The film includes a number of anti‑Disney jibes, such as a lump of faeces shaped like Mickey Mouse in a lavatory, and a photograph kept in a wallet showing a character at Disneyland holding a lollipop labelled 'SUCKER'.
Early in the black-and-white section of the film there is a caricature of Django Reinhardt playing guitar. Reflecting reality, the cartoon shows him using only two fingers because of a burn he suffered in 1928; at one point he even lifts his foot and plays with his toes. The film's soundtrack sounds as if it were heavily influenced by Django's music (he also recorded a piece called "Belleville" with Stéphane Grappelli). The character also closely resembles Serge Reggiani, who portrayed a guitarist in Martin Ritt's Richard L. Barlow.
Near the start, an animated caricature of dancer, singer and performer Josephine Baker presents her famed Banana Dance. Baker, a black American entertainer, left the US in the 1920s to escape its rampant racism and went on to become a major star in Europe. She was hugely popular in Paris, often appearing in shows partially nude, as she is portrayed in the film. During the Second World War she also served as a spy for the French Resistance.
At the start, while they're watching television, an equation appears at the bottom of the screen. These are Albert Einstein's field equations and they depict the gravitational effects produced by a particular mass.
Every vehicle in the film is a Citroën. This ties into the running gag that the cars are unable to take corners.
Roberte Rivette, the accordionist who plays her instrument atop a lorry while trailing the riders in the Tour de France, represents Yvette Horner, the best-selling artist who recorded albums and played her accordion to huge crowds across France. Horner described her own experiences as very similar to those of Roberte Rivette: she kept playing her accordion along the Tour de France route with a broad smile as insects constantly became trapped between her teeth.
The pianist whom Mme. Souza and the young Champion are watching on television is a caricature of the celebrated Canadian virtuoso, Glenn Gould, famed for his piano interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach's keyboard works and for humming to himself whilst he played — a trait audible in the film.
The president shown delivering an official television address, urging his fellow citizens to cheer on the cyclist, is French statesman Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), which bolsters the notion that the film is set in the 1950s. However, one of the Triplets (at about the 56-minute mark) is seen with a newspaper dated May 1963, proving the film is not set in the 1950s.
The yellow-jerseyed leader of the Tour de France portrayed in the film is a caricature of five-time Tour de France winner Jacques Anquetil. It appears to be set in 1957 — the year of Anquetil's first victory and the only edition he rode that included a stage finish in Marseille.
In their flat you can spot photographs of the Triplets with several stars of the period, including Charles Chaplin. There is also an image of the Triplets on the beach with Olive Oyl.
The track heard during the barber's shop sequence (credited as the "Barber Song" in the end titles) features Italian lyrics that are, in fact, complete nonsensical gibberish — a run of references to food, clothing, films by Federico Fellini and other words that a non-Italian speaker would struggle to make sense of.
This marked the first time a French film had been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Madame Souza's piano piece is titled Uma Casa Portuguesa (A Portuguese House); it was originally performed by Amália Rodrigues, the queen of fado.
The film is largely devoid of dialogue. (Any spoken words that do occur are incidental.)
The dancer, who ends up being swallowed by his own shoes, is presented as a caricature of Fred Astaire.
All the bicycles were computer-generated and traced, because the director, Sylvain Chomet, didn’t think it worthwhile to spend the time making the bicycles’ appearance 'perfect'. The figures on the bicycles, however, were only thin lines in the computer-generated originals, which allowed the animators to bring them to life.
A poster for Jacques Tati's Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953) adorns the wall of the Triplets of Belleville's home. When the Triplets are watching television, the live-action footage on the screen is from a scene in Tati's The Big Day (1949), in which he appears as a postman on a bicycle in the French countryside. As with that film, Tati's comedies feature very little dialogue and rely chiefly on pantomime.
Sylvain Chomet faced allegations of plagiarism from artist and illustrator Nicolas de Crécy. The claim was that Chomet had taken virtually all of the graphic concepts and artwork from the graphic novel "Le bibendum céleste", which sparked a controversy within the French comics scene.
In the DVD's bonus features, director Sylvain Chomet says he sought to emulate the posture and gait of tall basketball stars when creating the triplets.
The music playing on the soundtrack while Mme Souza and Bruno trail the ocean liner is taken from the opening movement (Kyrie) of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Mass in C minor.
Production of the film The Triplets of Belleville (2003) spanned five years.
Whilst some place the film in the 1950s, the evidence more plausibly points to a setting between 1963 and 1966. This is supported by a newspaper belonging to the Triplets dated 1963, the span of Charles de Gaulle's presidency (1959–1969), and the reference to Raymond Poulidor, the 'eternal second', who turned professional in 1960. His prolonged rivalry with — and reputation as the perpetual runner‑up to — Jacques Anquetil had been firmly established by the mid‑1960s. There is also a beach photograph of a young Champion with Bruno dated 1949, which places Bruno in his teenage years and accords with his physical condition. Additionally, one of the Triplets is shown with a newspaper dated May 1963.
A calendar on the wall of the Triplets' sitting room displays October 1926 — nearly four decades out of date by the time the story is set.
In the opening black-and-white sequence, French singer Charles Trenet appears with his eyes wide open, a look he customarily adopted while performing in cabarets.
Whenever the captured cyclists appear on screen, horse sounds are heard, suggesting they are being treated like thoroughbreds.
The number plates on the Mafia gangsters' cars bore the legend 'In Vino Veritas' (in wine there is truth).
The equation shown on the opening screen, R(uv) - 1/2 g(uv)R = - 8 pi GT(uv), closely resembles formulae used in unimodular gravity and in equations concerning the cosmological constant (where the "uv"s in parentheses are subscripts).
(at about 57 minutes) The newspaper that the first of the triplets rustles to keep time during their cabaret act bears the date 6 May 1963.
The Triplets of Belleville premiered in 2003, yet its credits indicate it was produced in 2002.
(around fourteen minutes in) A framed item on the kitchen wall depicts a figure riding a bicycle with the name 'VALEIGH' visible. It appears to be a nod to the British bicycle marque Raleigh.
(at about 15 minutes in) Madame Souza is using a tuning fork set to A440 (440 Hz), the A above middle C. This is the standardised reference pitch most commonly used to calibrate equipment and tune acoustic instruments. After striking the prongs, she rests the base against any hollow or porous surface to make the tone audible. Madame Souza is employing the tuning fork as a reference tone to 'true the wheel' of the bicycle by adjusting the spokes' tension. The objective is to have all the spokes at the same tension; without a device (a tensiometer) to measure that, the alternative is to tap or pluck each spoke and alter them so they all sound at the same pitch. Apparently, Madame Souza's goal is for the spokes to ring at A440.
After the opening sequence, the eponymous Triplets do not reappear until around halfway through the film.
On the Triplets' mantelpiece beside their old show poster sit three Oscar-like statuettes, which look rather rotund compared with an actual Oscar statuette. The film went on to receive two Oscar nominations which, had it won both, would have meant one statuette for Benoît Charest and two for Sylvain Chomet.
The film's opening sequence honours the formative cartoon animation of the 1930s, its visual style drawing directly on the work of studios such as Fleischer, Disney, Lantz and MGM.
(at around 12 mins) As the camera pulls back from a shot of a family's dining room, directly beneath the window is stencilled DEFENSE D'URINER, which in plain English imperative reads NO URINATING. Its appearance during the president's televised address could be intended as a satirical comment on the political climate of the time.
At roughly the 45-minute mark, Madame Souza plays a piano labelled STANIWAY — a deliberate alteration of the name of the well-regarded concert piano maker Steinway.
In one of the opening scenes, the grandson is shown straining as he is pedalling his bicycle up steep, cobbled streets, while Madame Souza follows behind on a tricycle with little effort.
The gangster cars seen towards the end are improvised versions of the popular Citroën 2CV, renowned for its retractable fabric roof that could be rolled back to serve as a convertible — as evidenced by gangsters standing up through the roof while firing. The modification involved a bonnet much longer than normal, producing an extended front section (not a feature of the standard 2CV design), which made the cars resemble a more menacing saloon.
After Cyclist No. 2 is shot, smoke spiralling from the gun's barrel rises to reveal a skeletal, screaming face.
When they enter the Triplets' house and ascend the stairs (DVD timestamp 39:28), there's a brief glimpse of the toilet. In the bowl you can spot some floating remnants that form the shape of Mickey Mouse's head.
