French flick fantastically far-out

A dark horse has emerged in the race for Oscar's Best Animated Film. Funny, freaky and subtly sweet in a way that's not overly cloying, "The Triplets of Belleville" may have what it takes to broadside the Mouse House and Pixar's perennial powerhouse, "Finding Nemo."\n"Triplets" is a warped comic fable that plays out like a far-flung hybrid of Walt Disney's serials of the '30s, the surrealist paintings of Salvador Dalí and Tim Burton's early exercises in the eccentric with a little Lance Armstrong thrown in for good measure. Oddities range from an elderly woman decimating a pond full of frogs via hand grenade to a Fred Astaire-esque dancer being eaten alive by his own tap shoes.\nWhat story there is focuses on Champion, an oddly aloof young man who lives with his sparkplug of a grandmother, Madame Souza, and their morbidly obese dog, Bruno. The boy eventually takes to cycling, and Souza, happy that her otherwise morose grandson now has a hobby, throws herself valiantly into his training. After a series of montages depicting the old lady -- whistle incessantly pressed to lips -- pedaling a tricycle behind her progeny, Champion reaches his goal of competing in the Tour de France.\nThen, without warning, he is abducted by two blocky baddies who plan to use him as part of an illegal gambling outfit. This entails Souza and Bruno's pursuit of the gangly grandson's captors. In doing so, the action is transplanted from Paris to the fictitious Belleville -- think New York City by way of Montreal (home of writer/director Sylvain Chomet) replete with a bloated Statue of Liberty mock-up. Here, they meet up with the titular Triplets -- vaudevillian jazz singers of yore who may hold the key to reclaiming Champion.\nEssentially void of dialogue, "Triplets" connects with audiences by way of startlingly good 2-D animation, some of the most innovative sound design I've heard in ages and an Oscar nominated title song that'll be stuck in your head until Spring Break … that is, if you're lucky. Still, there are lapses in the film i.e. ten minutes could've been cut from its midsection, but boredom is quickly quelled by way of the bizarre. \n"The Triplets of Belleville" won't appeal to everyone, and shouldn't be thought of as a children's film due to the fact that it's animated -- breasts, albeit cartoon ones, are flashed and a bicyclist is shot in the head. The film is also slyly anti-American -- U.S. citizens are portrayed as Neanderthal lard-asses whose lives revolve around Mickey Mouse and cheeseburgers. These traits are likely to alienate many, but those who enter with an open mind are in for a French treat from the fringes.