A 3 out of 4 rating from the Washington Times, nice, but I suspect someone flash-read the press release for the film, zipping through the bit where Sylvain Chomet identifies his influences…
"My influences are 101 Dalmatians, The Aristocats, The Jungle Book...(the) Golden age of the Disney studio. Also Betty Boop for the surealistic kind of animation, and finally Winsor MacKay for his beautiful animations, done a century ago but yet so modern."
…and out the other end it comes …
"a compact, often creepy movie crammed with wonderfully grotesque characters and mechanical contraptions, and imagery that harks back to the glory days of Disney animator Winsor MacKay and the silent film era".
Er.... Near as I recall Winsor McKay, being from the the silent film era, never had too much to do with Disney, pre-dating him by a good chunk of years…so, I take it the Washington Times no longer has a fact checking dept? Woe-is-America eh? Well, while we're being 'snooty'…
"Mr. Chomet also sneaks in a few snooty polemical asides here, such as a briefly glimpsed drawing of a bloated Statue of Liberty that didn't, but may as well have, said, "Give me your rich, fat American masses." Mr. Chomet is a French expat living in Canada — a double-whammy of woe-is-America snootiness."
He's right, it didn't say. I suspect it's more likely that the visual gags were meant as satirical rather than strictly polemical. And since when does poking fun qualify as 'snooty' anyway?
Well anywho, the important bit is where the reviewer says he likes the film…
" If such a thing is possible, "The Triplets of Belleville" is a work of cutting-edge nostalgia."
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