I like Mamoru Hosoda. His films have always been a treat to interact with and watch. Regardless of whatever controversial claims he made about the anime industry before his movie release, I was still extremely excited to see Belle and thought the premise sounded foppish yet interesting at the same time. This was actually the first anime movie that I have gone to see at the movie theatre right at its release in American theatres. After I left theatre though, I can easily say that this is Hosoda's worse film he's released which is really disappointing. I shall go over the positives and negatives I
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saw and then wrap this review up with my final scores. Also, this is my first review so any feedback will be much appreciated.
Positives: First off, I would like to speak on the art and animation from the movie. This is easily my favorite-looking Hosoda film. The green landscape where Suzu lives is a joy to look at, and all the characters offer a lot of emotion in their animation and the colors Hosoda uses to blend all his scenes together make this film look amazing. The virtual world known as "U" is very vibrant and the viewer really gets the impression that the world is full of life and is busy through its art. The 3-D animation is also serviceable. Sometimes I felt that Belle's animations were quite lackluster and didn't quite fit the scene at hand. Two scenes were the opening where Belle was singing on the whale and her arms moments were very lethargic and didn't match the passion of the song. The second scene I am speaking on is when Belle is getting interrogated by one of the Justice members, she is sitting in a chair with an upset expression during their whole exchange. This is one time where a character's facial emotions don't react to what is being said and I would've loved to see Belle be more expressive in this scene besides having the same face for almost a minute while important information is being given. Still, the animation and art are top-notch in this movie are well worth my praise.
Another part of the movie that I will give huge praise for is the music/sound. Each song Belle sings is filled with passion and gives a lot of meaning behind the scene they are attached to. This goes for both the English and Japanese versions. The lyrics beat, and vocals are all a treat and were the first thing I went back to after watching the movie. If you are not going to see the movie, I would still highly recommend listening to the soundtrack because it is really worth your time. Speaking of the English version, I also saw this movie with an English dub. Now I will state right now that I do not like English dubs and try to avoid them whenever possible because the voice acting is important to me. However, the theatre I went to see it at only had English dubs when I pre-ordered the tickets so I had to compromise. I can say now though, that Belle has a fairly respectable English dub, dare I even say that it was good. Each voice fit the character they played and the emotion was conveyed well (except for Shinobu who sounded bored for the entire movie). Those were feelings toward the music/sound, easily my favorite part of the movie.
For my last part of the positives, I believe this may be somewhat taken as hot takes. I actually liked Suzu's character throughout the film. I believe that her journey from a self-proclaimed nobody to somebody and her getting over her mother's death was the best story/character-focused part of the film. There are other aspects of her character that aren't well developed and hold her back from being a top anime film character, but that's for the negatives. Finally, here are some final things that I thoroughly enjoyed in the film and I'll quickly go over them. The representation of the internet is well-done throughout the whole movie. I like how as soon as Belle sings her first song, there is a mix of both positives and negatives comments about her and the viewer gets to see them front and center. This happens throughout the entire movie and it really adds some commentary on both the positives and negatives of the internet and its effects on people behind the screen. I like the first scene where we get introduced to each central character and how it presents them, even though you don't learn anything else from them in the whole movie (in other words they are one-dimensional static characters besides Suzu somewhat). I liked trying to figure out who the beast was. I like how the film was trying to misguide viewers even though people who know about writing like me would see how Hosoda was intentionally trying to mislead the viewer; it was still an exciting part of the film though. I also love the interaction between Ruka and Shinjirou when they learn that they both like each other. It was very charming and wasn't overplayed. I also love Ruka throughout the entire movie, she was really a cute character. The climax of the movie was really powerful to me as well. Like any other Hosoda film, the powerful moments really have an impact and Belle is no different. The beginning scene of watching Suzu and her mom bond was detailed and gave us a lot of information on why Suzu is how she is in the present. Watching Suzu unveil herself and have the confidence and sing proudly again to the people of "U" was really emotional and a great moment for Suzu and the movie. This was easily my favorite scene of the entire movie and while it didn't make up for its flaws, I'm glad it had a scene like this that I really enjoyed. So, I think that's it for the positives, now let's move on to the negatives.
Negatives: Let's go over the worst part of the film, the story. Oh boy, where do I even start? Well, first off, the pacing is really a mixed bag. Some scenes, like the two I used at the end of my positives, are well-paced, but a lot of scenes are either too fast or too slow. For example, when Belle becomes a singing sensation in a matter of minutes and it is not done well at all. As soon as Belle enters the world of "U", she starts singing for no real reason. Citizens listen to her and have mixed opinions, then we learn that Suzu's friend Hiroka planned this all along. Like what?? Before this point though, the film was going really well. To put it shortly, there are plotholes, relationships and scenes are undeveloped, and a lot of the scenes are put together weirdly. Like it's not coherent and the movie feels like some scenes are jumbled together. The relationship between Belle and the Beast is really underdeveloped and therefore while the dancing scene is nice to look at, it has no emotional weight because it feels like two strangers dancing instead of a heartfelt dance in the original Beaty and the Beast because the relationship is actually developed in the original. Even the little servants of the Beast are so unimportant in this film while in the original they were really charming. I'm not saying that Belle has to follow the original though, but they put these things into the movie so I will critique them. The second mightily underdeveloped relationship in the film is Kei (I think that's his name lol) and how he was the beast. I would like to give myself props by saying he was one of my options for who the beast was and my reasoning was just because she looked mad and had hair covering one of his eyes lmao. Anyway, his perspective of family abuse while a good idea was not developed and built up to, so it all feels quite bland, to be honest. It obviously feels terrible because no one likes family abuse, but it could've been a really emotional part of the film if it was handled carefully. There is a lot more that I can pick out from this film and critique, but I'm sure that you probably understand how I feel. The worst part to me is that there are really good ideas here and it could've been something amazing, but the ideas weren't really handled with care. I can't help but think that the pandemic interrupted the progression of making this movie. Remember how earlier in my review I said that all characters are one-dimensional? Yeah, that stands pretty strong. Each character can be described in two words and I'm not exaggerating at all. Now let's talk about my issues with Suzu as the main character. Before, I said I liked her and said she wasn't a terrible main character and that I actually liked aspects of her and what she brought to the story. However, with the convoluted script, there are some aspects of her that I have to call out. One is her relationship with her father. We get the idea very early on that it is very awkward between her and her father because of her mother's death. I have to say I think it's a little overplayed, but I can't say for sure. This was a part of her character that I was excited to see develop, but it gets very little screen-time compared to the rest of the events. While it is nice to see Suzu accept her father's dinner request at the end, it just isn't as impactful as it should be. Hosoda also has to try and force the idea that Suzu is a nobody, he doesn't show this to us naturally. This is my main issue really, it is shown that Suzu isn't very confident and is still living through the pain of her mother's death, but Hosoda has to tell us and sell the idea that Suzu is a nobody instead of showing us. Again, it is a mixed bag. That really is through all the negatives I have.
Final Thoughts: The negatives really fall heavily on the important parts of a movie and that's why he really holds this film from being extraordinary. I think this showed us the flaws Hosoda has though. Now, I know a lot of people are turned off from Hosoda and aren't being fans of him anymore, but I can't do the same. Hosoda has shown that he is a talented director and that he has the potential to make a classic. If he can fix up these flaws and really think about what he wants to do going forward, I think he will succeed. Regardless, I will still look forward to his next movie and even though I had a lot of negatives, I still liked the movie a little. Would I rewatch it? I mean if it came out on a subscription service I own, then I might rewatch it to see what I missed. Belle was a bad movie to me and one of Hosoda's worst in his filmography. There are things to like in Mamoru Hosoda's Belle, but it is weighed down by the aforementioned negatives.
Final Scores:
Story: 3
Art: 7
Sound: 8
Character: 3
Enjoyment: 6
Overall: 4
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Jan 16, 2022
Ryuu to Sobakasu no Hime
(Anime)
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I like Mamoru Hosoda. His films have always been a treat to interact with and watch. Regardless of whatever controversial claims he made about the anime industry before his movie release, I was still extremely excited to see Belle and thought the premise sounded foppish yet interesting at the same time. This was actually the first anime movie that I have gone to see at the movie theatre right at its release in American theatres. After I left theatre though, I can easily say that this is Hosoda's worse film he's released which is really disappointing. I shall go over the positives and negatives I
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