Belle is the latest film from Studio Chizu and director Mamoru Hosoda, and it comes with a fair share of high expectations (it premiered at Cannes and has already been nominated for five Annie Awards). Hosoda is the director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children, and Mirai, which garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature.

Though we were big fans of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Wolf Children, we were much cooler on both Summer Wars and Mirai… but Belle looked – and sounded – much too gorgeous to miss.

The film opens everywhere tomorrow (January 14) in both IMAX and on “regular” screens, but we got an advance look. So how is it? Is it worth risking COVID and venturing into a theater?

I need to start by saying that Belle is… a lot. There’s a lot going on in this film, which clocks in at just over 2 hours. The story takes place in two “worlds” – the real world and the virtual world of U (which is probably what the metaverse aspires to), an expansive universe in which all users exist as unique avatars that enhance their natural abilities.

Think of Ready Player One but… not bogged down by pointless 80s nostalgia. Belle is also heavily inspired by Hosoda’s own Summer Wars, which was an earlier attempt to portray the differences between a virtual reality social network and the contrasting banalities of the real world.

But when I say that Belle has a lot going on, I mean that it maybe tries to handle too much. It spins off a Beauty and the Beast baseline (there’s even a strong nod to the Disney film) and heavily deals with: the growing influence of social media, the appeal of virtual realities, the power of music, young love, loss and grief, child abuse, cyber bullying, and the dangers of online anonymity.

It’s basically a potpourri of issues critically relevant to life in the 2020s.

And these are not minor plot points; each is a major part of the story. As I said, it’s a lot. Despite its crammed storyline, it mostly succeeds. Largely, this is because even though the film deals with some serious and heavy issues, its ultimately uplifting message is about one thing: finding beauty and strength in staying true to yourself.

The irony is that in a film about the lure of social media and the comfort people find in its detached anonymity, Belle shows how our ability to stay true to ourselves is integral to changing the world.

I will certainly be thinking about Belle for a long time.

The film centers on Suzu, a shy, lonesome high schooler who lost her mother at an early age and never quite reconnected with her father. But once she’s convinced to enter the virtual world of U, a platform that uses individuals’ biometrics to enhance their innate skills and abilities, her avatar (Belle) becomes an overnight singing sensation and one of the most famous people in U.

That’s the synopsis you’ll read for the movie, but that’s like saying The Lord of the Rings is about a ring. It’s the tip of the iceberg for all the issues mentioned above.

Hosoda’s film could easily have become a mess of confusing and tangled storylines, especially because so much rides on two things: the discrepancy between U and the real world and Belle’s music.

For the former, the two worlds are portrayed in starkly different animation styles. Hosoda did the same thing in Summer Wars, but unlike that film, the VR world of U is compelling, immersive, and gorgeous. 3D animation has come a long way in the last 10 years, and Hosoda and his team have done an absolutely incredible job at worldbuilding Suzu/Belle’s dual realities.

The music, though, was critical to get right. The audience has to believe Belle could become an overnight sensation with her songs. And they knock it out of the park… in the Japanese version. The filmmakers have so totally committed to the idea that Belle is an actual character that I can’t even find the name of the woman who sings the songs in the original version. She’s just credited as Belle. (She even has social media accounts.)

But between the original songs (written and arranged by Taisei Iwasaki, Ludvig Forssell, and Yuta Bandoh) and the sweepingly intimate score composed by Miho Hazama, the soundtrack (available on Milan Records) is something I’ll have on repeat for a while.

I just wish I could say the same thing about the English songs. I almost always recommend watching films in their original language, but with Belle, it’d be a crime to watch the English dub. Nineteen-year-old Kylie McNeill recorded the English versions of the songs, and though the translation and adaptation are admirable, the vocals lack the urgency and emotion of the original. Unfortunately, the English songs are a pale copy of the Japanese. Unless you somehow NEED to see the English dub, we wholeheartedly recommend the subbed version.

Belle is a film that I’m not sure I loved immediately, but it’s certainly one that has crept into my subconscious and demands I keep thinking about it. There’s just so much here that the more I think (obsess?) about it, the more I find to love. So it’s only a matter of time before Belle becomes a film I love outright.

Get tickets to see Belle in the theater here, listen to the soundtrack here, and keep an eye on GKIDS for the eventual home release. But most of all, enjoy!