LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE, Sylvain Chomet’s animated feature debut which screened at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival ®, delights with bizarre humour and staggering attention to visual and aural detail.

Set in a heightened, post-war world of bulbous pedestrians, eerie, rubbery frogs and the haunting whine of a hurtling commuter train, LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE casts an irresistible spell on the senses of those young and old. Madame Souza lives with Champion, her melancholy grandson, on a hill outside the crush of Paris. One day, she answers his dreams by giving him a tricycle; years later, the city has sprouted up around the house and the pudgy little tricylcer has become a lean, serene cycling fiend on two wheels. When Champion is kidnapped during the Tour de France by menacing, black-suited strangers, grandma and faithful hound Bruno must track them across the sea to glistening, towering Belleville - a sort of Gallic hybrid of New York City and Montreal. While her grandson suffers, Madame Souza falls in with an eccentric trio of thirties-era music hall singers, the glorious Belleville Triplets (who once played with Fred Astaire), and enlists their help.

LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE endlessly fascinates with its meticulously detailed hand-drawn images and a catchy score by Benoît Charest, inspired in part by the music of jazz legend Django Reinhardt. The post-war era is evoked through a warm palette of antiqued browns and beiges; in tone and texture it is at times reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s (AMELIE) DELICATESSEN.

Cinema and pop culture references create nostalgic ambience rather than in-jokes. Chomet bases his style on mime and character acting –– Champion is the picture of strangely angelic concentration; Madame Souza a touching, feisty power-house with one short leg and a whistle to keep the world in line; the massive, square-shouldered villains resemble anvils. LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE is a truly captivating world unto itself.

"Fast, funny, unexpected and uninhibited, The Triplets of Belleville may be animated, but it is also the product of an artistic vision every bit as rigorous as any lofty Cannes prize-winner. Hearing about a film this special isn't enough. It demands to be seen, and it generously rewards those who, like Madame Souza, let nothing stand in their way." - Kenneth Turan / Los Angeles Times

"Sylvain Chomet’s thoroughly delightful animated feature is touching, hilarious and so French you can taste it. It playfully alludes to Jacques Tati, and lightly sports influences from Betty Boop to Walt Disney’s 101 Dalmatians, but it really is one of the most bracingly original things I have seen for a long time." – Peter Bradsha / Guardian Unlimited

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