Plot Outline: When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters -- a aged song-and-dance unit from the days of Fred Astaire -- to rescue him. (more)(view trailer)
Date: 27 December 2003 Summary: derivative and uninspired
This movie was hyped quite a bit in the media before I saw it. To say it was
a let down would be a big understatement.
A prospective movie-goer/video-viewer would be much better off renting a
video of old Max Fleischer cartoons and/or some of the early "Ren & Stimpy"
episodes. This movie was a very, very pale imitation of those classic
cartoons.
Virtually none of the visual ideas were interesting and virtually none of
the sight gags were interesting, let alone funny.
There is some francophone culture on display here, but one would have to be
a real rabid francophile to derive much enjoyment from this, effectively,
very thin gruel.
I did find it mildly amusing that Belleville itself is made to represent NYC
and that everyone is grotesquely fat, including the Statue of Liberty. And
the funniest, most bitingly satirical line is when the fat waitress
brilliantly sums up the Imperial USA's philosophy and worldview when she
loudly declares: "No money, no hamburgers!!"
Other than that, a this movie was, for me, a big waste of both time and
money.