Those French...

[furtech]

[A personal review of the new French animated feature (no spoilers, but lots of opinion!]

Today I saw The Triplets of Belleville, a french animated feature that has been getting a lot of good reviews. Frankly, for me the film did not live up to its hype-- I was much more enchanted with "Spirited Away" than with this film (though I did have a decent time). European animation has a mesmerizing, oddly-timed quality to it that I find curious. What stood out to me was the immaculate, perfectly timed pacing of this film and the development of the characters as people we are interested in. This might seem slow to those who are used to the frenetic pace of American animation (or, heaven forbid, the manic pace of anime!). The three artists/animators I saw this movie with were far more impressed with this film than I. Martes was beside herself with what she considered excellent character design and all three gushed about the art and animation. YMMV. This feature reminded me of "City of Lost Children"-- a live-action (French) film which I feel does a better job with creating a completely surreal, whimsical world (a dark-yet-inspirational fantasy: HIGHLY recommended!)

One thing that did stand out to me: the French think as little of us as we currently do of them. "Belleville" is clearly New York City and "America". And all the Americans are drawn grotesquely fat (as in weighing at least six hundred pounds). Grotesquely fat and stupid. When the camera pans over the harbor, the Statue of Liberty is similarly fat and ugly. Granted, none of the characters were handsome/pretty, but I'm surprised that so little has been mentioned about the anti-American slant to this film.

Comments

[martes.livejournal.com]

I figured that since none of the French characters were attractive either, it sort of evened itself out.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

The grotesqueness of the Americans just seemed more indulgent and mean-spirited. Yes, all the characters were pretty unattractive, but there was no real reason to have that part of the adventure take place in NYC...other than to ridicule Americans. The villains were the "French Mafia"...this could have taken place in Paris and it would have made more sense (and spared us the ocean voyage). The Americans themselves played little/no role at all in the plot. It's like they went out of their way to take a cheap shot. That sort of ruined the fantastic/other-worldly element for me.