It doesn’t take a genius to see that acclaimed director Mamoru Hosada’s Belle takes a ton of inspiration from Beauty and the Beast—most specifically the Disney adaptation. All the trappings are there. We have a beauty, a beast, and even a “Gaston” (who, in this version of the tale, is a VR Power Ranger complete with corporate sponsors). Specific scenes are likewise recreated—be that the Beast saving Belle from danger after she flees his castle or a romantic dance between the pair in the ballroom as a love song plays.
However, that doesn’t mean that this is a modern retelling of the classic fairytale. Rather, the Beauty and the Beast elements are used as a type of narrative shorthand. We all know “the tale as old as time,” thus a few familiar scenes are all we need to understand large swaths of the characters and story—even without words or any other…
