Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

The Triplets of Belleville

(France, Canada, 2003)

We have just seen the best movie we’ve seen all year. It’s The Triplets of Belleville, and it may be the best animated movie ever. I wait a few years to put movies on my “best of all time” list, but this one just crashed into my head. The first five minutes staggered me, left me with my jaw on the fucking floor, and it just got better from there. It is impossible to describe it, only to mention a few of the artists it reminds me of. Try Jacques Tati, Max Fleischer, Salvador Dali, Ronald Searle, and Gary Larsen’s Far Side. Among many other geniuses. It has one of my favorite movie characters of all time, Bruno the Wonder Dog, who reminds me of Mighty Manfred, Tom Terrific’s dog on Captain Kangaroo. As always, it’s impossible to know if we will laugh at the same things and love the same things, but we could NOT recommend it more highly.