Director and animator Sylvain Chomet had a different childhood (in Maison-Laffitte, in France) from the little boy in "Les Triplettes de Belleville," but the two had some things in common.

Says Chomet: "My sister was 10 years older than me, which meant I was pretty much on my own. I was a quiet kid and liked to draw . . . and I asked for my first drawing pencil at the age of 2."

And like the boy who would just not stop pedaling his bicycle, Chomet (now 41) refused to give up his dream of becoming an animation filmmaker: It took him 10 years of dogged persistence to create and then release his first short film "La vielle dame et les pigeons (The Old Woman and the Pigeons)." This provided him with a reputation and some notoriety, but it still took him five years to make "Les Triplettes." Chomet says with a hint of self-deprecation: "At this rate, it will only take me three years to make my next picture. Maybe after that, I can make and release films within two years, like Hayao Miyazaki. Not that I aspire to be like him. I admire him very much of course, but I have my own agenda."