The first thing American parents of young kids should know: your children will probably not like this movie. And if you can't hang with sparsely vocalized French old school animation not made by Disney, Pixar, or any other recognizable mainstream studio, you probably won't like Les Triplettes de Belleville, either.
THE STORY (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**)
[Truth In Advertising disclaimer: the only way I was able to find out any concrete detail about the story and character's names - aside from Bruno the dog, who had his name emblazoned on his dog dish - was by visiting the IMDB. Even the film's official website, didn't help; about the only thing non-French-reading me could grasp from it, was a brief replay of the movie's excellent soundtrack.]
Madame Souza, grandmother of young Champion, tries hard to reach her lonely little grandson. Toy trains and even a cute puppy named Bruno don't quite do the trick, but the gift of a tricycle brings him out of the funk of missing his mother and bicycle-riding father. As Champion grows up, he trains hard to ride in the Tour de France bicycle race, with his grandmother always there to encourage him (and his now grossly overweight dog ready to bark at any passing train). After entering the race for the first time, Champion is kidnapped by mysterious men who cart him across the sea to Belleville; and Souza pursues them all the way. There, she and Bruno encounter the strangely wonderful Triplets of Belleville vaudeville group that Souza and Champion watched together when he was a little boy. Together, they are determined to rescue Champion from the bad mobsters with fiendish plans for him.
THE UPSHOT
It's funny how I was just talking about biases and preconceptions, in my 50 First Dates review. That certainly applies to this movie; maybe even more so here than there. In this case, my issues going in were twofold: a bias against films that have a chip on their shoulder because they're High Art; and a preconception about 2D animation, especially the kind that looks like a throwback to the early days of cartoons.
Films like Les Triplettes de Belleville - "The Triplets of Belleville", to us Yanks - reminds you that Hollywood ain't the only one making movies. This should come as no surprise, of course; these days, not even Hollywood movies are made in Hollywood much anymore. And just because a film is "foreign", doesn't automatically make it good; I can't stand Pretentious Art Fillums any more than I can tolerate typical mainstream schlock that seems thrown together just to make a quick buck.
All that said, Triplets is an interesting study in the necessity of sometimes taking a film at more than face value. Because at first glance, I found this film pointless, and boring as hell. Apparently, so did the mass of people who left after 20 minutes. To be fair, I don't think any of us were prepared for what we saw - and preparation is extremely necessary in this case, especially for an American audience weaned on Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and yes, Nemo.
But if you stick with it, Triplets might surprise you with its depth. What looks at first like just a weird mix of drawings of a dog with a Pavlovian obsession for trains, a kid obsessed with his bike, a mother obsessed with her son, and a trio of old chicks with a bizarre obsession with frogs [frogsicles, ha!], starts to make sense when you think about it. Its lampooning of French and American societies, fills the screen with subtle truth. The animation, while not state of the high-tech art, is still unique and beautifully done; for some reason, it put me in mind of Heavy Metal. And by the time you get to the ObChaseScene, you may even find yourself cheering for this odd assortment of characters.
So, was Triplets good; or at least, worth seeing? Despite all the gushing on its posters about how it was a Cinematic Wonder, it depends. It's rather inaccessible to those who don't travel in Art Fillum circles, and is the kind of movie you'd imagine someone would make when hopped up on dope [tell me those scenes of a dreaming Bruno weren't inspired by psychedelic mushrooms. And come on, frogsicles?]. And language barrier aside, it would've been nice to not spend so much time wondering whathell I was watching.
But look a little closer, and you'll see a movie that had more in common with Finding Nemo than you'd think: a movie where one parent just wanted their beloved son to come home, and come hell or high water, they'd see to it that that's exactly what was going to happen. Foreign weirdness or no, how can you beat that for wholesome family entertainment?
BAMMER'S BOTTOM LINE
I may have to revisit this review, because I'm not quite sure how I really feel about Triplets (except that that song rocked). The movie was definitely weird, and I didn't like it at first; but this daggone flick grew on me. I do know one thing, for sure, though: if The Academy's love last year for Spirited Away is any indication, Nemo may be in for a catfight come Oscar® night.
LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE: 
Reviews 
Les Triplettes de Belleville ("The Triplets of Belleville"; 2003) 