Following on from his work on the Oscar-nominated feature film Mirai, the first details for Mamoru Hosoda’s latest feature film Belle have been revealed to the public by Studio Chizu.
Mamoru Hosoda’s vast filmography has centered on the strength of family and relationships to overcome adversity, often grounded in more fantastical and unusual circumstances such as the time-traveling escapades of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and the half-human half-wolf identities of Ame and Yuki in Wolf Children. Even his most recent work, Mirai, is centered on a young boy who is upset that his parents neglect him more now that he has a baby sister, until he encounters an older girl that turns out to be Mirai herself from the future. This film finally saw Hosoda’s unique and heartfelt storytelling recognized with an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film, improving his name recognition around the world and leaving many excited to see what he does next.
Studio Chizu is proud to present Director Mamoru Hosoda's upcoming film, #BELLE coming to theaters in Japan in the Summer of 2021.
For more information please visit https://t.co/6kSVxA08U9 pic.twitter.com/6LTNspQxxU
— Studio Chizu (@StudioChizu) December 15, 2020
Mamoru Hosoda’s Studio Chizu has revealed the name and a broad plot synopsis of their latest feature film, titled Belle. Known as The Dragon and the Freckled Princess in Japan, it centers on a teenage girl in modern-day Japan whose life is straddled between real-world Tokyo and the online world of U.
With such a synopsis, it’s hard not to cast your mind towards the director’s work on Summer Wars that similarly centers on a vast online universe that had since been transformed into an alternative reality through which everything from governments to businesses to everyday citizens had since come to rely on. Of course, the internet is ever changing, and the online landscape of today is far different to the one that existed at the time of Summer Wars’ production. Whatever story Hosoda chooses to tell from this initial synopsis, a very different result will likely come out of it.
Although no further information has been revealed at this time, Mamoru Hosoda’s Belle will be released in theaters in Japan in summer 2021. You can find out more over on Studio Chizu and the film’s official website.