Synopsis
Suzu is a 17-year-old high-school student living in a rural town with her father. Wounded by the loss of her mother at a young age, Suzu one day discovers the massive online world "U" and dives into this alternate reality as her avatar, Belle. Before long, all of U's eyes are fixed on Belle, when, suddenly, a mysterious, dragon-like figure appears before her.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Kaho NakamuraSuzu Naito / Belle (voice)
- Ryo NaritaShinobu Hisatake (voice)
- Shota SometaniShinjiro 'Kamishin' Chikami (voice)
- Tina TamashiroRuka Watanabe (voice)
- Lilas IkutaHiroka 'Hiro' Betsuyaku (voice)
- Ryoko MoriyamaYoshitani (voice)
- Michiko ShimizuKita (voice)
- Fuyumi SakamotoOkumoto (voice)
- Yoshimi IwasakiNakai (voice)
- Sachiyo NakaoHatanaka (voice)
Recommendations
- 100
The Telegraph
Belle is a beautifully observed, dazzlingly animated sci-fi fairy tale about our online-offline double lives – it’s Hosoda’s finest film since 2012’s Wolf Children, and perhaps his best to date. - 100
Time Out
Mamoru Hosoda’s cyber fairy-tale is basically wall-to-wall bangers, all backdropped by virtual worlds that wash over you in waves of world-building so detailed and epic, they’d make William Gibson’s eyes pop. - 90
The Hollywood Reporter
Perhaps the most ambitious film to date by Japanese animator Mamoru Hosoda. - 83
The Playlist
The film strikes a careful balance between the high school drama and the online realm but also explores how those two environments bleed into each other. - 83
The Film Stage
Belle is the most ambitious work yet from Hosoda. - 80
Screen Daily
At first, it appears that Hosoda merely wants to remake Beauty And The Beast, but there are surprises in store that shouldn’t be spoiled. Let it be said, however, that what makes Belle affecting in its later stretches is Hosoda’s subversion of that fairy tale’s narrative — in particular, its notion of true beauty and the reasons why the Beast has grown so withdrawn and distrustful. - 80
Variety
In a sense, movies aren’t so different from the virtual worlds a platform like U offers, and this one promises a special kind of escapism while going out of its way to keep it real. - 75
IndieWire
Hosoda is a born maximalist with a big heart, and while his most ambitious moonshot to date isn’t quite able to arrange all of its moving parts together along the same orbit, it’s impressive to see how many of them remain moving all the same.
