Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure (2007) Poster

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7/10
A Nutshell Review: Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure
DICK STEEL4 October 2008
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.
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6/10
Go West
Rindiana3 August 2010
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
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6/10
likeable but not exceptional
myriamlenys12 January 2020
Warning: Spoilers
In this animation movie, Lucky Luke helps a number of brave but naive settlers who travel in a caravan. Many perils await these brave souls : crooked business deals, internal strife, thirst, dangerous bridges, Comanche Indians. Lucky Luke's work is not made easier by the presence of all four of the Dalton brothers, who have joined the caravan in order to search for their own loot, hidden in one of the many wagons...

To begin with the good, I thought the movie honoured the tone of the original albums (in this case, mainly an album called "The Caravan"). This means that the movie too is full of loving, playful references to the mythology developed and spread through the great, classic Western movies. This also means that the general atmosphere is friendly, jolly and well-suited to a young audience. There are a number of good jokes and gags and the voice work - at least in the French version I watched - is outstanding.

It goes without saying that at the end, Lucky Luke, noble friend and protector of the innocent, disappears without waiting for further acclaim or reward : this too is part of the Western myth... Gallant, modest and restless, the hero is already looking for new adventures and new people to help.

On the other hand, I think that the movie will work best for viewers already familiar with the source material. It helps if the viewer immediately recognizes characters such as the various Dalton brothers (the short one, Joe, is the wildly irascible brain of the outfit, the tall one, Averell, is as dumb as a sack of beans) or Jolly Jumper, Luke's clever and civilised horse. And of course "Tous à l'Ouest" includes Rantanplan, the immensely loyal, immensely stupid non-wonder dog who was designed as a parody on Rintintin... It's also a pity that the movie takes a long time to get started. The first ten minutes or so drag and it is only when the caravan sets out on its daring voyage that the story really wakes up. Without this disappointing beginning, I might have gone for 7 stars.
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7/10
I should be so lucky
alphahumphrey-5484710 January 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This is Home on the Range done right. I read Danish Lucky Luke comics and watched the 1978 Lucky Luke cartoon in the local cinema. This movie blows the other Lucky Luke movies away with more crazy animation, a Pixar like end chase and more horse romance. A must watch for Americans that appreciate French comics.
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4/10
Starts out great but deteriorates once the plot kicks in
theweakmokuba24 November 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Go West: A Lucky Luke Adventure is about Lucky Luke leading a band of travelers from New York to settle in California with the help of a man named Crook (more on him later). However, Lucky Luke also has to keep an eye on the Daltons so he ends up bringing them along to make sure they do not cause trouble while he's away.

The movie itself looks beautiful. For example, the chase scene on the bridge uses a believable combination of two and three-dimensional animation, and the characters' movements are fluid. There are some references to Lucky Luke's history such as being faster than his own shadow and smoking a cigarette. The Daltons are their usual unlucky selves and Averell is as clueless as ever, making him contribute to a lot of the humor in the beginning. Sadly, those three things are just about the only positive traits I found in the movie.

Crook's name and theme song, which involves the sound of a rattlesnake, make it painfully obvious what he's out to do. As if to further insult the audience's intelligence, the directors make it even _more_ obvious what Crook is out to do since he seems to exist solely to ruin the settlers' voyage and get rich. They do not make up for screaming "HE'S A CROOK" by giving him some kind of back story or making him more intelligent than some of the standard Lucky Luke villains.

Anyway, once Lucky Luke leaves for California with the settlers and the Daltons, it starts to get obnoxious. There's one character in the film whose entire purpose seems to be spouting censored swears for the sake of being funny*. I don't care about swear words so it's not a matter of being offensive; he's simply an annoying and unfunny character.

There's also a musical number near the end which seems to have the sole purpose of filling up some amount of minutes in the movie. The woman who sings this song joins the settlers on their journey to California but otherwise has absolutely no significant role in the film.

The action scenes near the end don't make up for some of the terrible characters (Crook and Mr. Swearing-is-Funny), the random musical number, and the ending that only occurred out of dumb luck. Seriously, it involves Rantanplan (called Rin Tin Dumb in the Canadian dub) and a stick of dynamite. While this behavior is typical for Rantanplan, it should not have been what lead to the ending.

Speaking of which, the tail end doesn't follow the tradition of Lucky Luke riding into the sunset singing "Poor Lonesome Cowboy." He doesn't even use his horse to get back from California to New York. I hope he took a train because he must be a super trooper to walk all the way back to New York AND make sure the Daltons don't escape on the way there. How they could remember he used to smoke cigarettes yet not remember how each episode ended is beyond me.

* This is all based on the Canadian dub so I have no idea if Mr. Swearing-is-Funny swears a lot in other translations.
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8/10
FANTASTIC ANIMATION... but just OK script
ggk-34-5468076 August 2011
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.
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