Customer Reviews

The Triplets of Belleville [VHS]

5 star:		(198)
4 star:		(51)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

"Triplets of Beleville" is absolutely a treasure from the French director Sylvain Chomet. The details, story, humor, character development, the relationship between the characters, and the pure delight rivals that of the great Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki's works. It is absolutely a pleasure watching this almost speechless story unfold all the way to the final scene. Most of the dialogue, if any, is in French, but no subtitles. And that is intentional: you don't need it. Now that takes some good story-telling to achieve. And this film achieves in leaps and bounds. Chomet clearly has a different philosophy than the American animations going into his art. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean that Disney or Pixar works are not good, "Triplets" is just one of the most outstanding and different in story telling and the use of the medium that I have ever seen for a long time in an animated work. They say the devil is in the details. Well, then this is what makes this movie. I almost drowned in the images on the screen. The heart-felt story and just the way the story was eccentrically told stayed with me for a long long time after i left the theatre. Not since a Studio Ghibli (Miyazaki-Takahata) masterpiece have made me feel this way. Just for the details alone I could watch this over and over again. Therefore I can't wait to buy the DVD so I can make this story mine. I recommend this to all Miyazaki fans to check it out. You won't be disappointed. Enjoy. You will.

This artistic animation film is nothing short of incredible. This movie literally had me speechless. A movie finally worthy to challenge the wonderful Finding Nemo in the Oscar race for Best Animated Feature.

The French Film is directed by the artistic Slyvain Chomet. The plot rests around a grandmother, Madame Souza, her weary-eyed grandson Champion and a faithful chubby dog. As a young boy, Champion was always depressed and sad with his life. His grandmother could see this and would try everything to cheer him up. After failed attempts of a toy train, playing the piano, and a cute cuddly dog; she realizes he truely yearns for a bicycle. The movie flashes forward to him as an adult. He is training for the Tour de France with his ruthless grandmother coaching at his every side. During the actual race, he is kidnapped by the French Mafia, along with other cycleists where they are taken to Belleville and used for underground gambling. His grandmother seeks out on a journey to retrieve him and on the way gets help with the once famous triplet nightsingers.

Calling this movie bizzare would be just an understatement. To start things off, this movie has close to no dialogue what so ever. The entire movie consists of sound effects and oddball music. Typically a movie with a lack of plot and almost no dialogue seems destined to be a failure. But this is where the amazing animation comes in. The drawings are incredibly breath-taking. If it wasn't for the animation, I would have left my seat a long time ago. Mr. Chomet's love for drawing is evidently seen through his work. This is his first full length movie.

Before this movie, Mr. Chomet was busy drawing comics. This is where he gets most of his subtle humor. For example, his drawings are so strange, that he gives every character a unique base look. Champion has a narrow face, small waist, and over exagerrated muscular legs much like a cycleist. It's in these terms, he can take something normal and turn it into an exagerrated comedic moment. His opinion on Americans is shown and deeply funny. For example, the mysterious place Belleville is opened with the statue of liberty, only the statue is of a fat woman holding a hamburger instead of a torch. Throughout the city, all the characters walking are overly obeast. The famous sign "Hollywood" reads "Hollyfood". It's this kind of dry humor that is very witty and appealing to the audience.

I'm most impressed in that this movie keeps your eyes constantly watching even through there is a lack in dialogue. A couple of lines is all it has and nothing more. The rest are just sound effects and quirky music played by the triplets and the grandmother. They use all kinds of instruments, from a refrigerator to a bicycle wheel. The music is odd yet appealing. I found myself constantly tapping my foot in rhythm with the crazy style. But in this movie, dialogue really isn't even needed. Mr. Chomen's drawings give enough character development in itself. Champion, throughout his older self, still has the same sad eyes as he did when he was a young boy. The grandmother is ruthless in that she always carries her whistle around blowing it to help her son in cycleing. The dog is the best out of all the characters because the audience gets a chance to see the images of the psychological dreams the dog has and why he barks the way he does at trains. If anyone is a lover of dogs, the scenes involving the dog are enough to win over any fan.

These qualities truely set this movie out to be a masterpiece. Though lack of dialogue and simple plot, the animation, music, and quirky witty humor alone provide enough entertainment to turn this film into extraordinary. I am thankful it's nominated for Best Animated Feature. Although I want it to win and definitely think it deserves it over Finding Nemo, I fear the advantage of an earlier presence in Finding Nemo will win voter's hearts. Even if it doesn't win, it is definitely a film Mr. Chomet should take pride in. I recommend this film to everyone. Some will love its humor. Others will think it's just plain weird. But all will admire it's fantastic animation and its totally original idea.

Madame Souza is a (Portuguese) sweet grandma who worries about her orphaned grandson's great sadness. Nothing interests Champion, at all; it's touching how Madame Souza cares about him and constantly watches him in order to find out what would possible bring the boy some happiness - watch TV, a piano, a puppy dog. So, when she discovers that Champion's biggest interest in life are bikes, she immediately gives him a tricycle - and the little one is pure joy when he sees it in front of him.

Champion grows up to be a professional biker (coached by his beloved - and demanding - grandma) who takes part of the famous cycle race Tour de France. However, something wicked comes to his way when he, in the middle of the race, is kidnapped by sinister men in black and taken to Belleville - making Madame Souza and her faithful dog Bruno start a long journey to rescue him. In Belleville, they meet the Triplets of the title, three very eccentric old ladies who back in the day were famous singers.

A wonderful, touching and interesting story, with charismatic characters and beautiful drawing. Almost without dialogue (it isn't really necessary), we see the most unusual instruments being used for massaging (a lawnmower, a vacuum cleaner and a whisk) and playing music (a coffeepot, a refrigerator, a newspaper and, again, a vacuum cleaner); we meet the Triplets living in an old, crappy building and having for dinner frogs, frogs and more frogs; and, finally, we watch four old women, a very fat dog and two skinny guys fighting the Mafia - all with our eyes glued to the screen.

For me, one more thing makes "The Triplets of Belleville" even more appealing - the dog Bruno. He just *is* my deceased Basset Hound Hommer... All Bruno's little quirks are very real - he isn't a dog's cartoon, who talks, thinks and bosses the humans around; he is just a sweet chubby dog, and that's what I love in him!

this is an extremely odd film, maybe worth seeing just because it is so original. I did want to make one comment in response to a reviewer's discussion of a "female little black sambo" character in a banana skirt. I believe this was an homage to Josephine Baker, the African American performer who was so popular in Paris in the 20s, and a reference to a famous image of her created by Paul Colin, a respected artist and Baker's sometime lover. these things are complex, and I can see why it would look a little strange. on the other hand, Baker and other African American artists and performers experienced a new degree of freedom and a lack of discrimination in post-WWI Paris, so this image may not be a derogatory one.

Yes, this movie stereotypes Americans!! But what all the reviewers are failing to notice is that this is part of the film's technique of sensationalism. It stereotypes the French (skinny, long noses & winos "in Vino we trust"), it stereotypes dogs, paris, new york, even the ships to cross the atlantic were sensationalized. Everything is big or small, fat or skinny, dark or light. It's a classic play in contrast that's not to be taken literally--because it's an animation! It's the first thing in an animators tool box that helps to "animate" the characters and story. The American culture is a caricature in the film, just like everything else.

The film is slow and silent in pace, but I think it's so well crafted that those who appreciate creative stories and good animation will fall in love with it.

The French have done it again.....this time the magnificence comes in the form of a cartoon with great music.

Sylvain Chomet directs this wonderful adult animation film and manages to capture all of the qualities of the French in his cartoon characters. Without many words the characters perform brilliantly, not an ounce of misunderstanding to be found! The story begins in a small cottage with a young boy, his grandmother and a puppy. The grandmother finds a hobby for the boy and he soon grows up to be a cyclist on his way to the Tour de France. The grandmother is short, stout and capable of anything. She trains her grandson by riding behind him on a tricycle blowing a whistle in time. The puppy grows into a very large dog that waddles to the window every 15 minutes to bark at trains that pass. The boy becomes an obsessed cyclist programmed to do only one thing, peddle! The individual characteristics are very French and very funny.

More characters exist as the story unfolds and we meet square suited mafia men, stereotypical townspeople and most importantly the "Triplets of Belleville," a trio of old ladies who make strange noises and create music from everyday appliances while eating everything frog! The entire gaggle of characters ends up in a chase through the streets of the fictional town of Belleville with amazing scenic effects for a cartoon.

This animated film is nothing like I have ever seen. It does not have the big-eyed innocence of Disney, or the animated ingenuity of Pixar but it has all of the most perfect qualities of the French, style, sophistication and depth. The characters are fantastic and highly likable and the music that surrounds the film more than makes up for the lack of spoken words. Simply fantastic!!

Don't panic, this isn't the twilight zone. But if you're a movie lover with a penchant for unconventional, out-of-the-mainstream comedy, and you enjoy strange narratives with bizarre situations and characters, then you won't believe what this picture has in store for you! No doubt this movie has its oddities, from the abstract setting to the exaggerated animation of its characters, and as weird as it is, I laugh just thinking about the imagery.

This movie is funny, funny, funny. It's for people who are into the "weird humor" of Kids in the Hall, the intrigue of something like 12 Monkeys or Russian Ark, and the innocent visual pranks of Saturday morning cartoons. There is hardly any dialogue, but the visual storytelling is so strong that rare spoken words become a distraction. The quiet narration is mesmerizing and almost poetic, never boring - and you can't look away.

It's also weird, weird, weird. From the unusually giant muscles of the cyclist's legs to the tripped-out life-or-death gambling theater run by the Mafia, the movie's dark edge will spook you, and make you say 'what the hell IS this?' You will think it is 'cool' and 'sick' and the same time.

The best thing about the Triplets of Belleville, is not avant-garde feel of the animation, nor is it the eccentric humor, but the little old lady who carries the story. It feels funny to say it, but this little cartoon lady was inspiring with her determination, her confidence, her almost-heroic capability and her luck. She's strong, competent and cute. Her best moment is when she's sitting in the alley, depressed and destitute, and starts tapping a rhythm on the spokes of a broken bicycle wheel. Almost effortlessly, she finds herself playing a catchy beat, and when the Triplets arrive, the four old women break into a jazzy, improvised, free-form jam session. This scene alone kept me laughing for days, shaking my head at the little old lady who seems to do anything she puts her mind to.

Mark McGinty is the author of "Elvis and the Blue Moon Conspiracy"

From what little I'd seen or heard regarding the "Triplets of Belleville" I was expecting it to be a kooky Gaulic cartoon featuring the eponymous triplets; which it certainly does near the end of the film, but they aren't the central characters of the film, nor as prominent as I'd imagined. The film is also far more satirical than I had suspected, focusing instead on a young boy, Champion, and his grandmother, Mademoiselle Souza, and their close familial bond. "Triplets of Belleville" opens with an old clip (a movie within a movie) of the triplets romping through their song "Rendezvous" and as the camera pans back we are in a stylized version of de Gaulle's France. Rather than simplistic, "Triplets of Belleville" works on many levels; the desire of the grandmother to fulfill her young grandson's ambition of becoming a Tour de France cyclist, a goal he attains only to become captured by the French Mafia along with other cyclists and is whisked away to Belleville.

Belleville is the perfect amalgam of the worst of American and Americanized France. The satire here is writ large - literally! Mademoiselle Souza doggedly pursues Champion to Belleville accompanied by the family dog Bruno, who likewise plays a pivotal role in the action. Mademoiselle Souza is befriended by the triplets and is pulled into their strange existence. There the story gets to lampoon Francophiles as much as the Americans. This unlikely group eventually tracks down Champion at the Mafia's headquarters where he and the other cyclists are being used for the amusement of a large audience of gamblers. Here the satire is sharpest - a commentary on the nature of society, celebrity culture, and how disposable-natured we are. The cyclists are chasing an illusory dream and their machinery becomes the escape vehicle for them, the triplets, Mademoiselle Souza and Bruno in a hilariously funny getaway.

Those giving the "Triplets of Belleville" a surface read will think it's the oddest cartoon in years as it is punctuated with infrequent dialogue and the images or as distorted as a Picasso painting. Dig deeper and you'll find a much more rewarding movie as there's a great deal of symbolism and satire packed in 81 minutes! The "Triplets of Belleville" isn't easy watching; it's frequently puzzling, mysterious, and otherworldly. Satire is a tough sell but if you like a thinking person's cartoon then "Triplets of Belleville" is the one for you!

This movie is possibly the best animated movie I have ever seen. It is a beautiful tale that is mysterious yet understandable, intricate yet simple, modern yet vintage. It tells an amazing story with easy-to-relate-to characters. A must see for all ages.

One of the best animated film to come along in years. Whereas
Disney and Pixar and their imitators have made an industry of formulaic films crammed with cookie-cutter characters, one-line throwaways, and a wearisome deluge of references to pop culture and other films, the humor of The Triplets is more thoughtful, universal, and timeless. Like the Wallace and Gromit shorts, Triplets combines heady doses of absurdity and farce, thoroughly leavened with a natural and charming whimsy.

The somewhat twisty plot concerns a grandmother on a quest to find her grandson, a Tour de France cyclist, who has been kidnapped by the French Mafia for reasons unknown. As fine as the pacing, comedic timing, and plot are, the film's real triumph is its powerful use of caricature. The grandmother blinks like a fish and clumps along steadily and determinedly in her orthopedic shoes; the Mafia's impassive bodyguards hunch their boxy, menacing shoulders; and in one of the best caricatures of the whole movie a maitre d' literally bends over backwards to fawn over his patrons. Likewise the film's mostly rough, unfinished look recalls early black and white shorts and is refreshing when contrasted with the sterile and slick animation of today's major studios.

In a just world ruled by quality rather than marketing Triplets would achieve the success as that other gently comedic and deserving French hit, Amelie. Whether it does or not in this world remains to be seen.