The Triplets Of Belleville

Was awesome! Very cool, very slick use of the Futurama-esque CG cel animation. The almost total lack of dialogue was not a problem at all to understanding and the fishing scene had me giggling from start to finish.

The basic story is that a kid who can't seem to find joy in anything is living with his Gran (who has one leg shorter than the other and so one of those shoes with a big sole). One day she finds out he likes bikes and gets him a tricycle (him being but a child). Fast-forward... well, about fifty years as the 'time goes by' sequence would suggest (from prop-planes to 747s) but the kid only ages about 10 years and the gran not at all. He enters the Tour De France and is kidnapped. Gran follows the kidnappers to Belleville (read "New York"/Americ) and finds the once-famous triplets of Belleville to help her get the kid back.

There's your nutshell.

The style of animation is similar to those old 50s cartoons everyone seems to be watching in modern movies. People's bodies are disproportionate and some of the imagary is just plain creepy. The producers have also shied away from Pixar and Disney's bright, primary pallet and so the majority of the film is in shades of brown and black, with what little colour there is muted.

Basically, the whole thing seems to be something of an 'how long can we keep this up' excercise, and if you ask me they succeeded. I even stayed for the obligatory "after the credits" bit, and it was worth it. :)

An often hilarious, occasionally creepy and in parts just plain wrong film; four and a half overwieght dogs (there should've been more fishing).