Asterix and the Vikings

Asterix The Gaul conjures up memories of a France defined by chaps in berets wearing stripey pullovers and selling onions from the crossbars of bicycles.

He's a cartoon anachronism hopelessly adrift in a deep pool of contemporary CGI talent yet wheeled out every now and then in a new adventure to the delight of, well, the French.

This time there's an effort to bring him up to date by introducing a new character - Justforkix (this wordplay really is irritating), a floppy-haired dude with a carrier pigeon called SMS.

Asterix (voiced by Paul Giamatti) and Obelix have been charged with making a man out of the arrogant, city-dwelling Justforkix (Lord of the Rings' Sean Astin).

However, their schooling is interrupted by a Viking invasion, the raiders abducting Asterix's pupil and taking him back to the frozen north.

There's nothing new here: the animation is adequate but the use of American-accented actors to voice the crazy Gauls makes it difficult to distinguish between this and anything churned out on the kids' network.

To Gallic anklebiters it's probably the return of an old amis - to us, it's a load of old Gauls.

Tim Evans