The Triplets of Belleville

Madame Souza's grandson Champion is a quiet boy whose only real joy comes from riding a bicycle. Seeing this, she trains him seriously for years until he is ready to compete in the Tour de France. During the race, two men in black abduct him, and Madame Souza sets out with her dog Bruno to find him. Their search carries them across the ocean to the vast city of Belleville, where three eccentric former music-hall performers from the 1930s, the Triplets, take the pair in and help them track Champion down.

The Triplets of Belleville is an animated adventure directed and written by Sylvain Chomet, released in 2003. It was his first feature, preceding Paris Je T'aime, The Illusionist, Attila Marcel and A Magnificent Life. Produced by Didier Brunner and Viviane Vanfleteren with a credited crew of 53, it involved companies and funding from France, Belgium, Canada, the United Kingdom, Latvia and the United States. The voice cast includes Suzy Falk, Lina Boudreau, Betty Bonifassi, Michèle Caucheteux and Mari-Lou Gauthier as the Triplets, and Jean-Claude Donda in several roles. Made for about 10 million USD, it took roughly 15 million USD worldwide, a modest return for an animated film of its kind. On IMDb it holds 7.7/10 from over 56,000 votes and on TMDB 7.4/10 from about a thousand, while a critics' rating of 8.2/10 from 149 reviews is noticeably higher than the audience scores.