The Triplets of Belleville

The Triplets of Bellevile has definetly striked me most with its use of perspective in the character design as well as its environment. I really love the use of volume applied to the different characters and how their physicalities represent their personality. The young boy in the story who trains to be the best cyclist has a very skinny body but massive leg muscles and  strong sharp features which also contrasted to his younger more chubby self. I think the fact that his body is so skinny helps to ridiculously but brilliantly emphasise on his main chracteristic of having to be really physically strong in the legs in order to win in the competitions he attends. However, I also think its an emphasised representation of real cyclist on a marathon especially when it comes down to the scene where his grandma uses all kinds of domestic objects to help relief his pain which I think it really helps to emhasise something we feel mentally and internally in a visual way.

The use of animal representation in Madame souza and the "mouse man" is very visible and works very well to apply characteristics and give the the characters different personalities. For instance Madame souza character shows references of a mouse/rat animal with her big glasses that seem to cover the whole of the top of her head as well as her sloppy cheeks. However, she is presented as a very determined and hard working person which again references characteristics of a mouse/rat and how they can be determined and hard working themselves. Likewise the mechanic in the story who created the stage for the cyclist has very obvious animal characteristics. Things like the big ears, the small eyes and the two front teeth and small body as well as his actions of being placed into tiny spaces and the occassional squeak he gives out creates this mental image of a mouse turned into a human. I think this is a very clever idea/device to use when designing characters because it immidiatey gives us a hint of what that character is like or would behave like without knowing much of the story or the character itself.

The other really interesting and significant characters in this movie is what I like to call them the "square mafia". I think this character design continues to show the combination of refrences and risks of fully exaggerating and playing with the character to deliver a strong and memorable emotional response. The idea of these characters having square shoulders and backs and them being completly black and how when they join together they almost become the same person helps to give these characters traits of them being in secret and as if they are hidden which fully visually represnts the mafia in real life.