Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003, Sony Pictures, directed by Sylvain Chomet, PG-13)
Also known as The Triplets of Belleville, this is the quirky, sometimes funny, animated story of a bicycle racer, his grandmother, his dog, the French Mafia, and has-been singing trio. The award-winning film is meant for adults, but were it not for a couple of brief scenes (a music hall show, and some in-passing shots of prostitutes in the hallway), I think our six-year-old grandson would love it. (Hmmm, there is a funny part that might be tough for his frog-loving mother, however.)
We enjoyed it, too, though we found it a bit like a Presbyterian sermon: they could have said the same thing better in a third the time. Maybe that is just my American impatience.
I found it quite amusing that for such a very French film, the only language options available on the DVD Netflix sent were English and Spanish. Not that it matters: there's almost no dialog, and what there is, is inconsequential.
For some reason I haven't pinned down, the movie brought to mind the Asterix comics. Perhaps it was the French setting, perhaps something about the drawings, maybe something in the humor.
You can get a taste from the trailer: Les Triplettes de Belleville. (Link provided because some feedreaders don't pick up the embedded video.) The trailer is safe for granchild eyes, at least as far as Grandma can tell.
