Excellent Animated Film

Mini-Film review, possible minor spoilers.

New out on DVD is a French animated feature called 'The Triplets of Bellevue'. I was a bit skeptical about it at first, my brother's wife wanted to check it out, and I was over for dinner, so I said why the heck not, let's watch it [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

What it's about : Very hard to describe, it's about a little French boy whose parents are dead, so he is living with his little gumdrop-shaped grandma. Little Frenchie is depressed, so his gram keeps trying things to cheer him up, finally finding that he likes bikes after she gives him a tricycle as a gift. He quickly becomes interested in entering the Tour de France (A massive bicycle race that attracts global competition) .. and when he gets older, he does so. And so begins a bizarre, sad, and funny adventure for these characters, which eventually leads them to the aged musical trio, the Triplets of Bellevue, who help on this unique journey.

What's good about it : VERY unique and often beautiful artwork, excellent soundtrack, very good editing, pacing, and sound and voice acting (although speech is rare, this is mostly a lush visually told story). Perhaps the best quality of the film is the unpredictability of the story, and the warmth of the characters. Particularly touching is the quiet devotion the grandma has for her quiet son, and the dog is hilarious (complete with doggie nightmares LOL).

What's bad about it : depending on what you are used to, you may be bored by the lack of CGI, fighting, or intense action .. hard to find much bad to say about it, other than distribution is low, so this film may be difficult to locate in many places.

You should check it out : if you are a fan of original, very artistic animation, and appreciate foreign films as a whole. I recommend this for ages 12+, stay away if you are a pure action junkie.

My grade : 8 out of 10

Recieved 2 Academy Award nominations, I believe for original song and best animated feature

i like the theme from it, saw it live when the oscars were on good stuff

it was on TV in the UK over christmas. good movie, was entertaining [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]