YMMV / The Triplets of Belleville

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • How much does Champion actually like cycling? He was clearly a huge fan as a kid, but as an adult he seems to approach it with almost mechanical detachment, and looks even more depressed than he did after his parents died. Is Madame Souza a Well-Intentioned Extremist whose effort to get her grandson to focus on something other than the loss of his parents via Training from Hell inadvertently pushed him into disliking the one thing that brought him joy in life?
  • It's also possible that Champion is the one coordinating his own grueling training regimen, and Madame Souza is merely acting as his support. It would hardly be out of character for her to endure what is essentially exactly the same backbreaking training as her grandson solely so that he wouldn't have to suffer through it alone.
• Award Snub:
  • This movie just had to be nominated for Best Animated feature the same year as Finding Nemo.^note And it wasn't even the last time Pixar would nab the award from a French film. Director Andrew Stanton cited this as the reason he later opted out of using French cabaret music in WALL•E, as he felt it would make him come across as a sore winner.
  • "Belleville Rendez-Vous" lost Best Song to "Into the West" as part of the juggernaut 11 award victory of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
• Awesome Music: The main theme, "Belleville Rendez-Vous", was nominated for Best Song. It's about as far from typical Oscar Bait as you can imagine. Did we mention it's performed on bicycle wheels and vacuum cleaners?!^note It's skiffle music. Cabaret Hoover Benoît Charest wrote a song using only a refrigerator, a vacuum cleaner, and a newspaper; because he wanted to see if he could!
• Genius Bonus: In the beginning of the movie, when they're watching TV, there's an equation in the bottom of the screen. These are Einstein's Field Equations and represent the gravitational effects produced by a given mass.
• Heartwarming Moments: How does Madame Souza end up staying with the triplets? When she had no food, no money, and no shelter, she tried to busk by playing Belleville Rendez-Vous, and the three happened to be passing by. Recognizing their song, the three of them sang and danced along to Madame Souza’s rendition, clearly touched and having fun. After the song, they immediately decided to take her and the dog in to shelter them.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: The film depicts the population of the United States, or at the very least New York City, as incredibly fat, decadent, and addicted to junk food (to the point where the Statue of Liberty, who's also rotund, is holding a burger and ice cream cone instead of her tablet and torch). Yet American critics loved the film, and it was even nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature.
• Nightmare Fuel: The scene where one of the captured cyclists got too exhausted to continue pedaling and then the French Mafia man monitoring the bets pulls out a gun and shoots him. When you see the mafia soldier reaching into his pocket, you could hear the cyclist panting in fear.
• Out of the Ghetto: It is very obviously not for children, both in its content and art style. Luckily, critics caught on and loved it.

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