Belle is a visually intense, modern-day riff on the classic fairy tale, with wonderful world-building and a charm that never outstays its welcome.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 18, 2024

What it leaves us with is a film that is as emotionally astonishing as it is visually euphoric, blossoming into a finale equal parts stunning and deeply humanistic.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 15, 2024

Once this dynamic happens, Hosoda can now play around with the characters’ emotions and build up the climax, which contains many emotional cruxes at once...

| Original Score: A- | Mar 6, 2024

Hosoda takes an unexpected twist in bringing the tale of Beauty and the Beast into the modern world, exposing all that can lie behind a mere avatar on a social network. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 10/10 | Dec 19, 2023

A film that anyone who appreciates animation won’t want to miss.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 25, 2023

Despite not sticking the landing with his script, Hosada manages to successfully manipulate our emotions with moments of powerful themes accented by incredible visuals and musical performances.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 7, 2023

Belle is easily one of the best animated films of 2021! Mamoru Hosoda has taken concept of Beauty and the Beast & made it something truly awe-inspiring! The music, voice acting, emotional depth, and character story telling is something to never forget!

| Original Score: 10/10 | Dec 26, 2022

The restraint takes a scene that could have been merely comic into something as beautiful as it is silly. It’s slice-of-life filmmaking at its best.

| Oct 4, 2022

I thought it was kind of sumptuous. I really enjoyed it and loved the characterization.

| Sep 29, 2022

Hosoda's return to themes that have defined his directorial career is as gorgeous to behold as it is blindingly hopeful.

| Sep 20, 2022

With fascinating reflections and messages of empowerment, freedom and hope for the next generations, it is a cinematographic feast that transfers to a modern stage the cardinal concepts of a timeless fable. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 7, 2022

How did the anime version of “Beauty and the Beast” combine with “Ready Player One” to result in a teen drama that is subtle, moving and resonant?

| Sep 6, 2022

A triumph of a release from All The Anime. An exhaustive, technically excellent, and beautifully presented package for one of Mamoru Hosoda’s best films to date. [Belle Limited Edition 4K Boxset review]

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 13, 2022

While it mightn't seem like it'd need courage to create this lush, grand, generous and captivating film — and gorgeous as well — but bold, insightful and transfixing takes on stories as old as rhyme just don't come around that often.

| Jun 25, 2022

A reflection on solitude, trauma, timidity, and adolescent grief which simultaneously happens against a virtual universe with almost discordant colors and plagued with five million followers. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jun 8, 2022

A visual wellspring, a cascade of fast, fleeting images that capture quite well the sign of the times. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 23, 2022

While taking a central idea from the classic fairy tale (and with a special emphasis on Disney's toon version), this imaginative piece is very much its own, uh, beast.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 21, 2022

... Allows the heroine to embark on a journey of maturity, capable of moving any viewer, whether or not they are animation lovers. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 18, 2022

A little bit Apple shareholder meeting; a little Social Network; a dash of Disney Princess, and a massive helping of technofuturist anime possibility.

| May 13, 2022

Belle is a reflection of the dangers of the internet, written with the essence of an ethereal story. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 12, 2022