Belle’s Mamoru Hosoda on an anime obsession that began with Digimon

belle This is the anime that Mamoru Hosoda has always wanted to make. The latest movie directed by summer warsAnd wolf children, And mirai Focuses on the story of Suzu, a shy high school student who rediscovers her love for singing when she enters the immersive world of Internet Yu. Abandoning her quiet and reserved self, Suzu takes the identity of Bill, a gorgeous singer with a beautiful voice who is loved by all around her. When one of Belle’s concerts is interrupted by a mysterious entity known as “The Dragon” that terrorizes the residents of U, she sets out on a journey to forge a relationship with the monster unlike any she’s ever known.

Hosoda’s fascination with the transformative and reflective possibilities of virtual worlds dates back to his work in the year 2000 Digimon: Our War Game (later re-edited to . format Digimon: The Movie In the west). belleThe world of U feels like a continuation and evolution of the ideas showcased in the Digimon Digital Highway, as well as summer wars“Geese.

Polygon spoke with Hosoda over Zoom about the origins of U and his work with Tomm Moore from Cartoon Saloon and frozen Character designer Jin Kim on belleand the surprising relationship between Final Fantasy and the gigantic subwoofer-wrapped whale seen in the film’s opening.

Online fantasy worlds are a recurring staple in your films – what Internet theme continues to inspire you as a director?

As for your point of view, I’ve been making films of this type dealing with the Internet topic for the past 20 years, even today. During this time, I feel that there is a huge change or shift in how the Internet is used and how it is perceived.

When I was creating Digimon, I thought the Internet was a more youthful space. It was this emerging technology that people would be able to use and younger generations would take advantage of to break down a lot of old world institutions and develop something completely new of their own. It was such a new game that the kids were playing that had all kinds of different possibilities. But fast forward to today, I think the internet has emerged as a reflection of our reality now that we have all generations using it and how it has become a necessity in our daily lives.

The internet is not what it was 20 years ago, in many ways. We have a lot of issues of our own in our current real-world society that have been carried over to the internet, like toxicity, fake news, and a lot of these kinds of downsides. I feel because of this that a lot of movies or other works try to portray the internet in a more negative light. But for me, I want to help the younger generations face and overcome all of these issues that we know exist on the Internet, to somehow turn it into a more positive space where they can do a lot of things.

What it was like to work with architect Eric Wong on creativity belleU’s Internet World? How did you first discover his work, and what are some of the inspirations you have seen in shaping the look and feel of the universe?

When we were designing the world of U, we knew we needed someone really special with an amazing talent. Similar to how Belle is actually this little-known girl who lives in rural suburban Japan, we wanted to take a similar approach by searching online for someone who could handle the task of creating a U. We found Eric’s wallet and at the time, we had no idea who His identity, how old he is, where he is, or what kind of background he has. We only found out that he was a very young architect after reaching out and talking to him, I think he was 27 years old, living in London and had absolutely no film experience. We were able to beat that because of his incredible talents and the fact that he put himself out there on the internet to be discovered. It shares a lot of similarities with the story belle this way.

Photo: Eric Wong/Studio Chizu

She has collaborated with animator Jin Kim (Frozen, Tangled, Big Hero 6), Tomm Moore of Cartoon Saloon and Ross Stewart for Belle’s character design and background art for the film, respectively. What motivated you to seek out these collaborators?

U in . world belle Pretty huge on a global scale. When Jane Kim and I first talked about designing the character Belle, we wanted to make sure that the international background was reflected in all the designs we came up with. I think there’s not a lot of interaction between animation studios in the United States and the culture of animation productions and Japan or other animation studios out there, so I wanted to help change that in some ways because entertainment is shifting to this global medium of ideas.

When Jane and I decided to work together to see what this collaboration would look like and what kind of design or direction it would result in, it was a truly amazing experience. I had a similar conversation with Tomm Moore at Cartoon Saloon where we felt that the animation space was dominated by these bigger studios and that smaller independent studios like Studio Chizu and Cartoon Saloon didn’t really have a big world stage. I think we were all headed in the same direction when we decided to collaborate.

One of the iconic designs of belle It’s a giant whale with subwoofer speakers on its back that Bill rides in at the opening of the movie. How was this creature designed?

The designs and idea that came to me specifically for the whale were that it wasn’t a whale with speakers, so much as a whale costume was in many ways. “Whale” is kind of like wearing that wardrobe with this outfit and going out into this virtual space. I’ve already had several designers come up with ideas, and this was true for some of the other character designs as well; We had several designs from which we chose the one that I felt represented the best idea of ​​what we were trying to convey.

In the end we decided to design Isamu Kamikokuryo, who previously worked as an art director on the Final Fantasy series. We originally had him design for Dragon’s Castle, but given his background, I said, “Hey, why don’t you take a crack at this whale’s design,” and in an instant I knew that was basically the whale he wanted to go with. It really captured what I was looking for.

Photo: Studio Kizo

Music plays an important role in the film, not only in the personal story of Suzu (also known as Bill), but in the exploration of themes of unity and connection in a digital world. How did it feel to work on music for Belle? Do you have a favorite song?

Music is definitely the focus of this movie in many ways. Part of that is because we didn’t want to tell the classic story of a suburban country girl who rose to stardom, but a story about a soul somehow suppressed in search of freedom and fulfillment of that power through this journey. That’s why we didn’t want to follow very popular songs or look to the top of the US Billboard chart. We really wanted to look for something much deeper where it is in her heart or soul, and seek that freedom from some form of oppression, which is meant to encourage a lot of people going through similar stages.

We had four different composers for this particular movie, three of whom were Japanese and one from Sweden. Each song has lyrics composed by a different composer, except for the dance scene between Belle and the Dragon and the ending where Belle sings in front of everyone, both of which were performed by Taisei Iwasaki. I think he did a great job at really capturing the themes of the movie. I couldn’t really pick out any favorites from the soundtrack because I think every composer brought their best game to the table. But with more platforms like Spotify, I think the music has been edited in many ways for a more global and accessible platform, so I look forward to seeing songs that resonate with audiences after watching the movie.

belle Shows on select IMAX screens on January 12th. The movie starts in theaters on January 14th.