Mamoru Hosoda is an anime director responsible for several award-winning films: Summer Wars, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, The Boy and The Beast, Wolf Children and others. His last film, MIRAI, was released in 2018 and was nominated for a Golden Globe, a Critics’ Choice Award and an Academy Award; and actually did win at the Annie Awards. Now he’s about to introduce the world to his newest creation, “BELLE.”
No, he’s not making his own take on “Beauty and the Beast.” But those familiar with his previous works will notice some familiar themes anyway. “BELLE” is another movie that centers around a vast virtual online network, much like Summer Wars (and a Digimon feature he directed back in 2000). In this case the network is “U,” a large system with over 5 billion registered users. Hosoda plans to use this cyber-setting to examine themes relevant to modern society (or any society), specifically “coming of age, family ties, love between parents and children, friendship that...
