I tried it and it works. The animation uses belts that are very flexible. With a real belt I needed to give it a shake to make it untwist itself, but it does work.

It is indeed easy to twist the belt until you have the hang of it.

I think the animation is a bit deceptive because even with elastic bands you'd have to provide some way for the correct untwisting to occur. In the animation it happens 'automagically'.