The Triplets of Belleville

TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE (2003) **** French filmmaker Sylvian Chomet's wonderful animation valentine to the classic old school animation of Max Fleischer et al has its own wickedly gorgeous/grotesque caricature look about it in this highly inventive cartoon about a doting club-footed grandma whose over-protective love for her bicycling grandson (literally named Champion) finds her attempting to save him from nefarious kidnappers who abscond with the athlete and only her faithful overweight dog Bruno and the vaudevillian title act (think the witches from Macbeth meeting The Andrews Sisters) helping her only leads to some truly funny and sweetly nutty adventures in the process. Unique in its execution and a nearly silent movie the film is one of the year's absolute treasures.

I really wanted to like this film. I felt that it broke away from traditions, had moments of true genius, and could have been something really special. However, as it failed to provide aural stimulation in the form of speech i thought it should have provided visual stimulation which it fails to do. Now don't get me wrong, i thought that the animation was superb, reminiscent of the dream sequence in dumbo, full of caricatures. The pace of the film throughout assumed a kind of lethargy, with each shot feeling drawn out and overlong. I felt at first that it was surrealist humour, then realised the few moments of humour were so few and far between as not to justify that title. Very disappointing, as i thought more was possible.