“In theaters this week after a successful run in Japan and a 14-minute standing ovation at Cannes, Belle is anime director Mamoru Hosoda’s exceedingly ambitious, mostly successful metaverse take on the classic French fairy tale Beauty and The Beast.

“It shifts the action from a Euro-centric village and castle to a small Japanese town and a virtual-reality social network that Mark Zuckerberg could only dream of.

“And it left me wishing I was as optimistic about the internet as Hosoda apparently is.

“The Academy-Award nominated Hosoda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Wolf Children, Mirai) credits the Disney classic 1991 version of Beauty and The Beast as the reason he decided to stay in the anime industry during his early years as an animator working for Toei Animation.”

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