If daddy doesn’t buy you a diamond ring, you might want to settle for a small bicycle and hope for the best.

The Triplets of Belleville is an unusual short story documenting a grandmother’s quest to rescue her grandson from the hands of the block-headed French mafia in a unique style of animation reminiscent of both Betty Boop and Popeye’s Olive Oyl.

It opens to a scene of Champion, a lonely boy who spends most of his day looking at the floor, and his club-footed grandmother watching the Triplets of Belleville performing on TV. Madame Souza, the grandmother, goes through great effort to make little Champion happy, buying him a train set and a droopy-faced dog named Bruno. However this doesn’t turn Champion’s frown upside-down. Eventually she buys him a bicycle and gets it right.

Quickly, Champion is seen training up and down the unbelievably steep hills in the fictitious 21^st arrondissement of Paris. Comically, Madame Souza follows close behind, showing little effort, on his childhood bicycle, whistling with each pump of the pedals and somehow avoiding the city’s heavy traffic.

The film has a wonderfully orchestrated jazzy soundtrack composed by Benoît Charest. Since the film doesn’t have a continuous dialog, the musical background conveys both emotions and storyline to the viewer.

Champion and several other leading competitors are later kidnapped while during the Tour de France by the mafia and brought to Belleville, a gaudy, over-built city across the ocean. Filled with overweight people and displaying a Statue of Liberty holding a cheeseburger, the portrayal of Belleville is an admitted satire on Anglo-American culture by creator Sylvain Chomet.

In Belleville, Madame Souza and Bruno run into the now aged Triplets of Belleville. Together, they set out to rescue Champion from a mafia boss who looks alarmingly similar to Nintendo villain Wario.

Though some think the movie has anti-American themes, it doesn’t. Chomet says the details reminiscent of New York what Quebec’s Francophone cities of Quebec and Montreal could have become had Canada’s politicians favored English-speaking Toronto.

Despite being created by a Frenchman (who lives in Quebec) and co-produced by a French, a Belgian, and a Quebecois studio, viewers need not suffer through subtitles, dubbing, or any other translation methods. There are very few words, and those of importance have been redone in English for the American release.

Will the haggard, frog-eating Triplets, Madame Souza, and Bruno save Champion from almost-certain death at the hands of the gun-yielding French mafia? Well, what do you think?

The movie is playing at the Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ Regent Square Theatre and the Oak Cinema in Oakmont. It has been nominated for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Music Score in this year’s Academy Awards, which take place this Sunday.