The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films presents The Triplets of Belleville.
French whimsy goes through the looking glass in this imaginatively offbeat animated wonder by animator Sylvain Chomet. A boy named Champion trains relentlessly for the Tour de France with the help of his diminutive and club-footed grandmother, Madame Souza, and their overweight dog, Bruno. When race day arrives, Champion and a few of his fellow racers are kidnapped by a pair of square-shouldered henchmen and taken across the ocean to thronging Belleville where they are forced to pedal as part of an illicit gambling operation. Bruno and Mme Souza follow to save their boy and find unlikely help from the renowned Triplets of Belleville, a trio of eccentric music hall stars turned elderly experimental musicians. Filled with twisted imagery and proceeding with the measured pace of a dream, The Triplets of Belleville is a strange, loving, and very French tribute to silent comedy and to bygone eras of traditional animation.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- New 4K digital master, approved by director Sylvain Chomet, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio Soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New audio commentary with Sylvain Chomet
- New conversation between Chomet and animator Bill Plympton
- The Making of The Triplets of Belleville, a 36-minute documentary discussing the film’s production
- The Cartoon According to Sylvain Chomet, a brief discussion with the director on designing his characters
- Music Video by -M- for “Les Triplettes de Belleville” featuring animation from the film and a short piece on its making
- Le temps d’un tournage, an interview with Chomet for French television on his earlier work
- The Triplets As Seen By…, a selection of impressions on the film by animators Bill Plympton and Michel Ocelot, singer -M-, and comedian and cyclist Antoine de Caunes
- The Old Lady and the Pigeons, Chomet’s 1997 short film about a starving policeman who dresses up like a pigeon to trick an old woman into feeding him
- Carmen; Chomet’s music video collaboration with Belgian pop star Stromae
- Chomet’s 2014 “couch gag” for The Simpsons
- Trailers
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by film critic Michael Sragow and flipbooks with art by Chomet