The Triplets of Belleville (2003)

One of the best films I've seen in a while, certainly far outshines other animation features witnessed of late. True animal characteristics for a change. Hugely imaginative, great entertainment, had me laughing out-loud. Three thumbs up!PS: I've gone off frog soup.

I watched this movie in French class last year. Not a single person in my class liked it. It was foul and disgusting, but not in the sense of something like vomit. It was more of a "get out of my face" kind. It's just such an ugly film I wish I could give it a 0. I've watched it in both French and English, and neither was a pleasant experience. I know somebody who said it was their favorite animated film, and nobody there knew about the film, except me. We were arguing, but he couldn't really say anything against what I was saying other than "It was supposed to be like that." I would say it was boring or it was ugly, but he wouldn't listen. It's not odd or charming like a Miyazaki film. It's ugly and repulsive like Batman Returns.

Many animated films bring forth a recognizable presence on screen, but The Triplets of Belleville brings the damnedest of them all. It's a unique little animated feature, with a lot of style, a lot of heart, and a lot of enigma and illusion presented in its meager runtime. It is a delightful break from the polished mainstream animation, yet I don't believe it's the break a lot of people will be so willing to take.First off, the color pallet takes time to adapt to. It seems someone created storyboards for the film and poured oil all over them. Everything is in a dim green, brown, yellow, or muted tint (very different from the brazen style of candy colors we're so used to seeing today). But it is so limitless and appealing and works on such a wonderful level for the film's imagination. It makes itself out to be modest, yet delivers so much promise and life into its very simplistic screenplay, or lack thereof.The film is mostly silent, punctuated by lively scenes of vaudevillian style musical numbers. We follow Madame Souza, a grandmother to a boy named Champion. He is depressed and very lonely after the implied death of his parents. Souza buys him an irresistible dog named Bruno, but his interest is only held for a short time. When Champion develops a fondness for competitive cycling, Souza buys him a tricycle. We fast-forward several years later where the same boy, now a man, is being coached by Souza for the Tour De France.When he races in the Tour De France, he is kidnapped by the strangest of goons and taken to an unknown location. Souza and Bruno become desperate to find him, and stumble into the care of three elderly women known as the "Belleville Triplets." They are taken in, fed and sheltered, yet are still determined to find Champion and the French henchmen that took him.Besides the unique animation, one of the first things you will notice is the intense and quirky character design. Many characters in the film are disproportionated in size, or are presented as bigger, bulkier, smaller, thinner, wider, or boxier (the henchman have thick, box-like shoulders), with heavy emphasis on muscles and especially facial structure. The result is totally mesmerizing and extremely beyond convention. It gives the film such a surrealistic feeling, but that's not the only thing that contributes to that idea.I define surrealism as realism with a strong twist on obscurity or a strong twist on reality, where logic is strictly applied or noticeably bent. The Triplets of Belleville mixes some live action sequences with stylish old video, particularly, the bike stimulation sequence and the water when traveling at sea. For all I know, those were authentic sea currents.Another thing the film does impeccably well is it conveys emotion using very little dialog. Most of the time, we hear a soft, melodic tune play comfortingly in the background, and once in a while, the triplets will break out into a great, perfectly executed musical number. The emotion is not presented through the window of heavy sentiment, but with crystal clear expression, music tonality, and character appearances all naturally and not in a heavy-handed manner.The Triplets of Belleville is such an admirably different film, but saying that doesn't even do it justice. It establishes this world, which is brilliantly surreal and conceived effervescently, erects it on captivating whimsy and Sylvain Chomet's stunning animation, and relies on subtle, controlled nuances to carry itself through its runtime. Keep in mind, this is a world where animated films are boastful and boisterous in their color, design, and structure, and along comes a film so serene and joyous that we are surprised at it and ourselves for liking it. What an impressionistic gem of a picture.Directed by: Sylvain Chomet.

From its opening sequence The Triplets of Belleville is a hyperkinetic riot, a near-wordless stream of action and animation that is simply a pleasure to watch. It's not an unmitigated, unrealistic joy -- the setting is distinctly grimy, and there's the general feeling of a lost golden era in distant, hazy memory.But in the end, the cloudy surroundings only make the joy of the film more powerful. The Triplets of Belleville is ultimately a cry to reclaim that raw joy we see so often in the pop culture of days gone by, that maybe didn't ever exist in reality, but perhaps if we try hard enough, life can be joyous again for the first time. That the plot is insubstantial and the denouement non-existent seems to only make the film more energetic, as it dispatches with all the unpleasant formalities to get down to what, it suggests, cinema should be: unfettered fun.