B. Li

Beneath it's child-like veneer, is a passion project for cinephiles and animation aficionados. Pompo is a vibrant introduction to the art of movie making. It's stand-out editing in transitions, meaningful inclusion of plot elements, and smooth animation keeps you invested throughout its pinpoint 90 minute runtime. There is clear love found in the editing between scenes and unlike a 9th grade's first attempt at a PowerPoint project, even with its liberal use of transition tools, it feels meaningful, albeit fast-paced. I only noted one instance where the scene change was awkward (involving grocery bags). The storyboarding for Pompo has produced a strong introduction to the movie as details in the background resurface. Many animes employ methods of speeding up production by using static backgrounds, reducing details in mob characters, etc. If you watch carefully, even subtle details like a character's eye movement are carefully animated to express emotion behind dark sunglasses. Secondary characters show a diverse collection of faces and have impact, unlike a mob character with bangs covering their shadowed out eyes. That being said, Pompo is not without its shortcomings. The plot is simplistic to a fault; the screenwriting fails to generate any genuine conflict as it falls on tropes to move the story along. Almost every possible trope that can be found in stories about struggling artists attempting their dream project is found in the plot. The issue being that when everything works out so smoothly for the struggling artist, are they really struggling? If there's no struggle to complete their opus, does it not take depth away from the piece? While Pompo's storyline is on par with someone claiming that they slammed their hand on a table full of jigsaw pieces, causing them to all fall into place perfectly, it's clever use of editing and storytelling through its visuals make for an entertaining film on the subject of cinema. There's clear love behind the making and even without the anticipation of a hidden post-credit scene, the small audience that were in attendance with me stayed to give recognition to the artisans behind the work.

Mamoru Hosoda has finally achieved another great feat as a director and writer; astoundingly, against expectations, he has created an original film that falls flatter than one of his earliest works, Digimon the Movie. Belle is a strange addition to his list of achievements. It excels in music and visual presentation, but completely flops when it comes to its storytelling and relationship building. There's clearly been thought put into the voice actors and the composition of music. Right off the bat, you're introduced to the main character through dazzling visuals, strong vocals, and beautiful world-building. But just as it establishes the basic premise of who Suzu is and what Belle represents, the plot fizzles. It's almost as if Hosoda, who is credited as the sole writer, drafted a few general points on a napkin, submitted it as a final draft, and somehow, skipped the entire editorial phase and received approval. Nothing feels earned as the story progresses. The initial shine slowly turns gray as you realize the world he built on U and in reality is all flash and no fire. You're introduced to a multitude of side characters with a negligent amount of screen time and their relationship towards Suzu is flimsy at best since you're given minor reminders of how they fit into the plot. As the movie progresses, classic anime tropes and lack of quality in editing slowly pop up; transitions between U and reality stop making any sense 1/3 into the movie, strange interactions in U where it seems like Hosoda thinks he's making an isekai movie, Deuse ex Machinas popping up whenever needed ("Oh I barely interact with the main character, but I'll pop up near the end and I'll happen to be the only one who recognizes a unique ____ that somehow solves the issue at hand"), clear evidence of budget cuts (scenes where 95% of the "animation" is just still frames for a whole minute, reused assets from the beginning of the movie that aren't updated to reflect the changes in character development, etc), the list just goes on. I understand that Hosoda was inspired to make this movie to tackle online toxicity. Some of the visual presentations are absolutely beautiful and creative in presenting online concepts such as virality or toxic comments, but the overall execution and lack of direction do not justify a 2 hour mishmash of underdeveloped stories. It's hard to take his intent seriously, when the movie is practically a sloppy anime equivalent of South Park's "Stop Bullying" music video gag.