Belle (2021 film)

Belle (Japanese: 竜とそばかすの姫, Hepburn: Ryū to Sobakasu no Hime; literally The Dragon and the Freckled Princess) is a 2021 Japanese animated musical science fantasy drama film written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda and produced by Studio Chizu. The story is inspired by the 1756 French fairytale Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont as well as the 1991 Disney animated film. Belle had an acclaimed premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. The film was additionally dubbed into foreign languages (English, Chinese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, Greek, German and Polish). It was released theatrically in Japan on July 16, 2021. Belle was the third-highest-grossing Japanese film of 2021, accounting for ¥6.53 billion in box-office rankings as of December 12, 2021.