Suzu is a 17-year-old high-school student living in a rural town with her father. Wounded by the loss of her mother at a young age, Suzu one day discovers the massive online world "U" and dives into this alternate reality as her avatar, Belle. Before long, all of U's eyes are fixed on Belle, when, suddenly, a mysterious, dragon-like figure appears before her.
- Released: 2021-07-16
- Runtime: 122 minutes
- Genre: Animation, Drama
- Stars: Kaho Nakamura, Takeru Satoh, Tina Tamashiro, Shota Sometani, Lilas Ikuta, Ryo Narita, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Kenjiro Tsuda, Mami Koyama, Mamoru Miyano, Sachiyo Nakao, Fuyumi Sakamoto, Ryoko Moriyama, Yoshimi Iwasaki, Michiko Shimizu, Kōji Yakusho, ermhoi, Ken Ishiguro, Sumi Shimamoto, HANA, Mitsuru Miyamoto, Asami Miura, Taichi Masu
- Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Comments
- spookythemingo - 7 March 2024
Anyone else find the audio ruining the experience?
I think I'd have rated it a 9 out of 10 if I could hear anything they said. The music and yelling that happens throughout the movie are full blast and every single neighbor can hear it, with the volume only being halfway up so I turn it down. But then a few moments later they're back to a whispering dialog. Because none of them actually speak at a normal volume. No joke, I kept adjusting the volume every few minutes until I just gave up and left it quiet but no idea what was going on. After trying my best to adjust the volume to enjoy the movie and not make all my neighbors hating me for forcing them to listen to shouting and random songs, for two hours, it just became the most unrelaxing thing I could have done and it was my only time to wind down and sad I wasted it on trying to attempting to hear this movie without blowing out my speaker since it boosts the volume directly after sort whispering. It makes me even more upset because it was so beautiful to look at so I just wanted to try. The visuals kept me. But more like a hostage than an audience member. I would rate it much lower if it weren't for the amazing art. - thecrimsonwolf - 6 April 2023
Mid except for the music & animation!
My positives for this movie mostly extend to the music, which feels apt and fitting given that it's about a virtual singer. The songs all feel generically beautiful and uplifting, similar to the songs in say, The Greatest Showman where they don't feel particularly deep, but they sound flashy and what you would expect from the trailers, they'll probably be enough to make you feel uplifted in the moment but once you're done, you may feel as though they weren't worth listening to as they don't feel particularly thoughtfully constructed. I feel this movie suffers from the same issues any movie that addresses the internet has, it all feels outdated or is littered with well, frankly cringeworthy interpretations of how the internet works just, in general, and it makes most of the emotions in the story feel like they're standing on shaky ground. That being said, the story is decent overall but very cliché & probably not what anybody would watch this for, & the issue I just mentioned looms over it all. I will say that it did feel like this movie was longer than it needed to be, but perhaps that'd interest you if you like a story that takes its time. The animation is certainly unique, everything feels slow and flowy, from Belle's graceful movements to the Beast escaping the law, even when characters move swiftly, everything feels slowed down somehow! I think the aesthetics of the strange virtual world remind me of Paprika, and the monster-y designs are probably my favourite part of the visuals. The backgrounds I feel are quite lacking, the virtual world itself outside the inhabitants is mostly uninteresting to look at, and the real world sure is generically pretty, but it just looks like most other cinematic anime movies. If you like cliche and slow, relatively pretty movies that feel like an episode of the XFactor in terms of what dramatic, uplifting themes they provide, generic stories of overcoming hardship through song, then hey you might like this, but I feel you could find more engaging stories with nicer visuals and songs elsewhere too. - japanesepeachjuno - 30 November 2022
Amazing, apart from the story.
This movie was AMAZING when I first watched it, great visuals, alluring soundtrack, everything was in place apart from one thing; the story was VERY mid. I love this film a lot, but the story was basically non-existent apart from knowing the character's backgrounds and experiences. I also think that the character development and design is good, and the movie has a very feel good vibe to it. Suzu is great and is very easy to relate to. She lost something and found an outlet that impacts not only her life, but the lives of others. It's a very satisfying, or at the very least positive, ending. TL;DR Belle is amazing, but if you need a fully fledged story to enjoy movies you may wanna skip this one. - holtz-69616 - 7 September 2022
Loved it
I went into this movie on the advice of a friend. I had NO idea what to expect, and took my mother just to have someone to make fun of it with if needed. At the end, both of us were moved to tears and talked about the movie all the way home.
It starts out relatively predictably, but goes in ways I did not expect whatsoever. The messages are powerful, the songs are stunning (they're still on my playlist nearly a year later,) and the animation is beautiful. I saw the dubbed version (usually I prefer subs,) but the dub was well done. The girl who voiced Belle (Kylie McNeill, an unknown 17 year old at the time,) did a phenomenal job capturing the essence of the character, and her voice is incredible.
I also appreciated the director's take on online spaces- usually movies preach about how bad everything is or how scary, addictive, or manipulative any virtual world could be. It was refreshing to see a take where that wasn't the case. Everything wasn't sunshine and rainbows all of the time, but there were still beautiful and wonderful things about the world itself, just like there are in real life. - vivienwuart - 14 August 2022
If you must watch it...
Just watch the first few minutes of the opening scene, then skip to around the halfway point where there's an elaborate castle design. They've spent all their budget on those fancy visuals. I'm not even kidding... half the time, the characters aren't even animated. I kept wondering if I had accidentally hit pause.
Unfortunately on all other aspects such as story, plot, pacing, and character development, this film fails. There are also some messages so disturbing and problematic for young viewers, that I wonder how the director thought it ok greenlight. Feels like a preteen girl wrote down her fever dream fantasy and made it into a "film". She gives major Bella Swan energy; "I'm a special snowflake while everyone else can't possibly understand me."
