This cutting-edge fairy tale is the most ambitious work yet from Mamoru Hosoda, the director of animated films including 'Mirai,' 'Wolf Children' and 'Summer Wars.'
, drops us into a surreal cyberscape known as “U,” where internet users hide behind outlandish avatars, enormous humpback whales float through the digital ether and a nobody can become a somebody overnight. That nobody would be Suzu , a moody, freckled teenager who finds herself suddenly reborn as Belle, a pink-haired, silver-voiced diva who racks up millions of followers, even as she draws the attention of a mysteriously bruised and brooding Beast.
Hosoda sketches in Suzu’s pre-virtual existence early on, with a mix of present-day bustle and aching flashbacks that coalesce into a messily moving portrait of teenage malaise. We witness the terrible tragedy that scarred her childhood and the sadness and shyness that have haunted her ever since. We also learn about her love for singing, a gift she’s stifled in the midst of her near-constant anxiety and grief.
Suzu must also deal with everyone’s curiosity over who Belle really is, and she clings tightly to the anonymity that has paradoxically enabled her to shine so bright. She isn’t the only one keeping her identity a secret, of course, and in that respect, the extravagantly stylized world of U isn’t all that different from Suzu’s small-town high school, where she’s one of many hiding their feelings in plain sight.
But the most troubling mask is worn by U’s Public Enemy No. 1, a sharp-fanged, dark-maned, double-horned Beast also referred to as the Dragon . Having left a trail of digital destruction in his wake, the Beast is being hunted online by vigilante forces, but it soon becomes clear that only Belle has the power to tame him. And so begins a very conscious homage to “Beauty and the Beast,” one that’s more Disney than Jean Cocteau, starting with our heroine’s choice of moniker.
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