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The Triplets of Belleville Old School animation style gets an Oscar nod
Most stories have three elements to them; who, what and where. Also stated as; Who the hell are you? What the hell are you doing? And, Where the hell are you taking me? The best movies are ususally some kind of combination of all three elements. A story that makes sense and is at least halfway insteresting in it's own right, characters that you actually feel something about, and a interesting or at least a novel way of looking at an environment. A movie that concentrates on just one element has to blow you away, otherwise it just ain't gonna feel balanced.
If you've seen the trailers you've probably guessed which category The Triplets of Belleville concentrates on. So the question is does it blow you away. Here is where I'm going to waffle. If your a what person, or a who person, you may not find The Triplets of Belleville to be as unbelievably cool as I did. If you go to the movies because you want to go somewhere you've never been before your gonna love The Triplets of Belleville.
While I'm usually a character driven kind of guy I loved it. I can't wait till it comes out on DVD so I can watch it over and over and pause it and just look. And listen, maybe I'm just ignorant but there's music styles in this movie I've never heard. The animation is very distinctive, it kind of reminded me of that period Disney went through with The Rescuers and the Jungle Book, except better. The palette is different too, everything has a light sepia wash to it. The animation itself is beautiful. The way the characters move and some of the little ticks they have are wonderful. The character design is genius, I won't say gorgeous, because all of the characters are actually a little on the ugly side. It is interesting how the animators exaggerated some stereotypes to the point of silliness, making the stereotypes themselves seem absurd. The designs of the city's and landscapes are such a weird mixture of European and American icons. Their are some scenes in what seems obvious at first is supposed to be New York, but it is such a weird Kafka meets Babbitt image of an American city you start to wonder if your assumptions are correct or not. Speaking of the animation there are some scenes during the bike race where the cyclists are climbing a hill so they are all going slow, jsut barely moving, but the animation is silky smooth.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying there is no plot or that the characters are cardboard cutouts, Well the good guys at least. The movie has a plot, it has a few dead ends but on the whole it's a decent plot, it's just not that important. It's job is to get us where we need to be to see this or that. The same with the characters. As interesting as they are to look at and watch there is no real character development. The movie does have a theme though, a time tested and universal theme; Love conquers all. 9/10 -Mike Young |
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The Triplets of Belleville Directed by Sylvain Chomet Starring Michael Robin, Jean-Claude Donda Review: 9/10
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