THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE
Directed by: Sylvain Chomet.
Produced by: Didier Brunner & Paul Cadieux.
Written by: Sylvain Chomet.
Edited by: Chantal Colibert Brunner.
Music by: Benoît Charest.
Released by: Sony Picture Classics.
Country of Origin: Canada/France/Belgium/UK. 80 min. Rated: PG-13.
Special Features: Selected scenes with commentary. Featurettes: "The Making of The Triplets of Belleville" & "The Cartoon According to Sylvain Chomet." "Belleville Rendez-Vous" music video. Trailer. English/Spanish Audio.

The Simpsons meet William Steig in this vibrantly animated film. A formidable cub-footed grandmother, Madame Souza, cares for Champion, whose only companion is his dog Bruno. The boy doesn't seem likely to live up to his name until his grandmother gives him a present, a bicycle. Having taken to the bike like a duck to water and with his granny acting as his coach, Champion, now grown, races through the streets of a changing 1950s Paris. Rail thin, his beak-like nose making up most of his body weight, he's become a single-mindedly determined racer. A contender in the Tour de France, he hasn't gone unnoticed. Before he can complete the race, and while Madame Souza and Bruno are distracted, he's kidnapped by two shady henchmen dressed in black. Bruno, following Champion's scent, leads Madame Souza onto a ship to Belleville, a grandiose and ominous metropolis populated by grotesquely enormous citizens, where Champion is held captive. Stranded and broke, three crackling, frog-eating elderly ladies take in the old lady and the humongous dog. They are the Triplets of Belleville, a musical trio from the '40s.

The unpredictable narrative continues to boomerang, from a music hall number to a shoot-out with the mob and then to an extended chase sequence. The love and determination of the grandmother is the heart of the film, but the film is a far cry from Disney. It's more like a shot of whiskey than saccharine. Because of the action sequences and the film's coarseness (the bathroom of the Triplets is vividly depicted, flies and all), Triplets will especially appeal to boys, 8 to 12. It should also appeal to adults in the mood for a fast-paced, sophisticated, animated film, even if they are unfamiliar with the various references to Edith Piaf, Django Reinhardt or Charles de Gaulle. With virtually no dialogue, this international coproduction should have no problem crossing borders. KT
November 20, 2003

DVD Extras: Backstories provided by the disc's mini-documentaries enhances quite significantly the experience of watching the film. Interestingly, though the filmmakers claim that the fictional Belleville was meant as an amalgam of New York, Paris, and Montreal, one of the animators begins, quite startlingly, to refer to a locale in the movie, the French Wine Center, as the "World...", before correcting himself and making it clear he is talking about the winery. Additionally in the making-of featurette, much is made of the consumer culture that pervades Belleville - all conducive to the opinion that, with its obese version of the Statue of Liberty, Belleville is, in fact, taking direct satirical aim at the United States, or at least its globalization practices. Chomet's commentary provides insights on bringing the animation to life through a combination of both visual and aural details, such as creating the sound of Mme. Souza's earrings whenever they move, or for Bruno's walk. Rounding out the bonuses is a rather odd music video for the film's quirky Academy Award-nominated theme song - in which a man, who is presumably one of the song's real-life performers, is shown at his psychoanalyst's office singing and then appearing in cartoon form next to the triplets in scenes from the film. Reymond Levy
May 16, 2004