In theaters

THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE, written and directed by Sylvain Chomet, 80 minutes, rated PG-13. Starts tonight, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

Sylvain Chomet’s Academy Award-nominated “The Triplets of Belleville,” by far one of 2003’s more original and eccentric films, opens tonight at Railroad Square Cinema in Waterville. Don’t miss it.

The film was one of last year’s high

points, and while it likely will lose Best Animated Feature to “Finding Nemo,” which won the sort of critical and financial acclaim the academy loves, it is in many ways a better, more accomplished movie.

The film employs elements of the past, spins them on an axis corked with quirks, and forges a new direction for contemporary animation. It’s terrific.

Beginning in 1950s Paris, “Triplets” opens with the stout, club-footed Madame Souza trying her best to raise her glum grandson, Champion, a restless boy whose utter boredom is given only a modest reprieve when Souza brings home a bumbling dog named Bruno. Time and again Souza tries to get the boy interested in something – anything. Her devotion to him is so great, but nothing seems to capture his limited imagination.

And then things change.

While making Champion’s bed, Souza happens upon the boy’s scrapbook, in which there are dozens of photos of bicycles, handsome men and beautiful women posing beside bicycles, and photos of the Tour de France itself. With haste, she purchases the boy a tricycle and then watches – with blinking satisfaction – as his face at last glows with life.

Years pass, all age, especially the dog, whose penchant for barking at the Metro as it roars past their house is one of the film’s best recurring gags. Also noticeably older is Champion, who is now a sleek adult with absurdly oversized calves and thighs, the likes of which could crack nuts. He’s in training for the Tour, with his stalwart grandmother and her formidable whistle standing as the driving forces that encourage him to succeed.

The movie finds the meat of its tale not only on the streets of Paris where Champion and Souza train in the crush of traffic, but within the Tour itself, when Champion is kidnapped by a mysterious group of thugs who want to use him in a gambling ring.

Without giving too much away, it’s up to Souza and Bruno to track Champion down, with each journeying to the strange, terrifying metropolis of Belleville in an effort to save him.

There they come upon the triplets of the title, a good-natured, former vaudeville act now bent with age and, one expects, more than a bit crazy. Their diet, for instance, is a horror show of blown-up frogs and tadpoles that make for the most ghastly of soups and fried kebobs. Still, they’re a happy and well-connected bunch – and they become crucial to the plot.

On the heels of Richard

Linklater’s “Waking Life” and last year’s Japanese import, “Spirited Away,” this enjoyably bizarre, mostly hand-drawn movie is the third animated feature in as many years to pointedly shatter the Disney formula.

It’s so far out there, so much its own beast, that it’s difficult to fully capture in a review, particularly since a great deal of its success doesn’t come down to mere plot points but to its nuances, its weird sense of humor and the joy of watching Chomet’s great imagination at work.

I’ve seen this movie twice and will see it again. What I like about it is that it offers something daring and fresh amidst an art form that has become increasingly predictable and generic in spite of – or perhaps because of – the computer-generated window dressing of contemporary animation.

Fans of Betty Boop, Chuck Jones, Edward Gorey and Jacques Tati all will delight in “Triplets,” as Chomet tips his hat to all of them, as will those seeking a movie that sideswipes convention on its way to surpassing expectations.

Save for a single opening and closing line of dialogue, “The Triplets of Belleville” is essentially wordless, so you can imagine the challenges that Chomet faced to tell his story well and to involve audiences without the hook of dialogue. That he does so is one of the movie’s triumphs, but really, in the end it’s just the start of them.

Grade: A

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

American Splendor ? A-

Anything Else ? B+

Bad Boys II ? C-

Bruce Almighty ? B+

Cabin Fever ? C+

The Fighting Temptations ? C

Finding Nemo ? B+

Freaky Friday ? A-

Freddy vs. Jason ? D-

How to Deal ? C-

House of the Dead ? D

The In-Laws ? C

The Italian Job ? A-

Le Divorce ? C-

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde ? C+

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers ? A-

Lost in Translation ? A

Man on the Train ? A-

The Matrix Reloaded ? A-

My Boss’s Daughter ? BOMB

Nowhere in Africa ? A

Once Upon a Time in Mexico ? B-

Open Range ? B+

Out of Time ? B

The Order ? D

Pirates of the Caribbean ? A-

Radio ? C

Real Women Have Curves ? A-

Santa Clause 2 ? C-

Secondhand Lions ? C+

The Secret Life of Dentists ? B+

Shanghai Knights ? B

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas ? B-

S.W.A.T. ? B-

Swimming Pool ? B+

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines ? B

Thirteen ? B+

28 Days Later ? B+

Under the Tuscan Sun ? B+

Underworld ? D

Winged Migration ? A