Review: 'Belle' is a striking virtual reality riff on 'Beauty and the Beast'
"Belle," a dazzling new anime from the Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda, drops us into a surreal cyberscape known as "U," where internet users hide behind outlandish avatars, enormous humpback whales float through the digital ether and a nobody can become a somebody overnight. That nobody would be Suzu (voiced by Kaho Nakamura in the original Japanese version), a moody, freckled teenager who finds herself suddenly reborn as Belle, a pink-haired, silver-voiced diva who racks up millions of followers, even as she draws the attention of a mysteriously bruised and brooding Beast.
