'Les Triplettes de Belleville.'

Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003)

Directed by: Sylvain Chomet
Country of Origin: France
Genre: Animated/Comedy/Foreign

"Is that it, then? Is it over, do you think? What have you got to say to Grandma?"

And with that, we’re off on a grand adventure with stout Madame Souza, her grandson adequately named Champion and their faithful, though noisy companion Bruno…and also, of course, the titular trio who just so happen to be singers from the jazz era.

Sylvain Chomet breathes wonderful creativity into this satirical and humorous animated film, straight from France after winning rave reviews and strong approval from Toronto & Copenhagen amongst other film festivals.

At the start of the film, we see "archive footage" of the Triplets from their own era doing a show and crooning out their catchy Oscar-nominated song "Belleville Rendezvous." We realize that we’re watching a rerun on television of this production. This also is watched by little Champion and his grandmother Madame Souza who utters the line above – one of only a few that can be distinctly understood in the English version, considering the overall lack of dialogue and the consistent French ramblings that provide background noise in certain scenes.

Souza notices her grandchild starting to show signs of depression, considering he’s no longer living with his parents (for reasons unknown). Souza decides to get him a puppy (Bruno) but this doesn’t cheer him up as much as she expected. It isn’t until she sneaks a peek at his journal that she realizes where Champion’s interest lies in: bicycle racing.

After we learn this, we cut forward several years to Souza training Champion gruelingly in the rain. It is awkward to see how dramatically Champion has changed: as a matter of fact, he is caricaturely grotesque: his nose longer than his entire head, his waist as thin as the spine of a book and his legs gigantic from his constant cycling (they’re massive to the point of almost looking cancerous, actually.) Bruno too is different, but mostly because he’s just gotten heavier as most dogs do, but our canine friend somehow seems...blown out of porportion.

Chomet does this for nearly every character in the story, bringing an original new idea and a bizarre feel at the same time. When Champion is kidnapped by the French Mafia during his attempt to compete at the Tour de France, the henchmen lurk with squared shoulders, literally, looking nearly like giant floating punctuation marks. And when the Mafia gets on a boat to Belleville (a not-so-hidden parody of America, with Madame Souza and Bruno in the chase), the citizens there are comically obese, some nearly four times the size of regular characters. (One large woman even stands after a long sit, looking for her husband unawares that he is firmly stuck on her gargantuan behind.) These crude comparisons only add into the comedy of the film.

Madame Souza and Bruno seem to be at the end of their ropes due to their lack of money, but it is the Triplets who save them and give them a home to stay in. They possibly are the oddest of all, eating whole frogs for supper and refusing to let Madame Souza basically do anything in their home, from vacuuming to reading the paper. However, the reasoning why they won’t is possibly one of the greatest parts of the film, and a true spark of ingenuity and creativity.

Anyway, this film is a great entertaining ride all the way through. The minimalist dialogue actually adds to the picture, because it really is unnecessary (which ultimately redirects my mind to old cartoons from the 20’s and 30’s with little or no speaking and a reliant score.) It is full of humor, action sequences and very gorgeous music and animation. (Hand-drawn animation really seems a lot better than CGI.)

If you can find this one at your rental store, I’d highly suggest renting it. 9/10.

"I think that's probably it. It's over, Grandma."