Movie Review for Triplets of Belleville, The

Summary: Adopted by his grandmother, Madame Souza, Champion is a lonely little boy. Noticing that the lad is never happier than on a bicycle, Madame Souza puts him through a rigorous training process. Years go by and Champion becomes worthy of his name. Now he is ready to enter the world-famous cycling race the Tour de France. However during this cycling contest, two mysterious men in black kidnap Champion. Madame Souza and her faithful dog Bruno set out to rescue him. Their quest takes them across the ocean to a giant megalopolis called Belleville where they encounter the renowned "Triplets of Belleville," three eccentric female music-hall stars from the '30s who decide to take Madame Souza and Bruno under their wing. Thanks to Bruno's brilliant sense of smell, the brave duo are soon on to Champion's trail. But will they succeed in beating the devilish plans of the evil French mafia?

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Derek Smith of Apollo Guide (7/0)
            As funny, original, and entertaining as the film is, a dark drama floats just beneath the surface...

By Philip Martin of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (7/0)
            If you've a heart and a pulse, you will like this movie.

By Marjorie Baumgarten of Austin Chronicle (7/0)
            Let the movie wash over you, and, at the very least, it will cleanse your palate.

By Tom Dawson of BBC (7/0)
            It may clock in at a crisp 80 minutes, yet a single viewing can barely do justice to this richly ...

By Emily Blunt of Blunt Review (7/0)
            Un beau, wildy amusement et un film original ! See this immediately- read on->

By Ty Burr of Boston Globe (7/0)
            All you really need to enjoy "Triplets" is a taste for the weird and the wonderful.

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
            An animated feature of appalling originality and scary charm.

By David Sterritt of Christian Science Monitor (7/0)
            It's downright daft at times. But it's ingeniously crafted, marvelously drawn, and utterly unpred...

By Karina Montgomery of Cinerina (7/0)
            ...delightful, inventive, accessible, hilarious, and tremendously executed.

By Mark Palermo of Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) (7/0)
            Exploring imagery’s universal potential, the movie reaches artistic heights by allowing us to rec...

By Jeffrey M. Anderson of Combustible Celluloid (7/0)
            A strange and wonderful tale that relies on and indulges in the luxuries of hand-drawn animation

By Ben Stephens of culturevulture.net (7/0)
            Much of the story unfolds with the careful, deliberate pacing of the best silent films, and the a...

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (7/0)
            If you have an open mind, and an appreciation of film animation, you will surely enjoy the film's...

By Erik Childress of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            Dazzling in the simplest of ways putting Sylvain Chomet at the animation’s adult table that still...

By Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            A singular delight.

By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
            Animation was invented so that movies like The Triplets of Belleville could be made.

By Boyd van Hoeij of europeanfilms.net (7/0)
            Something unique: mixing styles, eras and geography into a cocktail that is both funny and melan...

By Walter Chaw of Film Freak Central (7/0)
            An extraordinary, melancholy ode to the endless, mercurial peculiarity of life.

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Doris Toumarkine of Film Journal International (7/0)
            A highly original, charming, visually striking and constantly droll entertainment.

By Phil Hall of Film Threat (7/0)
            Perhaps the worst animated feature film I've ever seen.

By Pete Croatto of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            doesn’t have much to offer outside of its technical achievements, which is both amazing and a sha...

By Kent Turner of Film-Forward.com (7/0)
            The Simpsons meet William Steig

By Edward Havens of FilmJerk.com (7/0)
            Filmmaking at its best, and a wonderful reminder of the pure unadulterated joy that can come from...

By Rick Groen of Globe and Mail (7/0)
            In an era when live-action movies often play like cartoons, this is an animated film that feels a...

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Eric Harrison of Houston Chronicle (7/0)
            Wonderfully weird.

By Steve Rhodes of Internet Reviews (7/0)
            A dialog-free, animated film for adults that would have made a great short film, but, without spe...

By Ella Taylor of L.A. Weekly (7/0)
            While, like most animated films, The Triplets of Belleville was made by many people, this divinel...

By Nick Schager of Lessons of Darkness (7/0)
            A bustling cornucopia of delights.

By Kenneth Turan of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            A truly out-there piece of comic animation, the most outlandishly visual film of the year, this 8...

By Randy Shulman of Metro Weekly (Washington, DC) (7/0)
            A triumph of style and substance, dispensing equal parts unbridled glee and powerful melancholy.

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Duane Dudek of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
            A comfortably subversive and accomplished film that speaks to everyone, without talking down to a...

By Kevin N. Laforest of Montreal Film Journal (7/0)
            Kept me smiling for 80 minutes, and that’s worth something, right?

By Ken Hanke of Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (7/0)
            Triplets could be described as Max Fleischer on acid.

By David N. Butterworth of Movie Boeuf (7/0)
            A charming, one-of-a-kind experience, a breathtakingly drawn and uproariously funny film by Frenc...

By Marty Mapes of Movie Habit (7/0)
            A hugely entertaining alternative to Disney and Pixar

By Nell Minow of Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies (7/0)
            The astonishing, outlandish, and singular originality of this movie defeats any attempt to descri...

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By A. O. Scott of New York Times (7/0)
            A tour de force of ink-washed, crosshatched mischief and unlikely sublimity.

By Jan Stuart of Newsday (7/0)
            A sophisticated, wholly original brand of animated storytelling that manages to be at once deliri...

By Jeffrey Westhoff of Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) (7/0)
            A strange delight, an original vision that enhances the state of contemporary animation.

By Joshua Tanzer of Offoffoff (7/0)
            Built on slow, repetitive actions that quietly amuse us but don't necessarily raise our adrenalin...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            A determinedly weird, almost wordless Gallic concoction that casts a considerable spell even if i...

By Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews (7/0)
            Too far-fetched for me to dive into a genre I have not yet acquired a taste for.

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Jeanne Aufmuth of Palo Alto Weekly (7/0)
            Oooh la la and a certain je ne sais quoi permeate every frame of this imaginative French gem that...

By Sean Burns of Philadelphia Weekly (7/0)
            I'm not so sure what Chomet's getting at here, or even if there's really much to be gotten at all...

By Elbert Ventura of PopMatters (7/0)
            Finding a delicate balance between dystopia and nostalgia, this diaphanous, baroque vision isn't ...

By James Kendrick of Q Network Film Desk (7/0)
            an almost impossibly delectable mixture of uncanny weirdness and poignant sweetness

By Linda Cook of Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) (7/0)
            Viva le difference!

By Mark R. Leeper of rec.arts.movies.reviews (7/0)
            This is a film that speaks a universal language of funny images and unexpected surprises.

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews (7/0)
            ...director Chomet proves to be quite effective at establishing an utterly bizarre looking variat...

By Timothy Knight of Reel.com (7/0)
            Every so often, a film comes along that is so original, imaginative, and just plain flat-out wond...

By Laura Clifford of Reeling Reviews (6/1)
            shows influences as diverse as "Mr. Magoo," the films of Caro and Jeunet ("Delicatessen," "City o...

By Robin Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            many notable moments of animation excellence

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (7/0)
            For someone with an adventurous cinematic appetite, a production that makes Miyazaki appear mains...

By Forrest Hartman of Reno Gazette-Journal (7/0)
            A beautiful but dull affair.

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Beth Jones of Roanoke Times (Virginia) (7/0)
            One of his greatest achievements is allowing the audience to crawl inside Bruno's head. Not since...

By Jack Garner of Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (7/0)
            A fresh, very funny and wonderful artful enterprise.

By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (7/0)
            Comic, touching and a visual knockout.

By Joe Baltake of Sacramento Bee (7/0)
            As original as it is strange, The Triplets of Belleville not only will win you over with that pot...

By Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com (7/0)
            Captivating to watch.

By Jean Lowerison of San Diego Metropolitan (7/0)
            There is more imagination in this film's puny 80 minutes than in all the other films I've seen th...

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By William Arnold of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
            Most of the magic of this unusual movie comes from the freshness, imagination and sweet spirit of...

By Rich Cline of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
            Forges an all new narrative and visual style that's so winning it lingers in the mind long after ...

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Practice (7/0)
            The Triplets of Belleville is an animated feature with two out-of-the-ordinary superheroes: a zea...

By Rob Blackwelder of SPLICEDWire (7/0)
            Chomet's charming, visually cluttered realm...is so imaginative and vividly realized you could fr...

By Gerry Shamray of Sun Newspapers of Cleveland (7/0)
            The Triplets of Belleville proves there's still plenty of life in hand-drawn animation.

By Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone of TheMovieChicks.com (7/0)
            Like a silent film that just happens to be drawn instead of made with real people - it's absolute...

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Angel Cohn of TV Guide's Movie Guide (4/3)
            It should appeal to adventurous types looking for a more challenging animated feature.

By Enrique Buchichio of Uruguay Total (7/0)
            La historia se cuenta en imágenes y sonidos, y ese es un primer gran mérito a tener en cuenta en ...

By J. Hoberman of Village Voice (7/0)
            It's nasty but droll, cheerfully grotesque, full of non sequiturs as well as deadpan repetitions,...

By John Beifuss of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            "Dazzlingly inventive and delightful and probably unlike any cartoon -- or movie -- you've ever s...

By Kevin Courrier of Boxoffice Magazine (3/4) No reference
            A bizarre yet beautifully composed piece of nutty whimsy.

By Pablo Villaca of Cinema em Cena (3/4) No reference
            Se precisei assistir a esta animação 3 vezes somente para escrever sobre ela, nem imagino quantas...

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Robert Denerstein of Denver Rocky Mountain News (3/4) No reference
            The Triplets of Belleville can feel so alive you may have trouble sitting still while watching it...

By Jeffrey Bruner of Des Moines Register (3/4) No reference
            If Walt Disney had gone on a binge of red wine, hallucinatory drugs and absurdist plays, The Trip...

By Richard Roeper of Ebert & Roeper (3/4) No reference
            The artwork is just brilliant.

By Jake Euker of F5 (Wichita, KS) (3/4) No reference
            Its strange vacillation between the hopeful and the arbitrarily cold is still a mystery to me... ...

By Rick Kisonak of Film Threat (3/4) No reference
            Hang on to your head. Sylvain Chomet's magical, mysterious and mind expanding feature debut will ...

By MaryAnn Johanson of Flick Filosopher (3/4) No reference
            [L]ike nothing you’ve ever seen and at the same time like a recurring dream you can always just b...

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Ann Marie McQueen of Jam! Movies (3/4) No reference
            Chomet has made a refreshing film set apart by its humour, unique cultural flavour and quality an...

By Bruce Kirkland of Jam! Movies (3/4) No reference
            A sensational counterpoint to everything animation means as family entertainment in Hollywood.

By Robert W. Butler of Kansas City Star (3/4) No reference
            Everything about the film, from the characters to the settings, is tres bizarre, yet it's all wei...

By Glenn Whipp of Los Angeles Daily News (3/4) No reference
            A wildly imaginative and wholly original creation.

By Rene Rodriguez of Miami Herald (3/4) No reference
            A mad masterpiece.

By Jeff Strickler of Minneapolis Star Tribune (3/4) No reference
            Depending on your perspective, it's either visionary or weird.

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Gabriel Shanks of Mixed Reviews (3/4) No reference
            Shares the inventive, experimental storytelling found in the works of Miyazaki and the Wachowskis...

By Jorge Avila Andrade of Moviola (3/4) No reference
            'El estilo y la atmósfera en que se desarrolla son de una calidad e inteligencia que pocas veces ...

By James Rocchi of Netflix (3/4) No reference
            International story of bicycling, rescue, singing, the passage of time and the nature of evil is ...

By Gregory Weinkauf of New Times (3/4) No reference
            An animated extravaganza of Gallic wit and soul that delivers more wild humanity than many of the...

By Jami Bernard of New York Daily News (3/4) No reference
            An insanely delicious animated feature.

By Andrew Sarris of New York Observer (3/4) No reference
            The comparative abstractness of Mr. Chomet's vision allows the mind to wander freely.

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Bob Campbell of Newark Star-Ledger (3/4) No reference
            It's all très charming.

By Roger Moore of Orlando Sentinel (3/4) No reference
            Thanks to Chomet, 'beautifully strange' has a new home address, and it's in Belleville.

By Steve Schneider of Orlando Weekly (3/4) No reference
            An ephemerally entertaining comic adventure.

By Phoebe Flowers of South Florida Sun-Sentinel (3/4) No reference
            Triplets is very probably unlike anything you've seen before.

By Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) of St. Paul Pioneer Press (3/4) No reference
            Watching The Triplets of Belleville is like getting lost in a storybook you never want to put dow...

By Jeffrey Chen of Window to the Movies (3/4) No reference
            Feels like a cross between '60's Disney cartoon movies and Yellow Submarine. No, even that descri...

                         Reviews of Triplets of Belleville, The
By Daniel M. Kimmel of Worcester Telegram & Gazette (3/4) No reference
            It's a must-see for animation fans, but others, including youngsters, may just as likely be bored...

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