Auf in den Westen, Lucky Luke!

This movie start great. The beginning when the Dalton brothers escape from their trial in New York just to be capture by Lucky Luke once again is pretty fun and full of energy, however as soon the plots kicks in with Lucky Luke escorting caravan the movie quickly turn into a hour and a half Road Runner cartoon. There is never a filling of threat for our hero as all the villains are either to stupid to create any danger or have over-the-top bad luck and their plans back-fire on them without any intervention of the main protagonist. Even the humor can gets way to slapstick with jokes I've seen hundreds time before in Looney Toons cartoons (They throw some cute In-jokes for Lucky Luke fans BTW)

On other hand... The animation however looks FANTASTIC!!! There are some Ren and Stimpy like expressions, backgrounds are rich and full of details and to be fair next to "The Princess and the frog" and "Illusionist" this must be the best hand drawn animation of the last decade.

So yhe, if you love the classic 2D animation this movie is great to look at, but the script is just hour and a half of slapstick humor and thats it.

The fourth and probably best animated feature starring the invincible western hero and the usual assortment of colorful friends and foes offers solid animation, some (although too few) clever jokes that transcend pure kiddie fare, and a fast-paced and entertaining, though not too original and episodic story, plus two overextended action sequences.

It's all in good spirit and despite some flat gags here and there and a general air of déjà vu this good-natured effort is likely to please the fans of the comic books.

6 out of 10 flying wagons

My first reaction to the initial few minutes of Lucky Luke's Go West adventure, is that it's one insanely funny movie with its plentiful sight gags, but that's it.

Co-written and directed by Olivier Jean Marie, who migrated Lucky Luke's adventures to the big screen with this effort, the story tells of a gang of robbers known as the Dalton Brothers, four felons who are of varying heights, whose lifestyle is to get guns, rob banks, get arrested, escape, wash, rinse and repeat. Beginning in New York, the foursome in their latest robbery managed to hide their loot in a wagon before being busted by Lucky Luke, the renowned cowboy whose speed of the draw makes him renowned all over.

But a band of settlers requested for Luke's assistance to lead them to their promised land, land that they paid to Crook (yes, what a name, for obvious reasons) who set a condition that the land he sold would be theirs only if they can arrive at the location in 80 days. So begins Lucky Luke's exodus with the European settlers leading them to the West Coast of USA, along with the Dalton brothers in his custody and their concern in regaining their loot from one of the settler's wagons, and Crook trying to foil everyone at every step of the way.

Going by the crowd reaction, predominantly made up of children, it certainly got positive feedback through the cheers by the kids. And it's not difficult to see why, as there were plenty of funny situations to lighten up the mood of even the moodiest person in the house. Almost every scene has something interesting to look at, with the narrative being quite witty in itself, and when the need calls for it, larger than life action sequences detailing the ups and downs of the various characters in their seeking of individual goals.

Lucky Luke, voiced by Lambert Wilson, quickly got forgotten though in the middle of the movie, and it became the Joe (Vlovis Comullac) and Averell (Bernard Alane) Dalton show, as the two steal the thunder from the virtually all-powerful hero. I guess it's no surprise that flawless heroes almost always tend to get upstaged by the villains, and here the villains clearly have more interesting facades to them, even though they may venture really close into stylistic and narrative influences of slapstick comedians.

Given the crazy way the story develops, its unique visual animation showcasing that 2D still can hold its own against its 3D or CG counterparts, so long as you have material to satisfy your target audience. Suitable for both children and adults alike.

I've been a hardcore Lucky Luke fan since my earliest years and this particular movie has a special place in my heart since the very first time I watched it. Nevertheless, I didn't give it a 10/10 rating out of pure nostalgia. Watching it again as an adult, I loved it as much as I did as a kid, if not more! I still strongly believe it's the best movie adaptation of Lucky Luke and I'll explain why, right away.

The plot is inspired by the classic Lucky Luke comic "La Caravane" where the poor lonesome cowboy escorts a group of pioneers across the country to their newly-bought land in California and this is quite a similar case. The Dalton brothers, fleeing their trial in New York, decide to rob the banks of the Big Apple. However, pursued by both NYPD and Lucky Luke (he was called to the trial as a witness) they hide the loot at a carriage in the soon-to-be Central Park. What they didn't know however was that this carriage along with many more identical ones is off to California by a group of Old World pioneers. The pioneers ask Lucky Luke to escort them with safety since the owner of the land they bought, had set them an 80 days due date to get there or he gets to keep the money. So, Luke takes the job, the Daltons go along to regain the money and a crazy adventure begins!

The plot might appear quite simple to some but guys, come on! It's a Lucky Luke story, not some high class western drama or something. This movie is high class though in it's own way. Filled with hilarious jokes for both kids and adults, a flowing story that will keep you hooked and many pop culture references and anachronisms to break the norms it's a cartoon, tailor made for all audiences. It ticks all the boxes of a quality cartoon film as the animation is cool, keeping the classic comic style design but giving it a fresh boost, the dialogue adaotation (the greek one at least) is really on the spot, full of the Morris tongue-in-cheek humour and the music is fun and catchy. At the same time, it really respects the personas keeping the caracters faitful to the comics and therefore, no hardcore fan will be disappointed.

Luke was very lucky indeed to have his story adapted to such an excellent movie and I proudly recommend it to every adult or child who appreciates a good film to relax.