Belle – A Visually-Stunning Modern Beauty and the Beast (Early Review)

Belle follows Suzu (Nakamura), a seventeen year old high school student living in a rural village. She is emotionally devastated from the loss of her mother, who sacrificed herself to save a child who was drowning in the river. Her tight-knit relationship with her mother fuelled her passion for singing and writing music. Her mother’s death cast a shadow upon Suzu’s life and caused her to drift away from her loving father and stop singing altogether. One day, her computer genius best friend Hiroka (Ikaru) signed her up for an extremely popular virtual reality game known as “U”. Suzu modeled her avatar on a popular girl at her school and named her Belle. In a moment of desperation, Suzu as Belle sings one of her songs and became an overnight sensation and a conversation topic at her school as everyone tried to figure out who she was. For the first time in her life she felt seen. At one of her online concerts, a fugitive known as “The Dragon” barges in with a vigilante group chasing him. Intrigued, Suzu became obsessed with finding out his true identity.

Mamoru Hosada has become a household name in the world of Japanese animation. While not every entry in Hosada’s filmography is necessarily a knockout, between Wolf Children and Summer Wars he’s established himself as one of the most talented and exciting animators of his time. Belle, a visually stunning, thematically poignant and thoroughly entertaining film, further proves that.

In terms of hand drawn animation, viewers are not going to find a more vibrant and colorful film this year. One frequent complaint about Hosada’s work is the lack of detail in his animation style, especially in the way that he draws his characters. The animation in Belle is extremely detailed, especially during the virtual reality sequences. It’s the kind of visual experience that pops out of the screen and would absolutely be worth seeing in a movie theater.

Much like Hosada’s past work, Belle utilizes fantasy elements to explore thematically heavy material. Coping with grief, understanding sacrifice and familial abuse are at the forefront of Belle. It is action packed, funny and relatively light for most of its running time. Hosada playfully integrates the classic “Beauty & the Beast” story line into the film in a very clever way that offers many surprises that fans of the story may not expect. The third act is where the themes come into play and the film takes a left hand turn, delving into emotionally devastating territory.

However, the biggest weakness of Belle is its issues in balancing its two parallel storylines. Both Suzu’s story of personal growth and perseverance, and her encounter with The Dragon in the world of U, are fascinating and well crafted on their own, but fail to mesh together. The editing is choppy, leading to many tonally jarring moments within the first two acts of the film.

In the end, while non-anime fans may have a difficult time connecting to Belle, those who have enjoyed Hosada’s work in the past will be very satisfied. It may be somewhat messy, but its well developed protagonist, strong themes and emotional third act make it one of the best animated films of the year.

*still courtesy of GKIDS

Follow my blog on Instagram @moviereviews100!

If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook.

Tristan French