Lotus666
06-08-09, 09:33 PM
Contributed by Rockjock in 2004...
Sylvain Chomet's The Triplets of Belleville is a soft-spoken piece of animation that doesn't offer much in the way of dialogue, but makes up for it with both stunning and comical visuals. The movie tends to mix real footage with its animation in such a way that they almost look as if they were intermingled.
Mme. Sousa is training her grandson for the Tour de France, rigourously training herself as hard as he. She has high hopes that he will be a top-ranked cyclist, which makes it so interesting that his dog is so fat. It's the dog's sedentary lifestyle that is a perfect backdrop to the other French citizens around--most are extremely heavy and unmotivated.
Mme. Sousa's grandson is kidnapped by the Frencg Mafia during the Tour de France along with two other cyclists and shipped on a boat. Mme. Sousa follows them to Belleville, where she loses their trail. She meets up with the triplets, who were at one time the greatest musical number of their day. The performance they give at the restaurant rivals the Blue Man Group for imagination and enjoyability. They even have Sousa sit in for a performance, where she plays a mean bicycle wheel.
The animation isn't your usual Disney fare. The French have a surreal need to make their characters incredibly gangly with huge noses. Mme. Sousa is quite the opposite--very blocky and stout. The mobsters are almost a gestalt entity, two beings melded into one to form a better union. The Triplets are fine old women with sweetly-drawn faces, who convey the sort of friendliness that allowed them to take in Mme. Sousa when she had nowhere else to go and nothing to eat.
Although it's a bit short (approximately 80 minutes), it leaves a lasting impression on you artistically. It gets a bit zany at the end, but it's an enjoyable and visually engaging movie.
Four "frogs taste better after grenading"s out of five. And for once, a score that was actually worthy of its Oscar nomination.
Sylvain Chomet's The Triplets of Belleville is a soft-spoken piece of animation that doesn't offer much in the way of dialogue, but makes up for it with both stunning and comical visuals. The movie tends to mix real footage with its animation in such a way that they almost look as if they were intermingled.
Mme. Sousa is training her grandson for the Tour de France, rigourously training herself as hard as he. She has high hopes that he will be a top-ranked cyclist, which makes it so interesting that his dog is so fat. It's the dog's sedentary lifestyle that is a perfect backdrop to the other French citizens around--most are extremely heavy and unmotivated.
Mme. Sousa's grandson is kidnapped by the Frencg Mafia during the Tour de France along with two other cyclists and shipped on a boat. Mme. Sousa follows them to Belleville, where she loses their trail. She meets up with the triplets, who were at one time the greatest musical number of their day. The performance they give at the restaurant rivals the Blue Man Group for imagination and enjoyability. They even have Sousa sit in for a performance, where she plays a mean bicycle wheel.
The animation isn't your usual Disney fare. The French have a surreal need to make their characters incredibly gangly with huge noses. Mme. Sousa is quite the opposite--very blocky and stout. The mobsters are almost a gestalt entity, two beings melded into one to form a better union. The Triplets are fine old women with sweetly-drawn faces, who convey the sort of friendliness that allowed them to take in Mme. Sousa when she had nowhere else to go and nothing to eat.
Although it's a bit short (approximately 80 minutes), it leaves a lasting impression on you artistically. It gets a bit zany at the end, but it's an enjoyable and visually engaging movie.
Four "frogs taste better after grenading"s out of five. And for once, a score that was actually worthy of its Oscar nomination.