The Triplets of the Fantastic Planet

(look at that crossover up there I'm so clever).

let's be real, these lovely ladies are probably some form of alien

Les Triplettes de Belleville, wow I'm really glad I saw this again. 

The first time I watched this was back in high school in my french class and I know I didn't like it, and no one in my class did (and I was already exhausted on top of that). I decided to watch it again and look at more of Sylvain Chomet's work (although I still have yet to see The Illusionist).

He's a very talented director and character designer, his ability to caricature is envious, especially when emulating styles to reflect a certain time period and translating those designs into an aged figure in the present day. He's also an incredibly talented animator, especially watching how he handles weight. Watching Bruno the dog waddle around the house and up the stairs is endlessly interesting. Even in the brief minute long couch gag he animated for The Simpsons, Chomet integrated his own flavor into the characters that expressed basic animation principles beautifully (on top of that he translated the Simpsons family seamlessly into his own style).

But onto the film.

The plot of this film is very simple, and as Anson put it, superficial. I can really agree after 3 separate viewings of this movie; it's basically a search and rescue film with a French flair.

But so what?

I don't think the film wanted to (or needed to) be more than anything except an exploration of direction and character conflict. Sometimes even putting different characters together (or pulled apart) in a basic scenario creates interest. For a pretty typical plot that could have easily been made even more stereotyped and dry, the atypical but sensitive direction and character relations really drive the movie forward. And for a movie that has little dialogue (and it could've even been successful with none), it never forces you to remain interested; the direction is sensitive and explanatory enough that you're already invested in that dog being fed right now and why are you massaging his calves with a vacuum, chew faster, feed your dog please.

I guess the title is a little misleading because the actual Triplets of Belleville are a bizarre mystical force (like the three fates of Greek mythos) that aid Madame Souza in finding her grandson, but they're never a primary focus: the focus remains on Madame Souza. And I want a whole movie with these bizarre triplets! Are they all related, how'd their rising star fade and fall, what's with all the frogs? Besides, that intro with their song "Belleville Rendevous" is so catchy and reverential of old swing music that it immediately suckers anyone in.

What I can also really adore about this movie is how rich the surroundings the characters inhabit are. You can get a sense of the interests, financial backgrounds, pasts, and desires just by observing where they live. The triplets, for example, are in close quarters and have to fish for their food, but still hang up their old glory from their days as the Triplet of Belleville and still make music in spite of their squalor. Also, watching the progression of time at Madame Souza's home becoming overrun by industrialism and houses when it was previously a comforting country home is paralleled with Champion's transition into adulthood: his love for biking at a young age is practically snuffed out by his grandmother's excessive training and doting of him to be the best he can be (like nurturing a train line into maturation until it overcomes the countryside).

Which reminds me of a point I brought up above: the actual Triplets of Belleville operate more like the three fates intervening in the affairs of mortals and changing peoples' fates. Madame Souza is aided by the triplets to find her grandson and ransack the mafia's hideout to change the monotonous fate of her kidnapped grandson. But in reality, are the triplets trading Champion from one monotonous life to the other? Madame Souza pushed him to his brink and snuffed out the fire in his eyes for biking, so what's to say she won't force him again? I guess that's supposed to be left open ended. (It seems to be a metaphor for horse racing or sports in general; trading athletes all over, yadda yadda).

(Why the hell are mob bosses betting on bikers/horses when they could go to a goddamn horse/bike race that's so boring, unless they really wanted to push that horse metaphor visually and textually).

Topping Belleville off, while the plot may be superficial and simple, the thoughtful direction of Chomet, his ingenious European character designs (SHAPES!!!), the character relationships, and the monotonous chores of life framed in a nonsensical, charming way really pull this film together. 

I'm almost ashamed about how much I was thinking about my shitty biking anime while revisiting this movie

Put me in the sports anime garbage where I belong

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La planete sauvage or Fantastic Planet (that translation is very confusing).

Before I even touch on my opinion, it's sort of hilarious to me how many people in our class flat out hated this movie. I think talking to people afterwards about it, only Anson and Emily actually liked this movie and even some people far in between appreciate it. And a lot of those criticisms come from the animation.

I can totally get down with personal opinion on animation and not liking how it was done, but flat out calling it bad is weird to me, unless there's a weak budget or something. There's clearly a good budget here, those cutout puppets are ridiculously detailed and there's thought here. And I hope that some of you who are calling the animation bad remember that the studio this movie came from is highly experimental stop motion studio(Jiri Trinka's studio, gosh dang all the pretty experimental films wooooo), so the effect of jerky animation is intentional (and I didn't actually know it was cutout puppets until I did my research, so they achieved a really interesting 2D look with the painting on the puppets). Personal preferences are fine, but just be careful of wording I guess? (Also, it's 1973, chill out kids).

(While I'm writing this, I'm actually listening to the trailer released back in 1973 and the woman reading the blurb reviews is so unenthused it's incredible).

So actual opinion time!

Well, I can totally appreciate this movie for what it tried to set out to achieve. 

Okay, ironically even when I try to defend the animation up there, it's a little halfhearted. I just have trouble calling anything flat out bad unless it does something morally bad on purpose and to communicate nothing relevant or subversive about that thing, or unless it looks cheap and no time and effort was taken to make it.

That's not the case with this film, but I still find so many of the stylistic choices with this film so bizarre or not pushed far enough.

Cutout puppets are a fine idea and I love them, but none of the palettes chosen for the characters and the backgrounds communicated any of the eerie, uneasiness the film is supposed to be giving me on such a bizarre planet. It all looks and feels too warm and inviting when the set up is supposed to be turning you off and leaving you unsettled.

Now, hold onto your butts for this: I'm going to complain about character design for a loooooong time.

I think this is one of my biggest complaints with almost all of sci-fi, modern or otherwise (because no one seems to change it): the aliens are not alien. The aliens in this movie (or Draag) are not really that original and just make me think of another unoriginal blue alien design from another movie with wasted potential and overhyped visuals (loud coughing). In fact, I could make the wild accusation that these aliens are far close to being human!

For this film, I'm not sure if that's intentional because while I was researching, there was a lot I read about this film being a French and Czech collaboration (and Czechoslovakia was under Soviet control at the time) and a theme that came about in the end was two groups being able to live in peace with benefit to each other (and that anyone can if there is the desire for peace). The human-ish design of the Draag might have been intentional there.

Otherwise, it just makes me think of the same unoriginality with sci-fi alien designs. And for an animated movie, they have no excuse because the creators are not limited by the physical bodies of human actors or carrying a heavy practical costume or doing motion capture and then going in to animate an original alien design. They had paper and pencils and they were manipulating puppets. AND they had original creature designs. Why couldn't that same creativity been applied to the Draag? Were they supposed to parallel the Om or was it to heighten our own egocentric view that anything that is human shaped is intelligent? Because that's not true, like at all.

Or is it supposed to give us an eerie sense of familiarity but the fins are red eyes remind us that these creatures are not human and do not like us and doggonit we are nothing but animals of entertainment to them.

Whatever? Modern sci-fi alien designs piss me off so much because there's a lack of ingenuity and so much effort is put into bringing the "human" out of the character OR conversely, making them more menacing and frightening. But it never works.

It

Never

Works

Ever

God no, never

Whenever I think about modern alien design nowadays, I only think of this:

"Hark! A bizarre creature not of this world!"

And this is the biggest impact La planete sauvage made on me: Alien designs were just as unoriginal and uninspired as they are now. I'll hopefully revisit this movie some day with something more profound and less accusatory to say about it, but for now, the Draag designs are a major drag.

THIS IS SO RELEVANT TO FANTASTIC PLANET THEY'RE NAKED THE WHOLE TIME