Naturally focused on the quest for identity, the Japanese filmmaker realizes his version of Beauty and the Beast in a very beautiful, plastically sublime film. A journey between human drama and fantasy that will recall his previous work: Summer Wars.
Beautiful: the new wonder of Mamoru Hosoda
Already 15 years since Mamoru Hosoda became a director to follow. After three animated feature films from franchises (including two Digimon films and one One Piece), the Japanese has distinguished himself with The Crossing of Time, a drama tinged with fantasy where a young high school student had the opportunity to return to the past to make up for her mistakes. A film that oscillated between human tragedy and cyberpunk aesthetics, when digital was not yet the norm in animated cinema. Four productions followed, first great (Summer Wars and The Wolf Children, Ame and Yuki), then more uneven (The Boy and the Beast and the less interesting Miraï, my little sister). In Belle, her ninth work, we follow Suzu, a young introverted high school student traumatized by the death of her mother. On the advice of a friend, she creates an avatar in "U", a kind of social network/video game where participants can interact within a virtual world. In U, Suzu becomes Belle, a singer followed by a few billion users. She will meet Dragon, a solitary creature that will change her destiny. 
One thing is striking from the introduction of Belle: fans of Mamoru Hosoda's cinema will not be in uncharted territory. In the basics of her script, Belle quickly echoes Summer Wars, her fifth film, where it was already about an interactive social network. But exit "Oz", which had barely a few hundred million subscribers and welcome to "U", which lists several billion.
Unbridled aesthetics
Despite this great similarity, Hosoda quickly marks the changes between the two universes. The first dealt with a rather fantasized future, where administrations and large companies met in interactive facades. An ambition that did not dare to display at the time the tenors of the middle (MySpace, Facebook). With the arrival of Snapchat, Instagram, Reddit and Twitter, behaviors on these platforms have continued to change. In Belle, "U" is more realistic in the first sense, since this virtual world refers directly to the advances made possible with virtual and augmented reality, now reality in 2021. Like these constantly growing networks, the aesthetic that runs through Mamoru Hosoda's film has become of unparalleled density. Thanks to a hybrid staging, measured as much in the most sensitive moments as grandiloquent in the action sequences, the filmmaker succeeds in creating a universe as tangible as it is fascinating. No hold, it is his most ambitious work from a stylistic point of view. And it is clear that the bet is successful visually, with an abundance of details that almost fail to devour the frame by their number and magnitude. It is rather rare to find oneself subjugated and overwhelmed by such aesthetic density. But Hosoda has done it and offers the most beautiful thing we have seen in the cinema for a Japanese animated film since Promare or Children of the Sea, both released in 2019. 
Belle sanctifies its graphic beauty by a rather relevant thematic abundance. Beyond its interesting approach to the cyberpunk universe as a vector of emancipation from reality, the film is primarily based on a quest for identity. It is no coincidence that Mamoru Hosoda named the social network "U" (or You, which means "You", which can be interpreted as "self"). This existentialist research passes through the characters, including Suzu and Dragon, in the form of a tribute to Beauty and the Beast (as much the tale of French folklore as the Disney animated film, the favorite of the director of his own words). The destiny of Suzu and "The Beast" will be met with an anti-child abuse plea. As if Hosoda, who has long worked on very famous anime for teenagers (Digimon, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, One Piece), wanted to speak directly to the progenitors of his audience. It will also be a question of going to the end of his textual work around childhood, the characters of his filmography all oscillating between 5 and 17 years old.
Such an ugly reality
Some elements still question Belle's vision. First, its management of rhythm sometimes falters, when it is not archaic, with a structure far too expected. The film thus seems not to go as far in its writing as in its visual ambitions. One element confirms this: the contribution of musicality that seems almost unfinished. The beautiful songs (translated into the French version, with Louane's voice) serve the narrative ideally, but seem drowned in the permanent aesthetic flow (almost one more detail among many others). 
In contrast, scenes in the "real" world lack stakes. Unlike Summer Wars where the plot outside the game was paramount (and the digital part was in the minority, also explained by the difference in budget between the two films), Belle's appears as a sudden brake in the middle of the dream highway. Hence this feeling of a feature film sometimes floating, even indecisive in its twists and turns. And this, despite some gags and situations that give pride of place to the staging of Hosoda, whose most fans will have fun finding the references and gimmicks dear to the director (the imagery of the whale, the vehicles that pass in front of the characters, a female character with purple hair). Small animation event of this end of the year, Belle remains an exhilarating show, whose energy carries everything in its path. A feature film that we will not dare to call a "blockbusteresque", but which, by its visual and aesthetic scope, is certainly one of the most ambitious Japanese animated cinema for ages. Belle remains in the middle of the basket of Mamuro Hosoda's filmography. But if it does not detract from its ability to erect whimsical universes that stimulate beyond the cinematic experience. And to call him without batting an eyelid the most exciting contemporary Japanese filmmaker of his generation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3ccM51IMy4
