[French Film Festival] Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure (Tous à l'Ouest: Une aventure de Lucky Luke)

Guns, Lots of Guns

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.