Rating: 
Summary: Words Can't Describe
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: the French response to Japanese animation
Review: "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.
Rating:
Summary: AMAZING!!!
Review: This movie is the best animated film I have seen along with Miyazaki's Spirited Away. I have never seen something made for all ages that is so great. This movie should have taken the oscar for best animated feature film. It has such beautiful animation, and is great for the whole family to see. If you are worried about your child seeing this film because it is rated PG-13, don't worry. There is a topless women dancing, but it isn't meant to be taken sexually. There is also another scene where they are walking through an apartment hall and there are hookers, but the hookers just sit there. Children probably wouldn't know what they are, so it's not that huge of a deal.
Tell everyone you know to see this movie, unless there ultra conservative, they might be offended by the kicks at Americans, but everyone nees a good laugh.
Rating:
Summary: This is a recommendation of the Movie (DVD is out soon)
Review: I saw this movie on the big screen. I cheered for it during the Academy Awards (Nemo won). The animation is very very rich and I'm sure I will see lots more detail upon viewing this 3,4,5,...maybe 6 or more times on DVD. Nothing is lost on the little bits of french in the movie. I hope the DVD is a reasonable presentation of the movie. The music CD is also very good.
Rating: 
Summary: Cute, and funny, but not really a kids movie
Review: I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Everything was a charicature. French Bikers, French Mafia, Americans, and the Tour de France. I think that it might be misunderstood that this is a kids' movie just because it is an animated feature. The fact is, it was probably not intended for small children. Most of the humor is intended for more mature audiences. You won't find small children at a cabaret. In the USA animation is widely considered to be for children. Worldwide views are different from americans. I thought the portrayal of New York was funny too . . . if that was indeed New York. Everyone is fat. Well, I guess there is truth to that. Obesity is higher in the US than in the rest of the world. It's funny to see French, wider european, and american faces through the eyes of a cartoonist that isn't from this side of the ocean. As for the length of the film... It did seem a little drawn out. I could have done with a little more dialogue as well (if you get distracted for more than two seconds you might miss it), but the movie was made the way it is for a reason. One problem I had with the DVD I saw was the language options. The only choices are English and Spanish and maybe there were spanish subtitles or something. There was no FRENCH option or english subtitles thought there was scarcely any english in the film and a lot of french announcing on radios. I was annoyed. I preffer DVDs of foreign films released domestically with more complete language options. I saw clear to enjoy the movie, but I would caution potential buyers who are as picky as I am about language options.
Rating:
Summary: Way better than Nemo!
Review: Triplets of Belleville is one of the best movies I've seen on a long time! Things to keep in mind: the film does poke fun at America, but doesn't *make fun* of America. It also pokes fun at France and Quebec ("Belleville" is really a conglomerate of New York and Montreal). The music adds as much to the film as any of the visuals. Also, this is not a film for children (the scene where the mobster "offs" the fallen cyclist is uncomfortably macabre). The film is inventive and fun. Nemo ought to have lost to this film (and, frankly, Nemo was completely unmoving!).
Rating:
Summary: A Quirky Delight
Review: It's kind of hard to describe "The Triplets of Belleville" other than to say that it's truly original. It made me long for the days of old-fashioned hand-drawn animation, the kind that Disney revolutionized before turning to CGI. Interestingly enough, there's a car chase scene toward the end of the film that reminded me of "101 Dalmatians," and I said as much to my wife while we were watching it. It was something about the way the cars were drawn and moved, and the color palate in general. Then in the supplementary materials, one of the film's creators cites "101 Dalmatians" as an inspiration, so I was able to congratulate myself on my perceptiveness. It doesn't take much to make me happy :) Grade: A-
Rating: 
Summary: God awful
Review: I was expecting genius because all the glorious reviews on this website said it was wonderful. Lies! This DVD stole 80 minutes of my life I'll never get back. I've never seen anything more idiotic in my life, with the possible exception of Glitter. I wish I could have given it 0 stars. Thank you.
Rating:
Summary: Middle-aged, conservative, midwestern review
Review: We rented The Triplets of Belleville because we were curious why an animated film won so many awards. (We never saw a preview of it in our area.) We're buying it because it is a scream! Bizarre only begins to describe this movie.
Technically well done - you can read about that in other reviews. Humor is adult; not adult-sexual, just that children won't fully understand all the nuances. Think of it as Nemo for adults. May be a bit too intense for younger children. There is a bare-breasted "Josephine Baker" character in the beginning and quite a bit of violence near the end. If in doubt, watch it first by yourself. Just make sure the kids aren't around because they'll want to know why you're laughing so much.
My husband and I are both classically trained pianists. We howled with laughter when Madame Sousa started "playing" the piano for little Champion. That spilt-second alone is worth the price of the DVD for us.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting enough
Review: I watched this movie with great expectations after hearing everyone buzz about it. I was not very disappointed, but I was not overly impressed either. The story was bizarre enough to work in animation and the characters were engaging - they had to be, they conveyed the entire story through their actions because there is practically no speaking. I especially like the grandmother, with her drive for the boy to succeed and her whistle, and the comic relief of the fat dog, who just really hates trains. The most appealing aspect of the movie to me was the actual animation, which is edgy because everything is severely out of proportion. The soundtrack is also pretty good. But don't take my word for it, this is one movie you really have to watch for yourself.
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