I was stunned today to find Target carrying both Belle and Pompo the Cinephile on Blu-ray in stores.

I got the steelbook from Target online, and as far as instore goes, as much as they've been cutting physical media space, they always seem to have a handful of anime titles at least. Those must be decent movers.

I know anime still does very, very well on physical media. Anime and horror have always outsold other genres besides animated kids' flicks.

It's currently English dub only.

https://play.hbomax.com/page/urn:hbo...k:type:feature

This is the same SteelBook release as the Target release. The only known difference is the UPC.


via GKIDS x Shout! Factory:

BELLE (Blu-ray/DVD SteelBook LE) - 122 minutes - $32.98 - 11/1/22
- https://store.gkids.com/products/belle-steelbook
- https://www.shoutfactory.com/product...roduct_id=7914
- https://www.rightstufanime.com/Belle...ok-Blu-ray-DVD
-

GKIDS' collector's edition of Belle is out now, and...hey! So is DVD Talk's review.

I finally watched this and it's great, definitely up there with WOLF CHILDREN as Hosoda's best. It clearly has echoes of SUMMER WARS, among other films. It's a high-tech version of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, but much more emotionally intense. Need to re-watch it soon to get more out of it.

It has good songs, too. I tried finding a complete list of the songs in the film, but Anime News Network's list seems to me to be incomplete and IMDB's "Soundtrack" listing for this is a joke. In any event, I just looked it up on CDJapan and a soundtrack CD is available. So I'll find my songs that way. Yaay!

Well, I finally watched BELLE for a second time (a year later!) and I had a question and I’m not sure how I can find the answer. Maybe WTK knows.

Watching it a second time, it seems obvious to me that it would make a great stage musical, whether in Japanese or in English. The songs are already Broadway-friendly. Has anyone tried to get such a project off the ground? Would there be too much fear that theatergoers might think it a rip-off of Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”? If it did get staged in English, what contemporary American singer could pull off the role of Belle?

P.S. I just watched two extras about the music on the Blu-ray and I realize I now have to watch the movie again with the English dub on so I can hear how the voice actress/singer cast in the title role, Kylie McNeill, does the songs in English.

UPDATE: Kylie McNeill is great! If there's a Broadway version, she should do it!

I don't think there are very many stage musicals based on anime in Japan (stage plays seems to happen more often). Very few of them get released outside of Japan. IMO, it's an extremely niche product. Spirited Away: Live on Stage (closer to stage play) did very well in theaters for GKIDS and was released on BD.