Mamoru Hosoda Teams Up With Cartoon Saloon And Disney Vet Jin Kim For New Film ‘Belle’

Hosoda, the director of acclaimed features including Wolf Children and Mirai, met Kim when the latter film was nominated for an Oscar in 2019. The pair “have long respected each other’s work,” according to Chizu. Meeting in L.A., “they promised to one day work on something creatively together and finally realized that goal with Belle.”

Moore has also spoken of his respect for Hosoda in the past. In an interview with Animation for Adults last October, he said, “Wolf Children is a gorgeous movie; I felt that it was very nuanced. It has a much more modern setting [than Wolfwalkers] but it deals with some of the same themes, about wildness and trying and trying to fit in as a wolf.” He noted that Hosoda’s daughter would dub one of the girls in the Japanese version of Wolfwalkers.

Chizu also announced that Eric Wong, a London-based architect and designer, created the concept artwork for the world of U: “Hosoda personally found and commissioned Eric to come up with this universal and international ‘internet space’ from both an architectural and design perspective.”

Belle was first announced in December. It tells the story of Suzu, a 17-year old girl who loses her ability to sing after her mother’s death. Discovering U, she explores it through her avatar Belle, a singer who becomes a rising star in the world. The film will be released in Japanese theaters in July and is represented overseas by Charades.

While Hosoda has long had a fanbase outside Japan, Mirai was something of a breakout hit. Distributed in the U.S. by GKIDS, it became the first non-Studio Ghibli anime title to pick up an Oscar nomination. It also earned an Annie Award for best independent feature animation, as well as a Golden Globe nomination.