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The Triplets of Belleville
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The Triplets of Belleville
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Review by Shelley Cameron
for Reel Movie Critic
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HHHH
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Directed by Sylvain Chomet. Animated / Action / Comedy
Rated PG. 80 Minutes.
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A trio of triplets animate French fantasy
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The mastermind behind this potpourri of delights, director Sylvain Chomet, says all he ever wanted to do was draw comics. Those years of sketching pay off handsomely in "Les Triplettes de Belleville." This enchanting animated concoction from a clever team of French, Canadian, and Belgian artists brings us the world of Madame Souza, her grandson, Champion, and their dog, Bruno. Aware that her lonely young grandson needs something to boost his self-esteem, Gran affectionately coaxes him to discover his passion. He finds it in bicycling and grows from a chubby kid into a lean muscle machine in training for the tour de France, with Madame Souza as his tireless coach. The wacky plot is secondary to the medley of sights and sounds that charm and amuse. It involves the race and a bizarre Mafioso kidnapping that takes the trio on a journey far from home and across the sea to the port city of Belleville, itself another sort of trilogy consisting of a composite of Paris, New York and the fictional Belleville. With no dialog, and needing none, the sights and sounds move the story.
In fanciful Belleville, most everyone is fat. Even the architecture is an ode to food and the vine. In search of Champion, Madame Souza and Bruno encounter the quirky Triplets of Belleville, a benevolent threesome of outrageous sisters who sing and play le jazz hot. They resemble the witches of Macbeth tinged with the Siamese twins of "The City of Lost Children," (without the menace) and the visual style has an echo of that 1995 film as well, though more playful in tone. It has a similar dark texture and a dusky, nighttime look. Boasting a fluid mix of animation, a sweet story, and a musical score that speaks in place of dialog, it pokes playful fun at French and American idiosyncrasies.
The delight is in the details as the unflappable tenacity of Madame Souza transforms any obstacle in her path into something useful, including Bruno, whose black and white dreams offer a little side trip of their own on this enchanting excursion. His antics and expressions alone are worth the price of admission. There is homage to Jacques Tati, Fred Astaire, and Josephine Baker, among others. In gentle jest, the animation exaggerates the Gaelic nose and finds a fat Statue of Liberty in Belleville harbor.
The enchanting score by Benoît Charest moves this visual carousel along. This movie's rich density of detail made me want to sit right back down to see it again for the things I missed the first time around. This Belleville rendezvous is fun for everyone.
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