Les Triplettes de Belleville

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song (Benoît Charest and Sylvain Chomet for the song "The Triplets of Belleville") and Best Animated Feature Film of the Year.

Following a 1930s-style cartoon parody featuring the singing Triplettes of the title (Violette, Blanche and Rose, named after the colours of the French flag) in their heyday, as well as caricatures of Django Reinhardt, Josephine Baker and Fred Astaire, the story focuses on Madame Souza, an elderly woman raising her orphaned grandson Champion.

While he is a child, she buys him a bicycle, and as the years pass he achieves such excellence as a rider that he enters the Tour de France. Unfortunately he and two other riders are kidnapped and brought to America where a gangster forces them to bicycle all day long on a gambling machine. With the aid of the family dog Bruno she sets off across the Atlantic on a small pedalo to the city of Belleville (a somewhat art deco parody of New York City) where she meets the Triplettes - now aged and decrepit but still performing - and between them they set out to rescue her grandson.

The film is extremely satirical, depicting the French as a society of weak men domineered by bossy, obese women; in turn, it depicts Americans as either grossy, comically obese people, or muscular mobsters. The film features no spoken dialogue per se, though some spoken words are included sporadically throughout the picture.

External link

• IMDb Triplettes de Belleville, Les (2003)

Referenced By