Posted 2/06/2026
Directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda (Mirai, Belle), Scarlet is a genre-bending animated epic that reimagines William Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a time-traveling supernatural adventure. Releasing in IMAX on February 6, 2026, the film follows Princess Scarlet (voiced by Mana Ashida), a medieval sword-fighter in Denmark who witnesses her uncle Claudius (Kôji Yakusho) murder her father to seize the throne. After a failed attempt at revenge leads to her own poisoning, Scarlet awakens in "The Otherworld"—a surreal, desert-like purgatory where souls from all eras of history coexist. There, she meets Hijiri (Masaki Okada), an idealistic male nurse from the present day whose pacifist values directly clash with Scarlet’s thirst for blood.
The film is being praised for its ambitious "maximalist" visual style, blending hand-drawn artistry with the vibrant 3D cel-shaded aesthetics Hosoda pioneered in Belle. As Scarlet and Hijiri journey through the jagged, volcanic landscapes of the afterlife, they discover that Claudius has also entered this realm, continuing his tyrannical pursuit of power even in death. The narrative serves as a poignant meditation on "female rage" and the cycle of violence, questioning whether true justice can be found through vengeance or if peace requires a radical break from the past. With a haunting score and breathtaking sequences—including a "storm dragon" that polices the afterlife—Scarlet is a bold, introspective tragedy that explores the possibility of a future free from the bitterness of the past.
Movie descriptions were generated by Google Gemini.
