How ‘Belle’ Created a Great Animated Scene by Holding a Single Shot (Video)

thewrap.com:

A version of this story about “Belle” first appeared in the special animation section of Awards Preview issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.The “Beauty and the Beast” story seems particularly suited for animation, and for reinvention.The tale of a forbidden love between a virtuous human woman and a monster is full of opportunities that really blossom in animation — wild transformations, magical objects and the exaggerated visual dramatization of such an unlikely romance.

Thirty years after Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” enchanted audiences (and became the first animated feature ever nominated for the Best Picture Oscar), there’s a new and very different version of the story ready to steal your heart.“Belle,” the latest animated feature from Mamoru Hosoda (Mirai, “The Boy and the Beast,” “Mirai”), takes the folkloric tale into the current technological landscape and beyond.

It follows Suzu, an awkward girl who lost her mom at a young age and who is flourishing in a computer-simulated world known as the U.

In the U, she reimages herself as a pop singer named Belle, who encounters a fearsome beast known as the Dragon. She forms an unlikely friendship with the creature, while attempting to figure out who he is in real life (could it be someone close to her?) and protect him from those inside the U looking to destroy him.To create the world of U, Hosoda called upon a diverse array of talent, with character designs courtesy of Disney veterans Jin Kim and Michael Camacho and backgrounds coming from Cartoon Saloon, the Irish animation studio responsible for the Oscar-nominated “Wolfwalkers” and “Song of the Sea.” “’Belle’ takes place in a virtual world via the internet,” Hosoda said. “We wanted to have this global feel to the.