Director: Sylvain Chomet
Length: 80 min.
Released: 2003
Sylvain Chomet has a unique eye. His animation studio created a dynamic film both charming and critical of modern society at the same time. Characters drawn with exaggerated features highlight their movements and personalities. Chomet succeeds in telling a story with a full range of human emotions through two-dimensional characters, almost entirely without dialogue.
The film's main story line centers around a grandmother, her grandson, and their dog. Chomet, a devoted fan of bicycling, chose to make an homage to old-school bike racing. His main character, named Champion, is drawn to resemble the famous French racer Jacques Anquetil, and he participates in the Tour de France. He is kidnapped by the Mafia (drawn as large black blocks), who have their own uses for bike racers, and taken to Belleville. His grandmother and dog set off on an adventure to rescue him.
A set of three singing sisters make up the title of the film and are a sort of Greek chorus. Music used in the film evokes jazz and swing, and was immensely popular (and nominated for an Academy Award). Caricatures of popular musicians in France can be seen in several scenes.
Chomet has tried to make the film not set in any specific country, but it begins in France, and then crosses the Atlantic to Belleville, clearly a large North American city. The film was produced as a collaboration between several countries (Belgium, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada), and Chomet seems to give them all a potential role in the film.
The Triplets of Belleville is charming, even in its sharp lines and sharp criticisms. Bruno (the dog) has some of the best scenes, and the grandmother is everything a maternal figure should be. Chomet has moved animated films beyond the realm of children's entertainment, and has made a work unique in genre and technique. The film was also nominated for Best Animated Feature Film, but it lost to Finding Nemo. (Tough competition: it's hardly fair to expect an innovative film to beat out a Disney/Pixar one).
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