The Film
The new Miyazaki. That’s a description I’ve heard applied to Mamoru Hosoda over and over, and it’s never sat well with me. Notwithstanding that Hosoda has expressed critical feelings about Miyazaki’s depiction of women, or my own apathy about Miyazaki’s films, Hosoda isn’t the new anybody, nor does he need to be. He’s the first Mamoru Hosoda, and across his six solo features, he’s established a strong authorial voice and, for my money, stands out as one of the best and most exciting filmmakers working today, and not just in animation.
Belle, like Hosoda’s previous films, takes a gigantic sci-fi concept and boils it down to a tiny personal story. The setting is contemporary, but the internet seems to be dominated by an app called U, a social network which, through body sharing technology (think a less gross take...
The new Miyazaki. That’s a description I’ve heard applied to Mamoru Hosoda over and over, and it’s never sat well with me. Notwithstanding that Hosoda has expressed critical feelings about Miyazaki’s depiction of women, or my own apathy about Miyazaki’s films, Hosoda isn’t the new anybody, nor does he need to be. He’s the first Mamoru Hosoda, and across his six solo features, he’s established a strong authorial voice and, for my money, stands out as one of the best and most exciting filmmakers working today, and not just in animation.
Belle, like Hosoda’s previous films, takes a gigantic sci-fi concept and boils it down to a tiny personal story. The setting is contemporary, but the internet seems to be dominated by an app called U, a social network which, through body sharing technology (think a less gross take...
- 7/13/2022
- by Sam Inglis
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
In an era of TikTok favorites getting record deals and lead acting roles, follower counts and blue checkmarks seem to be a requirement for getting a big break in Hollywood. It is therefore refreshing and rare when a 19-year-old from Manhattan with no internet fame whatsoever is plucked from relative obscurity and given the chance of a lifetime: voicing the protagonist of one of the highest-grossing anime movies in Japan of this past year as her industry debut. And, boy, does she have the pipes to prove she belongs in the big leagues.
Much like her character Suzu in Mamoru Hosoda’s highly-acclaimed and visually stunning “Belle,” Kylie McNeill is just a soft-spoken teenager that likes to record herself belting her heart out from the comfort of her bedroom. Though she majored in theater at New York’s prestigious Professional Performing Arts School — which has churned out singers and musicians like Alicia Keys,...
Much like her character Suzu in Mamoru Hosoda’s highly-acclaimed and visually stunning “Belle,” Kylie McNeill is just a soft-spoken teenager that likes to record herself belting her heart out from the comfort of her bedroom. Though she majored in theater at New York’s prestigious Professional Performing Arts School — which has churned out singers and musicians like Alicia Keys,...
- 1/28/2022
- by Mónica Marie Zorrilla
- Variety Film + TV
Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on Wbgr-fm on January 13th, 2022, reviewing a new animated film from Japan, a version of “Beauty & the Beast” entitled “Belle,” in theaters on January 14th.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda (“Mirai”), a young Japanese girl named Suzu has lost her mother at a young age, and hasn’t gotten over it. She is an awkward teenager who decides to enter the U, an online virtual world in which your brainwaves are transformed into characters, in essence starting over in a new life. She becomes Belle, a beautiful singer sensation in the U world, who falls in love with the Dragon, a beastly type who is out to destroy the U.
“Belle” opens in theaters and IMAX (in select markets) on January 14th. Featuring the voices (English dub) Kylie McNeill, Paul Castro Jr., Ben Lepley,...
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda (“Mirai”), a young Japanese girl named Suzu has lost her mother at a young age, and hasn’t gotten over it. She is an awkward teenager who decides to enter the U, an online virtual world in which your brainwaves are transformed into characters, in essence starting over in a new life. She becomes Belle, a beautiful singer sensation in the U world, who falls in love with the Dragon, a beastly type who is out to destroy the U.
“Belle” opens in theaters and IMAX (in select markets) on January 14th. Featuring the voices (English dub) Kylie McNeill, Paul Castro Jr., Ben Lepley,...
- 1/14/2022
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
After four weeks of total dominance at the box office, Spider-Man: No Way Home finally faces some solid competition from the legacy slasher franchise Scream. Scream, the fifth installment in Wes Craven’s self-aware horror series, is the biggest new release of the month now that Morbius has vacated its late January release date, and it will likely topple Spider-Man’s winning streak. That is not to say it won’t be another big weekend for No Way Home, though, which by Friday should become the fifth biggest domestic grosser ever and by next weekend should hit the number four spot.
Paramount is keeping Scream theatrical exclusive as they launch it into 3,661 domestic locations. The sequel/reboot features a new creative team taking over after Craven’s passing, with Ready or Not directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett helming a script by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick while the original...
Paramount is keeping Scream theatrical exclusive as they launch it into 3,661 domestic locations. The sequel/reboot features a new creative team taking over after Craven’s passing, with Ready or Not directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett helming a script by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick while the original...
- 1/13/2022
- by Sam Mendelsohn <mail@boxofficemojo.com>
- Box Office Mojo
Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home is expected to cede its No. 1 four-weekend run to Paramount and Spyglass Media’s Scream over the MLK four-day holiday, the latter eyeing a take that’s in the $20 million-plus range at 3,661 theaters.
There’s a shot that Scream goes higher, but we’ll leave any lofty predictions in this funky pandemic, Spider-Man-dominated marketplace to what 18th century economist Adam Smith called “the invisible hand”. By previous measurements, the best opening for a pure horror movie over the MLK holiday belongs to Universal’s Andy Muschietti directed title Mama which collected $32.1M back in 2013 (I would argue that M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass with a $46.5M start in 2019 was more of a thriller).
In the transition from Paramount studio boss Jim Gianopulos to Brian Robbins, there’s been a lot of chatter out there how the Melrose lot looks to embrace a more...
There’s a shot that Scream goes higher, but we’ll leave any lofty predictions in this funky pandemic, Spider-Man-dominated marketplace to what 18th century economist Adam Smith called “the invisible hand”. By previous measurements, the best opening for a pure horror movie over the MLK holiday belongs to Universal’s Andy Muschietti directed title Mama which collected $32.1M back in 2013 (I would argue that M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass with a $46.5M start in 2019 was more of a thriller).
In the transition from Paramount studio boss Jim Gianopulos to Brian Robbins, there’s been a lot of chatter out there how the Melrose lot looks to embrace a more...
- 1/12/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
With “Belle,” anime master Mamoru Hosoda has reimagined “Beauty and the Beast” for the metaverse set — that young generation of social media users who switch identities comfortably between the physical world and a more inviting online one.
Roughly half the movie takes place in the “real world”, while the fairy-tale portion is set on an ultra-popular virtual platform called “U,” where the main character appears as a slender pink Disney princess type: Belle.
In U, members assume an alternate identity/avatar (or “As”) that allows them to more fully express certain dimensions of their personalities. Here, Hosoda appears to have tapped into a central anxiety of modern adolescence: the concern that others could never truly know or accept all of one’s nuances and contradictions, just as in nearly every telling of this classic story, only Belle can see the goodness in the Beast.
For more than 20 years, Hosoda has...
Roughly half the movie takes place in the “real world”, while the fairy-tale portion is set on an ultra-popular virtual platform called “U,” where the main character appears as a slender pink Disney princess type: Belle.
In U, members assume an alternate identity/avatar (or “As”) that allows them to more fully express certain dimensions of their personalities. Here, Hosoda appears to have tapped into a central anxiety of modern adolescence: the concern that others could never truly know or accept all of one’s nuances and contradictions, just as in nearly every telling of this classic story, only Belle can see the goodness in the Beast.
For more than 20 years, Hosoda has...
- 1/6/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
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