The Triplets of Belleville

One of the best animated movies ever. And not just of those for an adult audience. Melancholic images of a journey taken by an old lady and her old, obese dog to find his abducted master. It’s hard to compare this to anything else; it’s just one of those Francophone pieces of perfection where there’s something for everybody. Sylvain Chomet proves again that he is a genius filmmaker who is unequalled amongst animators around the world. (13/05/2022)

In my reviews regarding animated films, I often criticize the prevailing Disney-style production and American slapstick for their uniformity, pandering, and dominance. Here I had a unique opportunity to see the complete opposite of such productions, and once again, I am not satisfied. I have seen expressions of admiration for imagination, dreaminess, poetry, or creativity, and in principle, I agree that these attributes can be attributed to Chomet's work. However, Chomet fails in one very important aspect, which is the story. This would have been sufficient for a charming short film; after all, I enjoy many similar alternative films from the works of Priit Pärn and many other independent animators from around the world. However, on the scale of a full-length film, this film becomes too stretched out and therefore exhausting. It lacks the art of brevity, compactness, and dynamics. The famous creator is simply playing around, and the viewer doesn't really matter to him. Yes, it has a very decent rating, which I think is related precisely to how much this film deviates from the current world production. My two stars primarily represent excellent visual design and the aforementioned creativity rather than my overall impression, which, considering what has been written above, is genuinely mediocre, and I would rate it at around 40%. (06/09/2011)

A film that is rare to see. Once you get used to the unusual type of animation, you will experience a poetically captivating story full of subtle but heartwarming visual tricks and ideas. If a part of the trio at home were a little shorter, I would go even higher. (12/04/2006)

The difference between a Sylvain Chomet film and prefabricates from the Walt Disney workshop? The Triplets of Belleville has soul, charm, incredibly deep poetics, and the characters are not just a pile of template coloring books, but really vivid and soulful caricatures. Perhaps it is this contradiction that is encoded in the strange and magical story of the Triplets, which is sometimes irresistibly funny (but unobtrusively and always intelligently), and sometimes dark and sad. Chomet complimented the imagination of all of the animators whilst creating something that proves that cartoons can be as vivid as "real" films. Forgive me, Shrek, Ice Age, Finding Nemo and you others who are "just" very good fun, but THIS is a real masterpiece. Humanly warm and riveting. Grotesque and drama. Life. (27/06/2004)