The Triplets of Belleville
Les Triplettes de Belleville (aka, Belleville Rendez-vous; The Triplets of Belleville in English ) is a French-Canadian animated feature film directed and written by Sylvain Chomet. Featuring the voices of Michèle Caucheteux, Jean-Claude Donda, Michel Robin and Monica Viegas, it was highly praised by audiences and critics for its unique (and somewhat retro) style of animation.
It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Original Song (Benoît Charest and Sylvain Chomet for the song "The Triplets of Belleville") and Best Animated Feature.
Following a 1930s-style cartoon parody featuring the singing Triplettes of the title (Violette, Blanche and Rose, named after the colours of the French flag) in their heyday, as well as caricatures of Django Reinhardt, Josephine Baker and Fred Astaire, the story focuses on Madame Souza, an elderly woman raising her orphaned grandson Champion.
While he is a child, she buys him a bicycle, and as the years pass he achieves such excellence as a rider that he enters the Tour de France. Unfortunately he and two other riders are kidnapped and brought to America where a gangster forces them to bicycle all day long on a gambling machine. With the aid of the family dog Bruno she sets off across the Atlantic on a small pedalo to the city of Belleville (a somewhat art deco parody of New York City) where she meets the Triplettes - now aged and decrepit but still performing - and between them they set out to rescue her grandson.
The film is extremely satirical, depicting the French as a society of weak men domineered by bossy, obese women; in turn, it depicts Americans as either grossy, comically obese people, or muscular mobsters. The film features no spoken dialogue per se, though some spoken words (such as Tour de France radio commentary and a speech by Charles DeGaulle on evening TV) are included sporadically throughout the picture.