The continued ability of one small Gaulish village to hold off the might of the Roman Empire causes some to hypothesise that the Gauls must be gods. Or demigods, at least. Julius Caesar does not believe this: and why should he, with the way the Gauls tell every second person they meet that they have a magic potion? He offers Vitalstatistix, who is the village chief, a challenge: if the villagers can complete 12 tasks he sets them, he will accept that they are gods and hand over the Empire to them. If they fail even one, they must accept Roman dominion.
Vitalstatistix accepts and dispatches his smartest warrior (Asterix) and strongest (Obelix) to take on the 12 challenges, from outracing the Olympian champion to resisting the lures of the Isle of Pleasure to getting a form from the world's most Byzantine bureaucracy.
Openly inspired by the Twelve Labours of Hercules, this film is (so far) unique in the Asterix franchise in that it was based on original screenplay and later adapted into a comic book, instead of being adapted from page to screen. It's also a bit out of the franchise ordinary in explicitly acknowledging itself as a film and repeatedly breaking the fourth wall. This was apparently quite controversial when it was released, though over time the consensus has swung over to "it's a pretty fun film, so let it go".
I tend to side with the consensus on this. I'm not 100% enamoured of some of the ways the "we know this is a film!" concept is used, but at other times it is rather clever and overall it makes for an enjoyable movie. It's easily the most entertaining of the first three Asterix films, though it's certainly not without its missteps.
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