LUCKY LUKE
Cartoon film from Morris and Goscinny's work.
Identification Sheet:
Belvision, 1971
Director: René Goscinny
Writers: Morris, Goscinny and Tchernia
Sound Track: Claude Bolling
Production: Darguad, Claude Leblanc
Running Time: 70 minutes
Main characters:
Lucky Luke, Jolly Jumper, the Daltons (Joe, William, Jack and Avrell), the Mayor, the Undertaker's Digger Graves and Lulu Carabine.
As it is usual when you talk about extremely popular strip cartoon characters, the risk is to discontent the fans expecting one voice or another. Rich Little was in charge of the casting for Lucky Luke and the Daltons' voices.
Conception of the work:
An original scenario but...
The writers and scenario makers Goscinny and Morris, helped by Pierre Tchernia, have chosen not to adapt a particular album but to set the hero and his enemies in a story written specially for cinema.
The character of Lulu Carbine, the saloon singer, first appeared in Dalton City and it is in this album that you should find the largest number of refences: Daisy Town (Fenton City and later Dalton City in the album) is the outlawed place where all "desperados" go to spend their stolen fortunes with complete impunity; the singer jumps out of the cake in the last surprise. The authors wanted to create a purely cinematographic product.
... familiar characters
This 1971 film presents a famous hero who had, at that time, more than 30 albums written about him. The Daltons appeared in the sixth album as sinister brothers, inspired in real outlawed figures. The story ends up with the shooting at Coffeyville, a historical event, where the Daltons are shot to death. What we find in the film are their cousins, which appeared in the 12th album. Their bufooning makes them less and less frightening all along the different albums and the film also follows this evolution. Like in many strip cartoon, notice also the role of Jolly Jumper, a secondary character which sometimes overshadows the protagonist.
The stars of the French-Belgium cartoons in the cinema:
The other two important figures, Tintin and Asterix, have also tried their luck in the cinema.
Tintin:
Films with real actors: Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece (1961) and Tintin and the Blue Oranges (1964)
Cartoon films: Prisoners of the Sun and Tintin and the Lake of Sharks
Asterix:
Cartoon films: Asterix the Gaul (1967), Asterix and Cleopatra (1968), The 12 tasks of Asterix (1975), Asterix versus Caesar (1985), Asterix in Britain (1986), Asterix and the Big Fight (1989), Asterix conquers America (1995), Asterix and Obelix versus Caesar (1999)
Films with real actors:
A production with daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu is coming soon.