Les Triplettes de Belleville [The Triplets of Belleville] [Belleville Rendez-vous] (2003, voices of Michèle Caucheteux, Jean-Claude Donda, Michel Robin) – Classic Movie Review 8812

Writer-director Sylvain Chomet’s 2003 French animated gem Les Triplettes de Belleville [The Triplets of Belleville] [Belleville Rendez-vous], told with very little dialogue, is an impressively designed, highly imaginative and vibrant cartoon, packed with attractively eccentric, comical characters, clever images and a lot of imagination.

It was nominated for two Oscars: Best Animated Feature (Sylvain Chomet) and Best Original Song for the song Belleville Rendez-Vous (Benoît Charest music, Sylvain Chomet lyrics).  And it was a Bafta nominee for Best Film not in the English Language.

An old lady Madame Souza and Bruno her pet dog get the help of the eccentric elderly frog-eating women Belleville Triplets, an old jazz-singing song ‘n’ dance troupe, to find and bring back her young grandson, Champion, abducted by the French Mafia during the Tour de France cycle race.

Can they get there in time to allow Champion to fulfill his dream of winning the race?

Les Triplettes de Belleville is a delight throughout and a magical race to laughter.

Madame Souza is voiced by Monica Viegas or Graziellia de Villa (English version) and Champion is voiced by Michel Robin or Noël Baye (English version). It also features the voices of Michèle Caucheteux (Triplet #3), Jean-Claude Donda (Le Géneral de Gaulle/ The Sports Commentators/ Le clochard/ les Réclames) and Suzy Falk (Triplet).

Les Triplettes de Belleville was called The Triplets of Belleville in the US and Belleville Rendez-vous in the UK. It debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2003.

It cost $9,500,000 and did well to take  $7,002,255 in America.

Chomet imitated the stance and walk of tall basketball stars for the triplets.

Les Triplettes de Belleville [The Triplets of Belleville] [Belleville Rendez-vous] is directed by Sylvain Chomet, runs 80 minutes, is made by Les Armateurs, Production Champion, Vivi Film, France 3 Cinéma, R G Prince, Canal +, BBC, CNC, Téléfilm Canada, is released by Metro Tartan (UK) and Sony Classics (US), is written by Sylvain Chomet, is produced by Didier Brunner and Viviane Vanfleteren and scored by Benoït Charest.

It is a co-production of France, Belgium, Canada, UK, Latvia and US.

Chomet was also nominated for an Oscar as Best Animated Feature for L’illusionniste [The Illusionist] (2010).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8812

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