Mamoru Hosoda

> In the present age, I wanted to find beauty, and was able to express that through this animation. Animation tends to be for children, But we will face the present age problems and create works for young people who are surviving current problems. Through my work, I think that society can be changed by my drawings. For better or for worse, by removing the prejudice against animation, it can work for adults and children who are involved in this modern Internet — everyone is looking for ways to live in a changing society. My work focuses on that. I would like everyone to see such a place
>
> Mamoru Hosoda to *Cinema Daily US*

**Mamoru Hosoda** (**細田 守**, **Hosoda Mamoru**, born September 19, 1967) is a Japanese film director and animator. He co-founded Studio Chizu with Yuichiro Saito in 2011 so that he could make films independently. Hosoda is credited as the director and writer of *Belle*, who received the First Locarno Kids Award for the work.

In an interview with Cannes Première, he shared about coming up with a concept for *Belle*: "My daughter is 5 years old. I thought a lot about her future while making this film. When I was born, the digital world was nothing like it is today. I imagined what it would be like when my daughter and her generation, who were born with the internet, are grown up." While the film is largely inspired by the European fairytale *Beauty and the Beast*, he also took elements from other stories, "in which characters are transformed into animals to express the great sadness of humanity," mentioning Atsushi Nakajima's *The story of the poet who was changed into a tiger." He also mentioned to* The Playlist *how Disney's version was "so impactful," where he had seen it after graduating college and was entering the animation industry. To reinterpret and make it his own way, he stated, "It took me 30 years to finally get here. But the, I guess, sort of inspiration was I thought, "Well, how would 'Beauty and the Beast' look if we put it into the context of the internet and our current modern society?"*

He remarked to *Crunchyroll* of the attempt to make it a global collaboration, with the voice cast and crew of different origins and backgrounds around the world. Along with the key theme of duality between the offline versus online world, Suzu/Belle, and the Beast's exterior versus who he is inside, Mamoru commented "how the values seemed to be inverted in some ways; what we think is pretty turns out to be ugly, and what might look ugly turns out to be quite beautiful on the inside." Notably, Mamoru has also explored the theme of the internet with the films *Digimon Adventure: Our War Game* and *Summer Wars*. His previous works, *Wolf Children* and *Boy and the Beast*, also draw similarities to *Beauty and the Beast* with relationships between humans and creatures.

## Trivia

* When the film debuted in Cannes, Mamoru received a 14-minute standing ovation. Asked which one was more satisfying, that or receiving an Oscar nomination, he replied, "I was concerned for people's hands! Fourteen minutes is a long time to be clapping. Obviously, I was really happy about that because it shows what the audience think of the film, and maybe the prize-winning films at the festival only got a four-minute ovation. But then again, who doesn't want to be nominated for an Oscar? That's important in a different way. In Japan we really like prizes and awards, and if you haven't won the prize, you don't get the same sort of recognition. But for me, I think the 14 minutes is maybe worth more."

## References

1. ↑ Hosoki, Nobuhiro (January 17, 2022). "An Exclusive Interview with Director Mamoru Hosoda on *Belle*". *Cinema Daily US*.
2. ↑ Khaldi, Tarik (July 15, 2021). "Belle: Interview with Mamoru Hosoda".
3. ↑ Ellwood, Gregory (January 17, 2022). "Mamoru Hosoda on Creating a Virtual 'Beauty And The Beast' for *Belle* [Interview]". *The Playlist*.
4. ↑ Haddick, Alicia (January 15, 2022). "INTERVIEW: BELLE Director Mamoru Hosoda Discusses His Virtual Take on Beauty and the Beast". *Crunchyroll*.
5. ↑ Webster, Andrew (January 11, 2022). "Belle Director Mamoru Hosoda on Creating a Metaverse Fairy Tale".
6. ↑ Hughes, David (June 22, 2022). "Mamoru Hosoda interview: 'I'm fed up with the internet being shown as this dystopian place'". *TimeOut*.