Review: In 'Belle,' a dazzling anime 'Beauty and the Beast'
12.01.2022 - 22:35
/ abcnews.go.com
Anime master Mamoru Hosoda makes movies that, even at their most elaborate, can reach such staggeringly emotional heights that they seem to break free of anything you're prepared for in an animated movie — or in most kinds of movies, for that matter.Any talented Japanese filmmaker working in fantastical animation inevitably draws comparisons to the great Hayao Miyazaki. But the more appropriate touchstone for Hosoda may be Yasujirō Ozu.
As dazzling as Hosoda's films may be visually or conceptually, they're rooted in simple and profound human stories.His last film, the Oscar-nominated “Mirai,” is one of the best movies made in recent years about family. It centered on a 4-year-old boy who, dealing with the arrival of a new baby sister and confronting new feelings of jealousy, is visited by his sister as a middle-schooler.
Other time-traveling encounters follow, and a new understanding and empathy grows in the boy.Hosoda's latest, “Belle,” which opened in theaters Wednesday, is more complicatedly sketched. It's an ultra-modern take on “Beauty and the Beast” that transfers the fairy tale to a digital metaverse realm called “U.” There, in a dizzying digital expanse that will satisfy any “Matrix” fan who felt let down by the virtual worlds of “The Matrix Resurrections," its 5 billion users can adapt any persona they like.The 17-year-old Suzu (voiced by Kaho Nakamura in the subtitled version I saw; an English dub is also playing) reluctantly joins U as an avatar named Belle, a more exotic beauty than the modest and shy Suzu.
In the U, Belle's songs find massive stardom that's much unlike Suzu's own life, where one of her only friends is Hiroka (Rina Izuta), a computer whiz who helps craft Belle. In U, Belle finds herself drawn
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