Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful, but weird
Review: There is just no way for me to describe this movie. The plot is goofy, but opens up a space for the characters to move in. The movie is really about those characters, though.They are beautifully drawn. Each is unique, except for a happy ambiguity between the triplets themselves. Even the dog is drawn with loving attention. He slips on the slick floor just enough, barks just enough, and tries just enough to crawl into laps for which he is much too big. Grandma, of course, steals the show. Her finest moment (though there were so many fine ones) may have been her aria, self-accompanied on piano, while a guest of the Triplets. The triplets are wonderful, too, and gave me a few chills for being too real. The dishes must go HERE and the newspaper must go THERE, as if another choice would violate some law of nature. Gawd, I know the lady who does that. All of the characters are hand-drawn. If computers were involved, they were instructed carefully to respect the hand drawn line. The animation is expressive, with such thoughtful disregard for actual physics that realism would only be an irritant. The animators use photorealistic techniques in a few places, especially water. The message is clear: realism is available to them, and they use it where it doesn't matter. Mostly, it's just not very intersting. I'm afraid I embarassed myself in the theatre. There weren't too many people, but I think I was the only one laughing out loud. I did it a lot. I can't wait for the recording to come out. (PS: If you try to imitate the sisters' recipe for Frogs Grenadine, it's best to use a very fresh grenade.)
Rating:
Summary: A MUST SEE!
Review: A grandma with a clubfoot, a depressed lad named Champion who falls in love with a bike and races in the Tour de France until being kidnapped by bizarre looking twins and taken to Belleville, or the US, or a place where everyone is overweight...even the Statue of Liberty! Do not miss this film! Once you hear the theme song, you won't be able to get it out of your head....but that is a good thing!
Rating:
Summary: Fun
Review: A wonderful (and short) cartoon movie out of France with toe-tapping music and a plot about kidnapping cyclists for underworld gambling that borders on dream-logic. There are no sub-titles, because there are no sub-titles needed. The story is told entirely in image and sound; both aspects immensely imaginative and fun. The film may be too intense for the youngest viewers. It contains gun violence and killing frogs with dynamite.
Rating:
Summary: Utterly AMAZING!!
Review: I just got a chance to see this movie last night. It is visually breathtaking. The character design is wonderful. Each character is so unique. I also love the originality (compared to American films) of the dialogue--or lack thereof. It's just as successful without the characters carrying on lengthy conversations. As an animator, I know that performance tells so much more than dialogue. This movie proves it. The performances and in-jokes are awesome. I'd have to say the waiter is my favorite. He litterally bent over backwards to serve his customers. He was a riot! It's filled with humor and action and is wonderfully done. It's unfortunate that so many wonderful foreign films are overlooked, but this one shouldn't be. It is truly a delight. A MUST SEE!
Rating:
Summary: if you liked wallace and gromit and amelie you'll love this
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Catch this rare gem if you can
Review: Triplettes de Belleville is a charming animated adventure not to be missed. In its celebration of parochial French life and simple pleasures, and its disdain for crass Americanization, it pays homage to Jacques Tati, whose films -- in particular Jour de Fete -- are given nods here and there. This is a joint French-Belgian-Canadian-British effort (forgive me if I missed anyone out), and there is a calculated appeal to an international audience -- little dialogue, and some English in there (perhaps specially recorded alongside a French soundtrack, another homage to Tati?). The animation is impressive, full of ingenious touches. It is a delight to see this type of old-fashioned cartoonery again in this post-Toy Story cinematic era.
Rating:
Summary: Whimsical animation and fanciful storytelling.
Review: Writer/director Sylvain Chomet used animation to tell the fanciful tale of Champion, a lonely little boy who is never happier than on a bicycle. His grandmother, Madame Sousa, puts him through a rigorous training process and soon the boy enters the world-famous Tour de France. When two mysterious men kidnap Champion during the tour, Madame Sousa and her dog Bruno set out to rescue him. Their long journey leads to the renowned "Triplets of Belleville", three eccentric female music-hall stars from the 1930's who agree to help recover the boy. THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE is filled with whimsical and delightful animation that tends to exaggerate individual's body parts, i.e. Champion's muscled cyclist body and the square-ness of the mafia men's shoulders. But I believe that this aspect only adds further to the uniqueness of this film. There is an absence of dialogue/subtitles but one is still able to comprehend the plot by action alone, which is a striking accomplishment and adds credence to the pioneers of silent films. It has been a long time since the genre of animation has captivated my attention as it did while watching this film. Watching this film was a pure delight!
Rating:
Summary: A style of its own
Review: I was fortunate enough to see this wonderful animation film on the BBC during Christmas and I was knocked out by its visual, aural and musical stylings. The story revolves around a boy, his dog and his grandmother. Curiously none of these is presented as wholly sympathetic or even intelligent. The orphaned boy has a bicycle obsession and, when grown up, is moulded by his diminiutive if bossy granny into a genuine athletic on the bike with gigantic thighs and calves but no chest to speak of. During the Tour de France or something strongly resembling it he and two other out-of-breath cyclists are kidnapped by two maffia thugs in odd suits and smuggled across the sea. However, the very determined and inventive grandma and Bruno the dog (who always barks at trains) follow them to Belleville, a city that bears a remote resemblance to New York (check out the statue in the harbour!). With the help of a trio of elderly vaudeville singers (the triplets from the title) she must try and free her beloved grandson. I won't give away any more.
The film pokes gentle and occasionally quite vicious fun at obese Frenchmen and Americans alike - no discrimination there! It is riddled with visual jokes. Paying attention to the backgrounds certainly pays off and a smattering of French won't do any harm either, even though the film will be perfectly understandable and hugely enjoyable without it. Just like in films by jacques Tati, speech is used as yet another sound effect. (There is an "English" and a "French" language version, but the only English is in a few lines of dialogue at the very beginning and end and in the lyrics of the title song.)
The rather grotesque look of the film has a fiftees feel, with a pastiche of thirties musette and jazz supplied on the soundtrack. Some effects like the rippling water and the spinning bicycle wheels seem computer-generated or -aided, but much of the animation employs old fashioned cell techniques. There are animated appearances by facsimiles of Josephine Baker, Fred Astaire and Django Reinhardt, some real Jacques Tati footage, and a sly reference to P.T. Anderson's "Magnolia" involving frogs. You can try and spot the rest for yourself.
This animation feature has received many awards and rightly so. It's a real treat that deserves to be enjoyed again and again. Prepare to be amazed.
Rating:
Summary: A visual feast for animations fans and foes alike!
Review: This movie takes the best of American, Japanese and other animation styles and creates one of its own. Adding to the visuals is a fun and peppy musical score. I would classify the comedy as dark, however there is no sex and substantially less violence than the kiddies view any Saturday morning. I think it barely squeaks out a GP rating. The dialogue is minimal and in French, but do not be put off! This movie can be enjoyed by almost anyone anywhere. I think everyone should open up their minds to animation and put The Triplettes of Belleville on their New Year's resolution list!
Rating:
Summary: don't give this to anyone who liked Titanic
Review: One of the most idiosyncratic and creative films of our time. I went with three friends, two of whom were young people raised on a steady diet of popular Hollywood blockbusters. These two couldn't understand how such a movie could have been made, by whom it might be considered entertaining, or what it was doing in a public theater. If someone compares Jackson Pollack's work to a 2nd-grader's paintings this is not the right DVD for them!
| 
