The Triplets Of Belleville
Taking the cue for its visual conception from sources as diverse as  British cartoonist Gerald Scarfe and the antic, rubbery surrealism of  Tex Avery's Warner Bros. Cartoons of the 30's, this madcap caper from  French writer/director Sylvain Chomet is one of the most delightfully  skewed animated films in recent memory. Scoring such a thorough original  is no easy task, but composer/musician Benoit Charest has more than  risen to the occasion. Charest manages to evoke the loopy musical spirit  of legendary Warner and Disney animation legend Carl Stalling in an  entirely new context, fusing the score's snappy, predominantlyle hot  jazzmindset with everything from hip-hop and Bach (credited her as  "Jean Sebastien") to the Italian opera farrago "Cieco Cieco Barber"  and  1960s proto-surf-rock of "Pa Pa Pa Palavas." But that conceptual stew  isn't the least of Charest's delightful surprises, as he giddily infuses  it with his own Django-esque guitar stylings and a hodge-podge of  "found" rhythmic instruments that include bicycle wheels, refrigerator  shelves and a vacuum cleaner; surely there must be a kitchen sink buried  in the mixsomewhere. The result is a score that uses tradition as but  a launching pad for one of the most rewarding and delightfully original  animated scores in recent memory.-- Jerry McCulley