This is a very bizarre visual and aural experience. One that animation fans will absolutely love. I was amazed. In French and a bit of English and no subtitles! But then, none are necessary. Sure-handed storytelling transcends any need for translation.
Big-screen animation takes another leap forward with The Triplets of Belleville, which packs staggering levels of craft and imagination into every last frame. By turns tender and pitch-dark, but always sublimely ridiculous, this trés French concoction was the only real competition for Finding Nemo in this year's animated-feature Oscar race.
Belleville is also a resounding call to shovel that dirt off the grave of hand-drawn animation. The caricature work is ornate and breathlessly bizarre, as if Fellini had come back from the grave and picked up a pencil. But the style and rhythms almost no dialogue, lots of sound effects and darkly comic set pieces are more reminiscent of the French filmmaker Jacques Tati. Belleville has the precision and detail of a Tati film, but it's much stranger and more frenetic. Like most great animated films, it takes full advantage of the format's otherworldly potential. Even if it's not your thing, chances are you've never seen anything like it.
Big-screen animation takes another leap forward with The Triplets of Belleville, which packs staggering levels of craft and imagination into every last frame. By turns tender and pitch-dark, but always sublimely ridiculous, this trés French concoction was the only real competition for Finding Nemo in this year's animated-feature Oscar race.
Belleville is also a resounding call to shovel that dirt off the grave of hand-drawn animation. The caricature work is ornate and breathlessly bizarre, as if Fellini had come back from the grave and picked up a pencil. But the style and rhythms almost no dialogue, lots of sound effects and darkly comic set pieces are more reminiscent of the French filmmaker Jacques Tati. Belleville has the precision and detail of a Tati film, but it's much stranger and more frenetic. Like most great animated films, it takes full advantage of the format's otherworldly potential. Even if it's not your thing, chances are you've never seen anything like it.