I’ll admit it right away, I’m not the biggest fan of Mamoru Hosoda’s work. They’re really well-made movies with beautiful art and animation but I just don’t connect with them for one reason or another.
I almost feel bad because I usually don’t have any good reasons for that either.
Sure, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Your Name, but I can pinpoint a few things that I felt didn’t work well. With Hosoda’s movies, they’re generally pretty alright, but I just dislike them for reasons I can’t justify properly.
For example, I didn’t like Summer Wars because it reminded me of my own family gatherings which I don’t particularly like. Unbiased review that tackles the movie’s themes, amirite?
Similarly, I just found the concept of Wolf Children hilarious because of how earnestly it was handling the concept of having furry children.
And now we have Belle, and what do I think of this?
Well, let’s just say it’s not my favourite anime movie that’s also a retelling of an old fairy tale involving a girl and a monster.
It’s still beautiful — to the point that I’d recommend it based on visuals alone. But while it has a lot of style and flair, there was a huge letdown in how the CGI was used. Unlike his precious works, Hosoda regularly uses CGI for his characters here and it looks good… until it doesn’t.
When there’s a lot of movement going on, like in many of the fight scenes, the trademark CGI clunkyness becomes really apparent. And it’s a shame because we got some beautiful 2D action scenes in Summer Wars.
In terms of music, the English dub has some pretty catchy songs but its mostly forgettable overall. No one song that I’d point to and call “bad”, but I don’t see myself revisiting it again.
The World of U
First things first, the portrayal of the “virtual world” felt so antiquated that I couldn’t take it seriously. It’s like Spy Kids 3D. I know Summer Wars had a similar thing going on but the story was a lot more lighthearted and bombastic so it felt right.
In Belle, however, its version of this ridiculous virtual world is treated really seriously and I find myself torn between amusement and confusion.
I’m not saying that Mamoru Hosoda is just trying to recreate Digimon for the fifth time or anything. He’d clearly put some thought into his world of “U” as his attempt to create a truly global community.
But I don’t find that world convincing. It felt like a prop used to tell a story, with absolutely no depth to it.
Let’s make a comparison. In Morrowind, you play as a newly released prisoner who’s drawn into a conspiracy involving an ancient prophecy. But the world of Vvardenfell, where the game takes place, is insanely well-realized with worldbuilding that addressed its food, culture, history, religion, laws, societal problems, and much more.
It felt like Vvardenfell was a living, breathing place long before the player stepped into it and it does a lot to make it memorable.
In comparison, the world of U is hollow and empty. All we see people doing is float around or listen to Belle’s music.
And it’s not just that the world doesn’t have “lore and worldbuilding.” Just compare the world of U to the batshit insanity of places like VRChat and Garry’s Mod. Human beings, even in a virtual world, don’t just swim around and gormlessly stare at things.
Belle’s virtual world isn’t explained in terms of technology either, and I don’t have a problem with that by itself. But at the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder things like “what’s her body doing right now?” or “why doesn’t she just log off?”
Like I stated at the start, it’s the stupid things that stop me from getting into Hosoda’s stories, and Belle’s unimaginative world just kills it for me.
As for the story, I don’t really feel like I have much to talk about. The main character’s story involves dealing with grief and loss. She then suddenly becomes famous within the virtual world and takes the role of the titular ‘beauty’ in the film’s Beauty and the Beast subplot.
By the end, it just felt like Belle lacks thematic cohesion. It brings up lots of ideas but doesn’t actually tackle any of them properly. It could have been about so many things– the social impact of a virtual world, internet culture, doxxing, creativity as an outlet for grief, celebrity worship, abuse, and so on.
There’s no massive fumble here but it fails to bring all these ideas together. As cliché as it to compare anime movies with Studio Ghibli’s work, I’ll still fucking do it. When you watch a movie by Hayao Miyazaki, you can feel a razer-sharp thematic focus.
It’s easy to see that Miyazaki knows what he wants to say with his movies and he has more than enough confidence to show it. For better or worse (I’m personally not a huge fan of Howl’s Moving Castle), that’s the kind of artist he is and I can appreciate it.
In contrast, Belle lacks the confidence to explore any of its themes to the fullest. I have no response to the question “what is Mamoru Hosoda saying with this movie?” and I’m not even sure there’s a clear answer.
