Les Triplettes de Belleville (1/10)

I am exhausted, but I have only myself to blame. I swore off animated films when I got seduced into going to see Ants because of the trailer that showed that the protagonist and had Woody Allen’s voice. It was awful. Then I relented to see Looney Tunes because it was only partially animated. It was pretty bad, but it did have a good performance by Steve Martin.

Les Triplettes de Belleville lured me in by one of the best, but most fraudulent, trailers I’ve ever seen, with a captivating song and some animation that was reminiscent of the old cartoons of the early ‘30’s where the characters swayed in time to the music. But when you see the actual film the only time you hear the song is in the opening scenes and then again over the closing credits. The in sync swaying of characters to music never again appears. So you sit there for 75 excruciating minutes without them, and, believe me, that song is the only thing worth seeing in this film.

With no dialogue, it’s the story of a Tour de France bicyclist who is kidnapped by the mafia. His grandmother and his dog go in search of him, finally aided by lesTriplettes. It’s got cruelty to animals as grandmother uses her loving and trusting dog as a tire for her truck. It’s got disgusting scenes when we watch what the triplettes eat and how they live.

I don’t understand how an adult can enjoy watching a feature length cartoon, but I understand that there are people who enjoy them. I don’t. The big test was how few times I could look at my watch to determine how much more agony I had to endure. Never again, and you can quote me!

December 27, 2003

The End

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