Image: GKIDS The new animated movie Belle is a marvel. The latest from Mamoru Hosoda, director of 2018’s acclaimed Mirai, Belle features skilled art direction that remains coherent and focused in even the busiest scenes, and I loved the English soundtrack for its haunting beauty, which never strays from its Disney inspiration. It is a …
Belle is an online sensation. Image: © 2021 STUDIO CHIZU While watching Belle, the latest feature from Mamoru Hosoda, two movies kept racing through my mind: Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast and Hosoda’s own Summer Wars—and for good reason. Belle takes a classic fairy tale and filters it through the virtual world in which …