Les Triplettes de Belleville

Plot
Les Triplettes de Belleville (The Triplets of Belleville) directed by Sylvain Chomet in 2003 is a beautiful French animated feature about the relationship between a grandmother and her grandson. The grandmother and her grandson live alone with dog in a rackety old apartment next to the train tracks. The grandmother buys the boy a tricycle, not knowing that this gift will spark a fire in the young boy. The boy begins training relentlessly with his grandmother until he is competing in the Tour de France. During the race the boy is kidnapped and the grandmother must set off to find him. On her journey she stumbles across the old Triplettes de Belleville, an old singing group. Together the team must save the grandson from the clutches of the evil mafia boss.

Animation
Chomet uses highly stylized figuration and realistic backgrounds to tell the story of grandmother and grandson. In the flashbacks in the film Chomet employs a style reminiscent of the early Disney Silly Symphonies. The contemporary animation is much more stylized and "dirty" with more realistic textures of the environment. The cel-animation is more tactile than that of Disney or Anime which feature very clean cels. The cels in Belleville contain mainy more "sketchy" lines. It is almost as if the film is hand drawn. This highly stylized more gritty style is concurrent with other European animation.

Awards

 * 2004 Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature
 * 2004 Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song
 * 2004 Won the American Choreography Award for "Outstanding Achievment in Choreography-Feature Film
 * 2004 Nominated for the Annie Award for "Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Theatrical Feature"
 * 2004 Nominated for the Annie Award for "Outstanding Directing in an Animated Feature Production"
 * 2004 Nominated for the Annie Award for "Outstanding Writing in an Animated Feature Production"
 * 2004 Nominated for the BAFTA Film Award for "Best Film not in the English Language"
 * 2003 Won the BSFC Award for "Best Foreign Language Film
 * 2003 Nominated for the British Independent Film Award for "Best Foreign Film"
 * 2004 Nominated for the Critics Choice Award for "Best Animated Feature" at the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards
 * 2004 Nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for "Best Foreign Language Film"
 * 2004 Nominated for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for "Best Original Score"
 * 2004 Won the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Film