The Triplets of Belleville

The Triplets of Belleville (Les Triplettes de Belleville, 2003) is Sylvain Chomet's hand-drawn animated feature, and you can watch it online on iFILM. There's barely a word of dialogue — just jazz, caricature and one of the strangest visual styles ever put on screen. Madame Souza raises her orphaned grandson Champion and notices he comes alive on a bicycle.

Years of grueling training later, Champion lines up at the Tour de France, only to be snatched mid-race by two men in black and shipped across the ocean to the sprawling city of Belleville. His grandmother and her fat dog Bruno give chase and fall in with three faded music-hall stars from the 1930s — the triplets of the title. The old women take them in, and Bruno's nose puts them on the trail of the mob hiding the kidnapped cyclists.

Chomet draws a world that's grotesquely stretched and oddly gorgeous, carrying the whole story on music and movement instead of speech. The film landed an Academy Award nomination and stands among the boldest animated features of its decade, owing nothing to any studio formula. One for anyone tired of polished, focus-grouped cartoons. Stream The Triplets of Belleville (2003) online on iFILM.