The film, directed by Mamoru Hosoda, is a modern take on the fairy tale ‘Beauty and the Beast’, hence the name of the film.
The last January 2022 releases arrived loaded with horror and action, with movies like blood festival Y evil possession. On that sinister billboard shines a title that balances the marquee with music and color. It’s about the anime science fiction fantastic Belle, a modern take on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, of the French author Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (1756).
The story follows Suzu (Kaho Nakamura), a 17-year-old Japanese high school student living in the Japanese prefecture of Kochi. As a child, she lost her mother in an accident she still doesn’t fully understand, so she has distanced herself from her well-meaning father to bury her grief in a popular virtual world called U (much like Second Life or to the universe OASIS of the movie Ready Player One).
there she is Belle (as the name of the protagonist of the fairy tale, Bella). Because biometric data from the virtual community amplifies the internal strengths of its users, Belle is a pop superstar with pink hair.
In the real world, Tears she is a shy and closed character who doesn’t see herself as her online avatar, which has millions of fans. Only when Belle encounters a hostile monster-like character named The Dragon (a wink to the beast), Suzu learns to recognize how powerful she can be without her secret virtual personality. Following the context of the fairy tale, there is also a castle, a library and a rose in between.
Director Mamoru Hosoda (The girl who jumped through time, the wolf children) was the one who turned that familiar fairy tale into a virtual fable, in which he seeks to accurately reflect modern society and empower his youth, and where the beast is just one of the millions of individuals waiting to be “unmasked” in every way, a reality that also applies to Suzu herself.
The Dragon It has an amazing design antelope horns and a mosaic of bruises vivid on the back: a beast something hipster which even inspires its imitators to get matching tattoos. The origin of those bruises becomes the key mystery of the story, as Suzu navigates between the virtual and the real world looking for the man (or woman) behind the avatar. The character designs were in charge of Jin Kim, Disney exanimador (Frozen, Big Hero 6).
Belle It premiered worldwide last year (July 15) in Cannes, where it is unusual for an anime (animation of Japanese origin) to headline the prestigious film festival. In fact, the meeting does not have a category dedicated exclusively to animated films. In that sense, even more remarkable was the long standing ovation that Hosoda received at the end of the film: fourteen minutes, which exceeded nine minutes to The French Dispatch by Wes Anderson, which also premiered at Cannes this year. The record 22 minutes of applause is recorded by The Pan’s Labyrinth in 2006.
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
