Belleville Rendezvous (2003)

The most obvious feature of this animation is the visual style - the backgrounds are a delicate mix of linework and colour; more like a watercolour painting than the line-free backgrounds of Disney and Ghibli animations.  The linework has a slightly sketchy, hand-drawn quality, which compliments the slightly muted colours of the backgrounds.  This "sketchy" linework is carried over into the character animation, without obvious "boils", whilst the shading is mostly simple flat colour without shadows (except where the shadow is cast upon the character).  Since both the animate characters and the background feature similar-looking linework, there is less "separation" between the characters and the background than traditional feature film animation.  In some ways, the style resembles very early American animations (from the 1930s and 40s) - both feature watercolour-style backgrounds and muted pallettes.

Fig 1.  Belleville Rendezvous

Fig 2.  Three Little Pigs

This similarity to early American animation is even stronger in the opening sequence which features a parody of this type of animation (in the form of a "broadcast" of The Triplets from Belleville). 

Film 1.  The Triplets from Belleville

Film 2.  Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

The film world is stylised almost to the point of charicature, with buildings (and notably a boat) stretched vertically to improbable heights, but at the same time they are detailed in a highly realistic way.   The characters are even more charicatured, with the protagonist switching from an almost spherical boy to a stick-thin cyclist with massive thighs; his lanks frame contrasting with the stocky form of his aged grandmother,

Filmography

Film 1.  The Triplets from Belleville (2003) From Belleville Rendezvous Dir. Sylvain Chomet  At: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-njLrDnW00 (Accessed on 31/03/2012)

Film 2.  Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1930) From Snappy Salesman Dir. Walter Lantz  At: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22PCx0sKmNA (Accessed on 31/03/2012)

List of Illustrations

Figure 1.  Belleville Rendezvous (2003) From: Belleville Rendezvous On: http://insitemag.net/blog/?p=41 (Accessed on 25/03/2012)

Figure 2.  The Big Bad Wolf (1933) From: Three Little Pigs On: Jim Hill Media http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2010/02/23/toon-tuesday-disney-s-dreams-come-true-exhibition-now-drawing-to-a-close-at-the-new-orleans-museum-of-art.aspx (Accessed on 27/03/2012)