The Triplets of Belleville

I saw The Triplets of Belleville this evening. It’s an unconventional and beautiful piece of animation. The plot involves a grandmother trying to rescue her grandson, who is kidnapped during the Tour de France by the French Mafia. He’s spirited away to Belleville which is a oddball take on New York City. I mentioned French caricature in American cartoons in a blog entry the other day. Here’s American caricature in a French cartoon — nearly all of the residents of Belleville are immensely overweight including a rotund Statue of Liberty.

Note: at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge, Triplets is preceded by a showing of the animated short, Destino. Destino started as a collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali. The original project was started 50 years ago and abandoned when Disney’s studio ran into financial difficulties. This short is based on the work that Dali had started. It’s amazingly weird and inventive. There are a couple of clips from the short here.