The Triplets of Belleville

Madame Souza pushes her grandson toward cycling; he grows up and enters the Tour de France. During the race the mob abducts him and takes him across the Atlantic to a city called Belleville. The old woman goes after him with the dog Bruno. There, three music hall singers left over from the 1930s help her. Sylvain Chomet wrote and directed; it is his first feature. It was made in co-production between France, Belgium, Canada and the United Kingdom. Its defining choice is that there is almost no dialogue. The story is carried by music, sound and pantomime, and what the characters think is read entirely from the drawing and the movement. On a 9.5 million dollar budget it took 14.8 million worldwide. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 94 percent and Metacritic at 91. One critic called it an odd, delightful charmer. It received two Oscar nominations, Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, and won Best Motion Picture at the Genie Awards and Best Film Music at the Cesars. Who it is for: viewers who like hand-drawn animation, caricatured design and storytelling without words. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a children's film. The character design is grotesque and the tone is dark enough to unsettle small children.