The Triplets of Belleville is a gorgeous piece of art. Yep, I said “art.” Not “art” as in “any film is art” but “art” as in “this is truly a work of art.” Leave it to the French to take the genre of modern animation and revert it back from essentially a merchandise springboard to moving drawings that mean something. The film is full of tiny commentaries, from the Statue of Liberty depicted as a morbidly obese woman lifting high an ice cream cone instead of a torch, to a cluster of feces which forms the precise shape of a hidden Mickey Mouse head.
Okay, so the French are having a little fun at we Americans’ expense. Big deal. Sombrero Grande isn’t some nutty wacko who can’t take a little clever ribbing about his culture. It’s all in fun.
The film’s sense of humor is very subtle and clever. Bruno is a dog who, as a puppy, accidentally got his tail run over by a toy train. To this day he hates trains and will haul his hefty body up a flight of stairs over and over again to bark his displeasure at every train that passes by his home’s second story window.
Now just because this is a French cartoon don’t worry your pretty little head about constantly being distracted from the animation by subtitles. You could probably count the number of spoken lines in the film on your fingers. The action unfolds almost entirely through visuals, music and sound effects. The result is something not too unlike a silent film, which presents wonderful opportunities for cleverly conceived segments. One of the earliest segments in the film, in which Madame Sousa tries to find something that her grandson, Champion, could get interested in, is so tasty I wish I could eat it. No words, just very expressive animation and subtle direction tell the emotional tale of a grandmother trying to please and comfort her grandchild after he moves in with her in the wake of the death of his parents.
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
Triplets of Belleville is an amazing mixture of classic 30s cartoons, the movies of Jacques Tati and a superb score, which actually was played with bicycle spokes, vacuum cleaner and so on.
One correction is this is an international co-production from Canada, the UK and France.
What is endearing is this is animation for adults, but like kid's cartoons, you can watch it over and over because there is so much depth in the details.
2 - graceshu
simple storyline and plot, there wasn't much conversation (or was there any at all?), but plenty of french-styled humor (i can't explain it... but it's a very 'duh' kinda humor) i loved the animation & music (percussion, etc.) too :)
i loved this one :)
3 - The Theory
loved the Django Reinhardt reference in the begining segment...
All around a movie I enjoyed very much. It can get a bit long without any conversation... but people do have to just shut up occationally, eh?