"The Triplets of Belleville"...would that I had seen this one sooner than last night. As an aspiring animator, I am constantly looking for new styles of animation to help expand my vision of the genre. I have heard about this movie for some time, but now I see what all the fuss is about. One of the commentaries on the DVD described the movie as being a far cry from either Japanese anime or Disney animation, and while I did see some Disney resemblances, for the most part I must agree.

"The Triplets of Belleville" is eerily mesmerizing, and nowhere is it more so than in the beginning. The first scene, a scratchy black-and-white cartoon, harkens back to the age of Felix the Cat and Olive Oyle, but has a kind of disturbed and panicked feel more akin to a Halloween episode of "The Adams Family." The rest of the movie adopts a similar, yet cleaner and far more beautiful style. But there's something about that first scene -- and its incredibly catchy music -- that stays under your skin throughout the film.

However, the scene that really struck me -- and I don't think this is too much of a spoiler -- was one in which the characters were out at sea during a terrible storm. Now, if Hollywood had made this, you would expect this scene to have loud, pounding, crashing music, courtesy of a small studio orchestra or some guy on a keyboard, intended more to build atmosphere than to add anything in the way of mood or melody. What I wasn't expecting to hear was Mozart, and it finished the desperation of the scene so perfectly (and so unexpectedly) that I was literally trying to fumble for my remote without taking my eyes off the screen, in order to turn up the volume.

There is little else for me to say in favor of "The Triplets of Belleville," except to point out the qualities that many other reviews have already mentioned, such as the fresh and fully descriptive character designs, and the dog's enjoyable dreams and behavior (Including a perfect visualization of a dog's mind: "Train! Person on train who looks like he might be a dog! Must bark!").

But having said all that, while most of the movie was fresh and unexpected, I felt that the story's climax was rather ordinary, old-fashioned, and, well... expected. To me this part was somewhat disappointing, and also, an ending which was intended to be "artsy" and "thought-provoking," for me fell more along the lines of "ho-hum" and "mildly confusing." This movie relied so heavily on visual symbolism that I fear it occasionally forgot how to put one foot in front of the other, when it came to keeping the story's momentum.

Anyway, on quality alone I would give it no worse than three stars. But I hold strong value in an animation's originality, and "The Triplets of Belleville" is nothing short of profound in that arena, so... three-and-a-half out of four.

It's a little odd to call a movie under appreciated when it was nominated for an Academy Award, but then again, though nominated for the Best Animated Feature in 2003, The Triplets ofBelleville lost out to Finding Nemo (a film I find to be over rated). And while Triplets got its 15 minutes of fame, it doesn't seem to be revered today as it should. Especially from the perspective of this animated film glut that we are currently riding, Triplets was something different, and a true gem.

This movie centers around Madame Souza, an elderly woman raising her grandson Champion, and prepping him to compete in the Tour de France. But when Champion is kidnapped, Madame Souza, and her dog Bruno set off for Belleville to rescue the lad. That is where they team up with the elderly titular Triplets to save Champion from his captors.

There is very little dialog in this film, much of the entertainment comes from the visual gags such as Bruno's black and white dreams, and his hatred of trains, and the Triplets household object cabaret. The music in the film is also superb. In fact Belleville Rendez-Vous was nominated for the Best Original Song but lost out the that juggernaut that was Return of the King which swept every category without mercy.

Belleville made a modest $7 million in the US and a total of $15 million worldwide, but box office returns seldom represent quality. This is a film that may look a bit weird at first glance with itsexagerated comic book style designs, but the film is sure to entertain and thus it earns an A.

After years of hearing over the hype of this film,I finally I got to see this film with my own eyes."The Triplets of Belleville" is a film that works amazingly well with almost no dailogue,I suppose it works so well since it's a simple story.Since this is a simple story,it's a great opprotunity to make these characters shine and it works even better when nobody is saying anything.The film let's you absorb a character simply by watching way they move or how they are drawn.My favorite charcater was the star of the film, Champion's grandmother.She was strong willed with a heart of gold and Bruno the dog made an excellent companion for her.Bruno had a funny little character trait about him,he barked at any train that passed by him.No matter what the situation was,even when being shot at,he still kept barking at a moving train.The pace of film is damn near perfect,I never saw one moment that was either usless or boring.I also must compliment the animation in this movie,I have never seen a better corporation between CGI and hand-drawn animation before.That is something that is very hard to do.Overall,I think you should really look at this film because of it's sheer enertaiment value and over-the-top characters.

The story in this film is told much like a silent film, with next to no dialogue, leaving the images to further the narrative. It also never caters to children, which is commendable.

This is a brilliant social commentary, as well as a terrific stylistic achievement.

I really, REALLY wanted to love this movie.

Hearing people rant about how it was the best animated film ever, a hundred times better than finding nemo...

The only people that had anything bad to say about it would give it a ZERO score and comment "Like, I dun get it! LOLzorz" or "Dude, that was so like, boring for shur!"

So I gleefully assumed that it was just a thing of greatness.

After watching it, I was torn.
I wanted so much to adore it just as every single one of my friends said they did...

But I just didn't love it.
Hell, I didn't even LIKE it.
I thought the pace was slow, and the dog's dreams were just garbage tossed in there to keep someone awake... (people told me that was the coolest part about the movie)

The only "tinkling of earrings" i noticed was in the producer's review, and a few other online reviews by people I'm convinced haven't watched it. I didn't feel sorry for anyone's plight. I didn't give a damn about characters, I just laughed at the way they looked (which was surely the point of their design)

The character animation and design is excellent.
Great style, great scenes, quirky and amusing...
But I really didn't care about the characters, I really didn't care what happened as long as it happened in the same visual style. I didn't care about the plot, and but for the jazzy sequence at the very beginning, I really couldn't care less about the music.

Everyone mentions how great the dog is, but really, if they'd spent less time exposing the canid attributes of the dog, they'd probably have been able to make a better movie.

I give this three stars for the wicked character animation and design, not because I like it.

I'm giving it 1.5 because that's just how much I love it.

This movie has more in common with 'The City of Lost Children', 'Delicatessen', or Jacques Tati than it does with the latest from Pixar or Disney. In other words, it's French (well, French/French-Canadian/Belgian anyway). The French, to my mind, have a penchant for making deliciously weird movies. This is one of them, and it happens to be animated.

First off, this is not a kid's film. I could be wrong, but I suspect that small children will be bored, confused and possibly even disturbed by it. Watch it yourself first, and then decide, but I would recommend this film for anyone over 12 who appreciates bold and curious movies.

In what way is it bold? Well, for a start, dialogue-wise, it may as well be a silent movie. I had subtitles turned on, and not a single line appeared during the whole movie which anyone apparently considered worth subtitling. They were probably right. This is immediately gong to alienate a large percentage of an audience raised on Hollywood, and the Academy deserves a rare nod for giving this film a gong. Secondly, the main characters - at least the grandmother and her son - have no facial expressions. I mean, just none. Actually, that's not quite true. At around 58.00 minutes the grandmother briefly looks 'determined'. This obviously means the film has to rely on unorthodox means of conveying both emotion and narrative. Narrative-wise, it may as well be a silent movie (except, ironically for the odd bit of music - and when I say odd, this is probably the only movie in which you'll ever see a musical set piece performed on a vacuum cleaner, a bike tire, a fridge and a newspaper) - and a lot of the emoton is conveyed in body language, and by the dog, Bruno, who is the only character in the first half the movie who shows the slightest 'animation', if you'll excuse the expression.

God, you must be thinking, it sounds awful. Well, if your favourite movie of all time is the last Star Wars film, don't even bother renting this you'll hate it. This is nowhere near the weirdest thing I've ever seen, but it's well and truly outside of bigscreen American cinema, let alone bigscreen American animation.

What makes it good, then? Well, a completely original and bent story, a wonderful, fully realised sort of parallel universe which sucks you in not unlike the way a Ghibli film does. Some really eccentric characters - well, mainly the triplets themselves. The drawing style, which is sumptuously old-world. And the comedy, mainly consisting of sight-gags, which is all the more funny when it suddenly leaps up and bites you, because you're probably just starting to get hypnotised by the dreamy feel of the film. For what it's worth, 'Triplets' has one of the funniest car chases I think I've ever seen, as well as absolutely the most surreal. The closing shots are amongst the most sublimely strange, dreamlike scenes I've ever watched.

For detals of the plot, read the profile. I don't think anything could be usefully added to that without ruining the story.

Triplets is a terrific film, and you really should see it. I promise you, you won't forget it in a hurry. Is it a great film? Quite possibly. A masterpiece?

(edit - a year later)

Yes. I think so. It improves with re-watchings, and I can't find any reason to give this film fewer than the full stars. For sheer originality, heart and creativity (and possibly the best animated dog ever. I don't mean best-looking, I mean most dog-like)...hell, if I'm going to give 4 stars to 'Tarzan', I can't give this 3.5. The only bad thing about this movie is I think it's spoiled me for the next half dozen by-the-book Disney/Dreamworks/Pixar efforts.

(Inkwolf, the dog's surrealistic dreams were probably my favourite part of the movie!)

Of interest: Director Sylvain Chomet cites the oft-maligned 'sketchy' look of 60's-70's era Disney films like '101 Dalmatians' and 'The Aristocats' as an influence on the visual style of the movie.

This barely needs my review, since everyone else has said it already. For pure joy, originality, quirkyness, bizarre scenes, heart, art and humor--this is the best. It is without peer.

Nobody's mentioned the dog's surrealistic dreams?

Perhaps it isn't surprising that they gave the Oscar to Nemo, which is safe, mundane, accessible and kid-oriented, but if the Academy had an ounce of love for the brilliant and unprecedented, this would have won. There's a song parody online which sums up my feelings nicely--go to Google and do a search for 'Oscar night left Belleville screwed"

This is a brilliant adult animated feature. I especially loved the beginning which pays homage to the early Betty Boop cartoons(before the Fleischers dropped the surrealism and the jazz soundtracks) and Madame Souza's search for her kidnapped grandson as well as the eventual rescue/chase
sequence.

The French Mafia looked like refugees from a UPA cartoon and are very amusing caricatures of Frenchmen. The enormous Americans reminded me of Obelix from the Asterix series.

I highly recommend this film to everyone.

Superb Storytelling, no need for frivoulous dialogue in a film that takes the most advantages out of the animation medium. Shold have won the Oscar over the little orange fishy

"Triplets" is a great film that integrates 2D and computer animation with tremendous flair. The song will stick in your head for days! And it was wonderful to see an animated film that doesn't depict elderly women as passive aunties or evil hags. These ladies kick butt in their own sweet way. There's a satirical edge to this movie that may well go right over the heads of little kids. To that end, adults may want to explain to kids why there's a topless dancer seen in the opening sequence (a caricature of Josephine Baker). Older kids and teens who may think they've outgrown cartoons will love this, though.

I saw this movie on DVD and the English subtitles are pretty useless. You get subtitles of on-screen sounds (like the subtitling for the hearing-impaired) and of a couple of lines of French dialogue. Some other lines are left untranslated for no obvious reason. But since there's so little dialogue this isn't a big issue.

"Triplets" has great character design, breathtaking scenery, bouncy music, and, at it's heart, two stories of familial devotion (between the triplets and also between the grandmother and her cyclist grandson). Worth seeing!