Dec 24, 2022
Hosoda's Belle is a wonderful mess, and I mean that in a good way. I'll preface it by saying that while I did very much enjoy it, a lot of people probably will not enjoy it the same. This will have moderate spoilers, but they will be at the end of the review, before the conclusion.
What the movie does well, it knocks out of the park. Fantastic music, the online world with the use of CGI has a very distinct, fantastical animated feel without delving into the realm of being too cartoony, and the main meat of the story, primarily Suzu's issues regarding her mother
...
and the finale that leads up to, is certainly the best part of the movie. The use of the online world to let Suzu be herself again isn't anything new, but it's done very well here.
But man, the things it doesn't do well are pretty glaring. First major problem is the movie brings up and ultimately glosses over way too many themes that could, on their own, be the entire focus of a movie. The pressure of being a virtual sensation, dealing with the hatred that comes with popularity, the fear of being doxxed... ultimately these are all things that are brought up and forgotten about very quickly, without any resolution or focus allowed to them.
I also have quite a bit of trouble suspending my disbelief about the way that the entire conflict of the movie is set up to begin with. The introduction of Beast as a character is pretty ridiculous, and at no point should Belle/Suzu have any intrigue into his character apart from "oh so mysterious angry person, I wish to learn more about him". He essentially just comes in and wrecks her concert, then leaves without saying any words. It's at this point that the "Beauty and the Beast" plot line starts, and the scenes involving it are the worst parts of the movie. The dialogue is mind-numbingly stupid and the actions the characters take don't make much sense, at least to me. The OG Beast from the 90s at least has a lot of scenes that adds humanity to his character which allows me to believe that Belle would want to learn more about him. Here though? Nah. Just grunts, anger, angst and nothing else. Also the "Gaston" character in the virtual world is basically just a cartoony bad guy toward the end. "Oh, she _____ everyone should be laughing and making fun of her, what gives???" Ugh, dumb. Maybe that was the point, but it's not for me.
**SPOILERS AHEAD** The movie isn't all doom and gloom though. The aforementioned, while being the set up for the movie, aren't the emotional crux of the movie and the remainder of the movie is carried by a wonderful finale with amazing music. While I do see people complaining about Belle/Suzu is still way too invested in Beast after he was revealed and shouldn't be and how she got over her issues way too easily at the end, I disagree with this. Her entire emotional conflict was from not knowing why her mother went on a fool's errand and got killed rescuing another child, but she learned where this feeling came from when she saw just how bad Beast's situation was in real life and felt the same calling to help the helpless, just as her mother did before that. She resolved her issues while also saving another. I like this a lot.
In the end, this movie is a wonderful mess. It's an excellent movie when it's being its own thing, and falls apart pretty hard when it's trying to pull from the Disney movie its namesake is based on, making the movie feel like two separate movies in terms of quality. But with a solid cast of side characters, excellent music and animation, and the main plot of the story actually being pretty good, I'll remember it fondly.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
