quality of an immersive production, but for sheer excitement and nostalgia, it will be hard to top Asterix. The aim was to enchant both those new to Asterix and long-time fans, something I think they have achieved. I would return with equal excitement to deepen my knowledge of the Asterix phenomenon or to entertain my 6-year-old granddaughter. How best to express my enthusiasm? Two quotes from the show serve nicely. “HOURRAH! VLABADABADOU!”

DETAILS

Asterix, le Voyage Immersif
Until January 5th 2025
For times of showings, see here 
Full price 17€, Children 11 and under 10€, other concessions available 
Atelier des Lumières
38 rue Saint-Maur, 11th
Métro: Voltaire or Saint-Ambroise (Line 9), Rue Saint-Maur or Père Lachaise (Line 3)