Asterix and Obelix All at Sea
| Asterix and Obelix All At Sea (La Galère d'Obélix) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Date | 1996 |
| Series | Asterix |
| Creative team | |
| Writers | Albert Uderzo |
| Artists | Albert Uderzo |
| Original publication | |
| Date of publication | 1996 |
| Language | French |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Asterix and the Secret Weapon |
| Followed by | Asterix and the Actress |
Asterix and Obelix All at Sea is the thirtieth volume of the Asterix comic book series, by Albert Uderzo. The album was dedicated to Uderzo's grandchild, as well as American actor Kirk Douglas.
Plot summary
A band of slaves led by Spartakis (a parody of Spartacus) have taken over Julius Caesar's personal galley; whereupon Caesar sends his Admiral Crustacius to recover it.
After some arguing about a safe place to disembark, the slaves decide to set sail for the only place safe from the Romans: Asterix' Gaulish village. Crustacius, in pursuit, prepares to attack the village. When the Gauls prepare for battle, Obelix is (as usual) denied Getafix's magic potion. As the Gauls return victorious from battle, they find Obelix has drunk the remaining cauldron of magic potion - Getafix having made two cauldrons - and that this overdose has turned him into stone.
The former galley slaves are granted refuge, and Getafix tries desperate measures to revive Obelix. Ultimately Obelix returns to life; but as a child, and deprived of his strength. He thereafter is kidnapped by Roman soldiers as a hostage, and the former slaves travel with Asterix, Dogmatix, and Getafix to rescue him. After dropping off Crustacius, his adjutant Vice-Admiral Nautilus, and Caesar's galley with the pirates, Getafix guides his companions to the remnants of Atlantis (the Canary Islands), where the Atlantides have found eternal youth, in the hope that they can restore Obelix's adulthood; but learns that the Atlantides are unable to increase a patient's age. Therefore the Gauls head back to the village, while the freed slaves remain on Atlantis as children forever. On their way back, the Gauls are intercepted by another Roman galley, whereupon Asterix is incapacitated by a catapult stone. Seeing his friend in danger provokes Obelix to recover his strength and size, and rescue him; whereafter Obelix destroys the Roman outpost near the village, before returning for the village's victory feast.
On Caesar's galley, Crustacius is mistakenly given a dose of magic potion accidentally left behind by Getafix, and expels the pirates; but makes the same mistake as Obelix and is changed into a statue himself, and Nautilus's ambition of obtaining a promotion for bringing back the ship, is dashed when he forgets to remove the jolly roger flag from the galley on approaching Rome's harbour and some over-eager soldiers fire flaming ballista bolts against the supposed pirate vessel. The statue of the admiral is installed in the Circus Maximus, and Nautilus and the soldiers are reduced to sweeping the arena. When asked by Cleopatra about why he would erect a statue to commemorate the incompetent admiral, Caesar replies that although lions do not eat stone, things may change some day.
Notes
- The character Spartakis is obviously based on actor Kirk Douglas and his role in the movie Spartacus.
- This is the only album in which two of the pirates are called by name.
- The Atlantean "palace" in the album has been modeled after the ruins of the Minoan civilization. Connections between Atlantis and Minoan Crete have also been explored in Atlantis Mystery, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and other fiction.
- The young Obelix is shown as without his usual great strength. This means that he must be under six years old, as that was about the age he fell into the potion and presumably gained his strength (see How Obelix Fell into the Magic Potion When he was a Little Boy).
- This album has perhaps the closest thing in the Asterix series to a major character actually dying, as Admiral Crustacius is left trapped in stone form at the end of the story, without Getafix to revert him to normal.
- Cleopatra makes an appearance in this album alongside Julius Caesar; but her physical appearance is quite different from that seen in the album Asterix and Cleopatra, in that she is here darker-skinned and shorter-nosed, and is never shown in her characteristic irascibility.
- The young Obelix here pronounces the name of Asterix properly; but lisps in How Obelix Fell into the Magic Potion When he was a Little Boy.
In other languages
- Croatian: Gali na galiji (Gauls on galley)
- Czech: Obelix a Caesarova galéra
- Danish: Så til søs, Obelix!
- Dutch: De beproeving van Obelix
- Finnish: Obelixin kaleeri (also translated into Savo dialect as Opeliksin orjalaeva, roughly translatable as Obelix's Slave Ship)
- German: Obelix auf Kreuzfahrt
- Spanish: El mal trago de Obelix
- Greek: Η γαλέρα του Οβελίξ
- Italian: Asterix e la galera di Obelix
- Indonesian: "Obelix Yang Malang"
- Norwegian: Obelix på galleien
- Portuguese: A Galera de Obelix (Brazil) O Pesadelo de Obelix (Portugal)
- Polish: Galera Obeliksa
- Serbian: Обеликсова галија
- Swedish: Obelix på galejan