Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion (2018)

Getafix falls out of a tree and begins to contemplate his own mortality, which is a grim premise for a children's cartoon about a village of indomitable Gauls. The resulting quest, a tour of the Gallic world in search of a druid worthy of the secret recipe, is handled with the easy competence this franchise has refined across six decades. The animation is glossy, the voice work is professional, and the whole affair moves at the pace of a pleasant Sunday afternoon. It is, in the end, a film about succession planning, which is not the most thrilling subject ever entrusted to a magic potion.

There is one progressive gesture on offer, and it arrives in the person of Pectine, a village girl who stows away in a cauldron, learns the recipe, and is quietly hinted to be Getafix's eventual heir. The village women also hold the fort against the Romans while the men are away, which lends the subplot a modest girl-empowerment flavor. Beyond that, the film declines every invitation to make a statement. The voice cast is a roster of well-known French comedians, and no effort was made to broaden it. The conflict between Gauls and Romans carries no racial parable. The burning of the sacred forest is a villain's errand, not an environmental warning. Obelix's appetite remains a running gag, not a meditation on self-acceptance. Nobody is coded as neurodivergent, and nobody has a thought to spare for the class struggle.

The lessons here concern cooperation and the passing of a torch, delivered softly and without a raised finger. Sulfurix is dispatched, the Romans retreat, and the village eats. It is all very agreeable, and it asks nothing of us but our patience.