Belle is a remarkably spectacular visual feast from Oscar nominated director Mamoru Hosoda and after premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in 202, it’ll now be available to own on DVD & Blu-ray on 27th June.
Belle is a fantastical coming of age story that’s Beauty and the Beast in the age of social media. One day, seventeen year old high school student Suzu who lives in a rural village with her father finds that her life is about to completely change. Suzu was incredibly close with her mother and they used to sing together however after Suzu’s mother died trying to save someone else’s child, Suzu grew to resent her and ended up straying from her father and she gave up singing.
For years Suzu grew up being only a shadow of herself until she encounters “U” a virtual world on the internet with over five billion members. “U” gives her a chance to no longer be Suzu but for her to be the world-famous singer Belle instead. And once she meets the mysterious user known only as Dragon inside this world her real world and her online persona all start to collide and her whole world is changed in this beautiful film.
As a visual piece of work, Belle looks absolutely stunning. The version I watched unfortunately only had English dubbing as opposed to English subtitles which would normally be my preference for a foreign language film but I’m actually quite thankful for not having to read the subtitles because it meant that I could spend longer admiring and gazing at each frame and taking in all the beautiful details instead of looking at the lower third of the screen.
Belle features lovely animation and some really great music too but there are just a few too many moments where the plot loses itself and it gets too tangled up in its internet-era telling of Beauty and the Beast but nonetheless it’s a memorable film.
As well as DVD and Blu-ray release, the film will also be available on 4K UHD Blu-ray as part of a Zavvi and Anime Limited web store exclusive Deluxe Edition, which will not only include the film on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray, but is also packed with bonus content: an additional Blu-ray disc with over 2-hours of extras, a CD of the film’s acclaimed Japanese-language soundtrack, a 60 page booklet, 16 double-sided art cards, and an A3 recreation of the UK theatrical poster all housed together in rigid collector’s packaging.
Belle will be released on DVD & Blu-ray on 27th June, as well as a special feature-packed 4K UHD Blu-ray Collector’s Edition that includes the film’s beloved soundtrack on 7th July 2022.
DIRECTOR: Mamoru Hosoda RUNTIME: 121 minutes
COUNTRY: Japan
Film Rating: 
