Still, it is an improvement and a very good film for kids. Had they simply made new scenes and added subplots, it might have been more bearable, but this way it just seems needlessly prolonged. This is especially notable in the scenes with Cleopatra.
The comic album simply didn't have enough material for a full length feature film and thus they had to pad most of the scenes to obscene amounts. Unfortunately the film suffers from the same problem the first one did. Plus, the characters are still very, very good, which we of course have the original comics to thank for. The animation quality is also much higher than previously and even the music, arguably the strongest point of the first film, has gotten bit of an upgrade.
The film is full of good visual humour, clever wordplay and fun characters.
The film has real energy behind it, which has always been a hallmark of the Asterix series. This time Asterix creators Goscinny and Uderzo oversaw the project and it shows. The only problem is that he only has three months to do so and he has absolutely no skills as an architect. This time Asterix, Obelix and druid Getafix travel all the way to Egypt to help a friend of Getafix, an architect named Edifis, who has been ordered to built a magnificent palace for Queen Cleopatra. The second of the animated Asterix films and once again based fully on an early comic album of the same name.