Hey, you've got to give it points for originality. "The Triplets of Bellesville," a strikingly one-of-a-kind, 80-minute acid trip, is most likely unlike anything you've ever seen before. Oh, and it's animated. I watched it quietly, not riveted, but rarely bored at the menagerie of weirdness unfolding before me.
The film's protagonist is an Madame Sousa, an elderly, squat French woman with a hairy upper lip. When she is put in charge of her little grandson, Champion (who are his parents? I don't know,) she is unable to do anything to make the unsmiling kid happy.
She gets him a rotund, stick-legged puppy named Bruno, but after a brief period of interest Champion becomes bored with his friend. Finally, in a desperate attempt to please him, she buys him a small bike. Champion immediately takes a liking to it, and rides it around the kitchen. At this point, Granny become motivated to to give her grandson training.
Fast forward some years later, and Champion's a young man and still living with his Grandma, his bike, and his dog. And guess what? He's still relentlessly solemn. This doesn't stop Grandma from training him up, as she ties a rope to the exhausted guy and drags him on his bicycle around the city. You can tell she's fond of him, though- just clueless at separating what she wants and what he likes.
But disaster lurks just ahead, When Champion enters the Tour de France, he and several other contestants are kidnapped by a duo of black-coated men. As soon as Grandma finds out he's been taken for unknown purposes, she and Bruno embark on a rescue mission, being taken in by The Triplets of Belleville, a group of aging, very eccentric has-been lounge singers.
That's the plot. But really, it doesn't seem to be so much the plot the directer, Sylvain Chomet, seems less concerned with as the sights along the way. Abandoning nearly every connection to reality, she creates a bleakly beautiful, grim, nearly wordless landscape where saying 'strange' is a waste of time because you can apply it as an understatement to every character and situation in the movie.
I didn't love this movie. I'm really even sure I liked it, all that much. However, I can assure you it's, without a doubt, unique. I'd compare it to Tim Burton, but- not quite. Besides the fact that it's not claymation like "Corpse Bride" or "The Nightmare Before Christmas," I guess this film seems less self-conscious in attempts to create dark atmosphere. No skeletons, zombies, or completely gray settings- just kind of a satisfied, macabre touch (Rated PG-13.)
The film's protagonist is an Madame Sousa, an elderly, squat French woman with a hairy upper lip. When she is put in charge of her little grandson, Champion (who are his parents? I don't know,) she is unable to do anything to make the unsmiling kid happy.
She gets him a rotund, stick-legged puppy named Bruno, but after a brief period of interest Champion becomes bored with his friend. Finally, in a desperate attempt to please him, she buys him a small bike. Champion immediately takes a liking to it, and rides it around the kitchen. At this point, Granny become motivated to to give her grandson training.
Fast forward some years later, and Champion's a young man and still living with his Grandma, his bike, and his dog. And guess what? He's still relentlessly solemn. This doesn't stop Grandma from training him up, as she ties a rope to the exhausted guy and drags him on his bicycle around the city. You can tell she's fond of him, though- just clueless at separating what she wants and what he likes.
But disaster lurks just ahead, When Champion enters the Tour de France, he and several other contestants are kidnapped by a duo of black-coated men. As soon as Grandma finds out he's been taken for unknown purposes, she and Bruno embark on a rescue mission, being taken in by The Triplets of Belleville, a group of aging, very eccentric has-been lounge singers.
That's the plot. But really, it doesn't seem to be so much the plot the directer, Sylvain Chomet, seems less concerned with as the sights along the way. Abandoning nearly every connection to reality, she creates a bleakly beautiful, grim, nearly wordless landscape where saying 'strange' is a waste of time because you can apply it as an understatement to every character and situation in the movie.
I didn't love this movie. I'm really even sure I liked it, all that much. However, I can assure you it's, without a doubt, unique. I'd compare it to Tim Burton, but- not quite. Besides the fact that it's not claymation like "Corpse Bride" or "The Nightmare Before Christmas," I guess this film seems less self-conscious in attempts to create dark atmosphere. No skeletons, zombies, or completely gray settings- just kind of a satisfied, macabre touch (Rated PG-13.)
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