Anime Review: Triplets of Belleville, The

Review The triplets of Belleville

Somewhere in France there is a man who lives with his grandmother and dog. Everything that he does is in training to be the best cyclist he can be. Unexpectedly when he is in a race he is kidnapped by some strange men and taken overseas. It is up the grandmother to save him as she follows him in a paddle boat to Belleville. When she is at the end of her rope in a strange town a washed up singing act, The triplets of Belleville take her in.

This movie is very different from almost any animated work that I have watched. To rate in a traditional frame of mind it would be a bad movie, with a simple plot and almost no character development. Yet in this movie that is perfectly forgivable, since instead of dialogue to tell a story, this movie shows you the movie instead of tells you about the movie.

With only three lines of dialogue in the movie it is the work of the animation to make this movie work, and it does so with flair. The animation style is wildly different than most contemporary work, as it captures the energetic silliness of very early cartoons and expands on the style with the technical excellence that is expected of contemporary animation.

As I have said before this movie is very different from most anime. I recommend The triplets of Belleville not just because it is fun to watch but also because it a change of pace for anyone feels a bit burned out from watching shows that feel identical to each other. I give The Triplets of Belleville a rating of very good.