As I was watching the 2004 Academy Awards, I could feel a mounting tension deep within my soul. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was racking up the little golden statues, which was fully expected but, as we all know, that wily Oscar can be very unpredictable. Time was drawing nearer to the category in which I was most interested, and my heart started to race. It was the one of the very few categories where Lord of the Rings was not a candidate – Best Animated Feature. In my heart of hearts, I just knew that the emotional (and often humorous) story of a parent who was left to care for one child and has to go on a long journey to find that child when he is suddenly taken away would win the award. Instead, they gave it to Finding Nemo. That’s right! The plots of Finding Nemo and The Triplets of Belleville are extremely similar. In Triplets, an over-protective grandmother is left to take care of her grandson after his parents are lost in a tragic accident. She tries to find ways of cheering him up, but nothing seems to work. One day, she discovers that he has a fondness for bicycles. From that point on, it becomes her mission to help him train to compete in the Tour de France. During the race, the grandson is kidnapped by members of a French mafia and forced into slavery. The grandmother quickly puts the clues together and tracks him down (braving the sea, poverty, and homelessness in the process) to the city of Belleville. After she arrives, the triplets – three elderly women who used to be the biggest names in Vaudeville - befriend her and help her unravel the mystery of her missing grandson. What makes this movie so special is the classic animation style combined with the soundtrack. Triplets is virtually a silent film. Yes, there is sound, but it is not dialogue. The characters in this film never speak except for one line at the beginning and another line at the end. That’s it! The film has to tell its story through visuals and music alone. Thusly, there is so much detail put into each character and each background that it’s almost too hard to believe it was hand drawn. The music is also brimming with life and completely unique. There is one song that is played entirely on a bike wheel, a vacuum cleaner, a newspaper, and a refrigerator grate! Top that one, Philip Glass! Let it be known that I have nothing against Finding Nemo. I am a huge fan of everything that Pixar Animation has released so far. I enjoyed Nemo very much, and I do own it on DVD, as well. I just felt that the emotional content in Nemo was a bit forced at times. Also, it’s very easy to make things look beautiful when you create it on a computer. While there were 3D elements rendered on computer for Triplets, the majority of it was hand drawn (and that makes it a bit more impressive in my book). But enough about my thoughts on the movie. What’s the DVD like? Here is a breakdown: THE GOOD 1. The film is still looking delightful in all of its anamorphic widescreen beauty. 2. A Feature on the Making of Triplets. Highlights include: · Director Sylvain Chomet describes his inspirations for the film, reveals the people on which the characters were based, and shows how he drew the original sketches to prepare them for transference to film. · Ben Charest, who composed the music, describes how he was influenced by the characters and styled the music around them. · A comparison of how the rough sketches look on film versus the 3D rendering that had to be included as the base for some of the shots. Then a combining of the two is shown and transitioned into the final product. 3. A Featurette entitled “The Cartoon According to Director Sylvain Chomet” – The director discusses why he believes animation is important, why hand drawn animation is still more stylish than CGI, and a step-by-step walkthrough of how he takes the vision from his head and puts it on paper. 4. The original French music video for the title song “Les Triplettes de Belleville” as performed by M – I don’t know who M is, nor do I know why he calls himself “M” (except for the sheer fact that his hair is in the shape of the letter 'M'), but this video is nothing short of psychotic. In fact, it really doesn’t have anything to do with the movie. Truly bizarre. THE BAD 1. Select scene commentaries from Chomet and Charest – Unfortunately, there are only 3 small scenes that have been selected to have commentary. They are only about 1 minute each. You can tell that they are selections from a full-length commentary track, but the folks who put the DVD together only used those small segments. Where’s the full-length track, DVD folks? 2. Les Triplettes de Belleville Édition Spéciale DVD– There was 2-disc SE DVD released in France a while before the movie hits screens in the U.S. The joke was on them because everything that was on those two discs in on the one-disc edition released here. Viva les Etats-Unis! THE UGLY The real reason that Nemo won the Oscar over Triplets is plain and simple: box office. Nemo is now the highest grossing animated film of all time (around $340 million domestically). Triplets had only made about $7 million here in the U.S. by the time it left theaters, and that was after a 4-month run. Most would argue that Nemo had more of a ‘universal appeal’ and was more ‘family oriented’ than Triplets. Or perhaps Triplets didn’t have the advertising power or name recognition of Disney behind it. Well, I saw several families watching Triplets at the theater when I went. I also saw several TV and Internet adverts for Triplets both before and during its theatrical run. So why didn’t more people see it? I don’t know. I’m asking you, viewing public. Why didn’t you go see it? MOVIE RATING: 5 Frog Legs out of 5 DVD OVERALL RATING: 4 Tours de France out of 5