Z/Web

This is a hilarious, brilliant, bizarre, wonderful, magical animated French movie. It’s almost impossible to describe without going over the whole story frame-by-frame. The story’s about a young bicylist in the Tour de France who’s kidnapped. His grandmother and his dog go after him and rescue him from the mob in Belleville with the help of a trio of old crones, the Triplets, former lounge singers. But the story’s almost irrelevant. What makes this film so much fun is what happens between the plot points, and how information is conveyed. The animation is bizarre: wildly exaggerated, with distorted people and places. But everything’s exaggerated to make a point, and because of that, it works. It’s social commentary at the highest level. When the rich, obscenely fat woman emerges from her limousine with her husband missing… only to reveal the tiny mouse of a man stuck between her rear cheeks when she waddles by, is a witty mockery of high society. There’s tons of that in this film. There’s also plenty of heart, with a loyal, lovable dog who lives for scraps of food and barking at trains. There’s hilariously French things, such as the train bridge that literally moves a house out of the way forcing it to lean to one side. There’s jabs at Americans, the mafia, and everything in between. This is a rich stew of wonder, adventure, childish enthusiasm, determination, and magic. Amazingly, there’s almost no dialog, so there’s no subtitles: the story is conveyed entirely by action and facial expression. This is a charming tale, well worth your time. It’s only 80 minutes and the time will fly by so fast you’ll want to watch it again when it’s over. Wonderful.