Direction: Mamoru Hosoda
Country: Japan
The Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda (Mirai, 2018) teams up for the first time with fellow animator Jin Kim (Moana, 2016; Raya and the Last Dragon, 2021) in Belle, an animated dramatic effort that stresses tyrannical societies, both real and virtual. Despite incorporating topics such as loss, trauma, identity, fame, and abusive parental conduct, the film is a let-down, plot-wise. Its artistry, even demonstrating quality, isn’t especially stirring, and the pop music is off-putting. It was hard to be emotionally involved in this densely brewed Beauty-and-The-Beast universe pulled up from our social media era.
Hosoda tells the story of Suzu (voice of Kaho Nakamura), a shy, motherless 17-year-old high school student who enters the gigantic virtual world of U and rises to stardom as a singer. In this cyber world, she can lead a new life and be who she really is, but her popularity as Belle becomes secondary when she meets a destructive Dragon. From that moment on, she only wants to find out the identity of the person behind this avatar. Meanwhile, in the physical world, she counts on the support of Shinobu, an admired sports guy and childhood friend who protects her since her mother died, as well as her best friend Hiro and the popular Ruka.
More humdrum than fascinating, the film is nothing more than a soppy teen-pleaser that, growing dull (the way they unveil and locate the Dragon in the real world is so naive), is liable to strain the patience of adults. I found myself yawning way before the ending.
