Belle

Belle is the female protagonist of Disney's 1991 animated feature film, Beauty & the Beast. She is the daughter of Maurice, an inventor with whom she resides in a small, French village. The townsfolk labeled Belle as an outcast because of her free spirit. Belle is the fifth official member of the Disney Princess line-up.

Official Description
Far-off places, daring sword fights, a prince in disguise, Belle longs for so much more than a "normal life" in this small, provincial town, a town where girls don't aspire to more than marrying well. Still, adventure is the last thing on her mind when she rides her horse, Phillippe, into a forest to find her beloved father, who is missing. Thinking only of her father, she makes a bargain with a Beast who holds her father captive in his castle.

Though the Beast now holds the key to Belle's prison, he doesn't have the key to her heart, and her yearning spirit won't be kept prisoner. But after he risks his own life to save hers, she begins to see his past appearance. She realizes that deep down inside him there might be something than she- or he - has ever dreamed.

Development
When production first began on Beauty and the Beast, Belle's characterization was initially slightly closer to that of the original tale, being slightly timid yet also caring. In the first draft, she also had to contend with two older sisters who, similar to in the original tale, utterly hated her because she received more attention than them, especially regarding potential suitors. In the second draft, she largely retained the traits from the first draft, although she had a sister named Clarice (whom, unlike her sisters in the first draft, genuinely cared for Belle's well-being) as well as a snobbish aunt named Marguerite (who would have been the movie's equivalent of Belle's wicked sisters from the original tale and first draft).

However, after the 1989 storyboard reel was presented, then-Disney Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg ordered it to be rewritten from scratch, both due to viewing it as too dark and dramatic, and because he envisioned a Broadway-like film with a "feminist twist" to the original tale.

To accomplish this, he hired Lina Woolverton, who at the time had just started film screenwriting and her only other experience with Disney was writing some episodes of their various Saturday Morning cartoons. Woolverton based Belle on Katharine Hepburn's role of Jo March from the film adaptation of the book, "Little Women", and avoided using the Jean Cocteau film as a template for Belle and the film, even going as far as to avoid seeing the film.

She also gave Belle a love of literature to show her open-mindedness. She also made sure to make Belle a feminist in order to have her stand apart from Ariel in The Little Mermaid, as she didn't want "another insipid princess", taking notes from the women's movement to create her character. Paige O'Hara requested that Belle, similar to Jerry Orbach's handling of Lumiere in the same film, possess a French accent, although unlike Orbach, Disney refused the request.

Personality
Belle has a gained a significant amount of intelligence over the years due to her love of books, which provided her with an elevated vocabulary, an active imagination, and an open mind. She is very confident and outspoken in opinions and seldom likes being told what to do. Despite all this, she doesn't have very many friends. Her smarts and free-thinking attitude make her stand out from her fellow townspeople, who regard her as a little odd behind her beauty.

Belle appears less concerned about her or others' appearances and is able to look past appearances into their personality. This is how she manages to break the Beast's curse and bring love and laughter to the castle.

Belle is somewhat of a free woman for her time and resists being mistreated, undermined, humiliated, demeaned, or controlled by anyone, especially and specifically by Gaston. She does not appear to be receptive to Gaston's description of marriage together, such as having six to seven sons or rubbing his feet. Even when agreeing to live under the Beast's control, she acts independently.

Belle willingly listens to, takes advice from, and admires her father Maurice since, throughout most of her life, he's the only person who has believed in her unconditionally. She also considers the opinions and directions of the Beast, because, like Maurice, he is able to treat her as an equal (the Beast eventually learned how throughout the course of the film). Belle also seemed to have a good relationship with the bookseller, presumably because of his encouraging her to pursue her love of literature.

Belle's compassionate heart and warm nature also embeds in an impressively brave woman that neither listens nor cares about what the other townspeople say about her. She refuses Gaston’s wedding proposal and remains the only girl to resist his ‘charms’ due to his rude, sexist demeanor instead of mindlessly lavishing over him based purely on the physical. Her most triumphant moments in the movie are when she willingly trades her freedom for her father’s without much hesitation and manage to stand up against the Beast at certain points. However, like any human, Belle does fear things, such as wolves, Beast’s castle, family disappearance, etc. The Beast also at first, manages to make the situation of her predicament as a prisoner, never to see her father or dreams again, come crushing down in tears. Especially when her captor himself is a 10 feet, easily angered monster which commands her entire life. Nevertheless, the unconditional love Belle places to those close to her, including the Beast eventually, make her strong enough to risk her life for theirs.

Belle is quite stubborn when it comes to stating and upholding her opinions and maintaining her ideas. Even though she says that she dreams of adventure, she also states that she wishes for a friend who accepts her for who she is. This is because everyone in town criticizes her for doing her own thing and can't understand her, making her feel like she can't fit in. However, even when people give her a hard time, she never changes but comes to a better understanding of herself. This makes the biggest difference when she breaks the spell and charms the Beast just by being herself.

The Disney comic New Adventures of Beauty and the Beast, set a few years before the first film's events, implies that Belle didn't believe in the supernatural despite her love of fairy tales. This is evidenced while she explores a part of the Black Forest before encountering an owl and thinks that there aren't any mythical creatures in there. This is also supported in the film where she yells "this is impossible" in shock after accidentally bumping into the Wardrobe in shock upon discovery that Mrs. Potts and her fellow servants were living objects.

Belle is quite witty and uses this trait to her advantage to outsmart people. When in an argument with the Beast, Belle held her ground and challenged each of the Beast's points with a cunning comeback, such as "If you hadn't frightened me I wouldn't have run away" or "You should learn to control your temper". Each of these statements left the Beast stunned and at a loss for words. Belle managed to think of these comebacks without much thought or hesitation. When Lumiere and Cogsworth attempted to lead Belle's curiosity away from the West Wing, she challenged them by saying the West Wing wouldn't be forbidden if the Beast wasn't hiding something in it, also briefly stunning them. Belle's logic may also have helped her save Maurice by realizing that something was going on in the castle that she wanted to find out. Soon, in the West Wing, she almost discovers the Beast's true identity, though she briefly forgets it in the end.

Belle has a strong sense of character and uses this trait in a variety of ways, often to her own advantage. On Belle's first night in the castle, following the "Be Our Guest" sequence, she develops an urge to explore the castle and asks for a guide. Observing Cogsworth's "authoritative" personality, she immediately knows that Cogsworth would be the best candidate. At first, Cogsworth is quite reluctant to the idea, but when Belle says she is sure he knows everything about the castle, he agrees. Similarly, she also has a strong sense of deductive reasoning, as she deduced from the animate objects' interactions that the castle in which she was imprisoned was enchanted without anyone telling her beforehand.

She is also implied to have deduced Gaston's true role in locking Maurice up. This, however, was contradicted when she exposed the Beast's existence to a congregated mob despite the high likelihood that they would turn and kill the Beast due to their current emotional state, as well as being shocked by Gaston and the villagers doing exactly that. This makes Belle feel so guilty that she resolves to stop Gaston and save the Beast, her true love.

Belle's personality transforms throughout the film. At first, she frequently dreams about a life of adventure and romance, not realizing that sometimes adventures might take a turn for the worse. As Belle begins to spend more time with the Beast and their relationship blossoms into a strong friendship, she begins to fall in love with him without realizing it.

Physical Appearance
Belle is known throughout the village for her beauty, with one villager commenting that it has no parallel, but she isn't vain or concerned about her looks although she knows it. She is only too aware that her fellow citizens think of her as "odd" and "peculiar". Belle pays very little attention or concern to her appearance, unlike the very rude and arrogant Gaston.

Belle has long, brown hair, most often tied back in a low ponytail with a blue ribbon, and possesses captivating hazel eyes, full pink lips, rosy cheeks, a heart-shaped face, and a sculpted figure. One of her more distinct features is the strands of hair that are constantly slipping loose from her ponytail and falling in front of her face - she is often seen brushing them back into place when nervous or trying to be polite.

Throughout the film, Belle wears various outfits depending on the occasion:

Her primary outfit is a medium-length cerulean blue sleeveless dress with a white long-sleeved button-up shirt underneath, a white apron on her waist, a white petticoat, and brown ballet flats on her feet. Her hair is tied in a low ponytail adorned with a medium blue ribbon. When she goes to the Beast's castle, she wears a dark blue cloak. Belle's hair is loose twice in the film, the first time when the ribbon on her ponytail is torn off by one of the wolves, and the second when she removes the ribbon before finding the Beast during his fight with Gaston.

The day that Belle was gifted the castle's library, she wore a green dress (similar to the color scheme of Ariel from The Little Mermaid) with a matching hair ribbon, a white petticoat underneath the dress and black ballet flats, and outside when she was tending to Philippe and Sultan she added her traditional dark blue cloak.

When she was reading to the Beast, Belle wore a pink/rose dress (similar to Aurora's from Sleeping Beauty) with a matching hair ribbon, a white petticoat, and red ballet flats and when she was outside teaching the Beast to feed the birds she added a red cloak with white fur trim.

Her most elaborate and iconic dress is a golden ball gown with a simply designed bodice, wrapped off-the-shoulder sleeves, long yellow opera gloves matching her outfit, a gold wide-hemmed floor-length skirt made of 8 triangular panels and a multiple-layered white petticoat with scalloped edging on the hemline, and yellow high-heeled shoes. This is the dress she wears while sharing her first dance with the Beast in the "Beauty and the Beast" sequence, and their second dance after the curse is broken. With this outfit, she wears some of her hair in a neat bun, but the majority of it trails down her neck in a beautiful, flowing motion resembling a ponytail.

In Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, Belle wears a long red winter coat with a white fur collar, belt, and folded sleeves while wearing her primary outfit. At the end of the film, set after the curse was broken, Belle wears a deep red rose dress which resembles the color of a red rose with a matching deep red hair ribbon, a light yellow lining connected to her bodice and the end of her dress skirt, a white petticoat, and deep red high-heeled shoes.

Overall, when she first enters the Beast's castle, her outfit wasn't adapted to the castle, but as the film moves on, her outfit started progressively shifting to more formal and elegant dresses, signifying her growing more attached to the castle and its inhabitants as the Beast reforms into a well-behaved gentleman.

Trivia

 * Belle's name means "beautiful" in French (not "beauty" which is said "beauté" in French). Her complete surname in the tale is "La belle enfant" ("The Beautiful Child").
 * Belle's movements maintain an air of elegance. This was at the request of the story writers and producers of Beauty and the Beast, where they studied the movements of ballerinas during the course of Belle's development. Like ballerinas, Belle walks diligently and swiftly on her toes no matter what types of shoes she is wearing or where she is located. She can subconsciously navigate her way through a crowded street while reading, without colliding with any other people or objects (although having several near-misses), at one point even deflecting water that was about to pour on top of her while she was reading without once looking up.
 * Belle's eyes were originally going to be gray, but in the final cut, they were hazel. Belle is currently the only official Disney Princess to have hazel eyes.
 * In the New Fantasyland, Belle's cottage shows a picture of her reading with her mother―a beautiful woman with wavy, light brown hair, blue eyes, and wearing a pink dress. One wall in the cottage also has height marks up until her 18th birthday, suggesting she maybe 18 years old during the films. Based on this painting, her mother, when she was still alive, probably looked exactly like Belle but with lighter hair and blue eyes.
 * The New Fantasyland attraction also implied with the height wall that Belle may have been born in the village, which contradicted a theory stemmed from a brief lyric in the opening song, that implied that Belle and her father had moved to the village sometime prior to the events of the original film.
 * The book Belle viewed as her favorite was also shown in the attraction to be "le Songe d'une femme" (lit. "the dream of a woman"), as a possible nod to Sleeping Beauty. It also revealed that, at least by the events of the movie, she had at least two copies of Sleeping Beauty: The one her mom read to her when she was a child (thus explaining why it was her favorite, as well as why she loved reading), and the other being the book she got from the bookstore during the opening song.
 * In addition, James Baxter, Belle's supervising animator, mentioned that Belle was "a few years older than Ariel," implying that Belle was at least 18 years old as Ariel is stated to be 16 in her own movie.
 * Before Paige O'Hara got the role of Belle, the producers first considered Jodi Benson, who was best known as the voice of Ariel, to voice Belle. Benson, however, did voice Belle in Disney's House of Mouse.
 * Belle is the only Disney Princess with a singing voice to not sing her film's main theme song during the film itself (Mrs. Potts, a supporting character, sings the song instead). Although, Paige O'Hara individually recorded her own version of Beauty and the Beast and performed it several times live, outside the film itself.
 * In Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World, Belle tells the Beast the Cinderella fairy tale during the first segment.
 * In the beginning of the original 1989 storyline, found on the Diamond Edition DVD, Belle's birthday is celebrated, and the cake reads "Happy 17th Birthday Belle", providing evidence that she is 17 in the movie, or at least that she was originally planned to be 17.
 * Belle was nominated for AFI's 100 Year...100 Hero and Villain list, one of the three animated heroes and one of three Disney animated heroes, along with Peter Pan, Mary Poppins, and Buzz Lightyear. Unfortunately, none of them made the cut.
 * A costume of Belle, as well as the rest of the Disney Princesses (excluding Mulan, Pocahontas, Merida, and Moana), has been released on the video game Little Big Planet 2 as downloadable content from the PlayStation Store.
 * In the comic adaptation of the film, Belle wears her pinny more often and her ponytail like Gaston's stays intact even though it's raining.
 * One poster for the film for some reason showed Belle in a pink-and-purple dress resembling Rapunzel's.
 * In the Gargoyles episode "Eye of the Beholder", Elisa Maza dresses up as Belle for Halloween and shares a relationship with Goliath, similar to Belle's relationship with the Beast. However, Goliath is a beast turned into a human, unlike the Beast, whose circumstance is the polar opposite.
 * In the climax of The Haunted Mansion, Elizabeth Henshaw's ghost appears in a golden dress with opera gloves similar to that of Belle's iconic ensemble. Her love interest Master Gracey is dressed in a blue jacket with gold trim similar to that of the Beast's outfit.
 * Paige O'Hara, the first voice actor for Belle, does a fan artwork of Belle on her official website and sells the artwork.
 * The books Belle has read are Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty, and Romeo and Juliet (the last of which is only in "Human Again" on the Special Edition). She was also shown to have read the tale of Cinderella in Belle's Magical World. In the musical (and in the storyboard), she has also read King Arthur.
 * In The Enchanted Christmas, the book that Belle wrote and wrapped together was the original tale for Beauty and the Beast.
 * Contrary to popular belief, it's not made clear whether Belle was actually born a peasant, as she implies that she wasn't born in her home village in the opening song, but rather moved there. In addition, her owning books at her cottage implied that she is, or at least was, considerably wealthy (as back in the time period of the film, books were considerably expensive). In the musical, specifically the song "No Matter What" one of the lyrics had Maurice stating "You are your mother's daughter; therefore you are class ... crème de la crème", implying that Belle was part of the social upper class. This was also supported by Belle having a portrait of her and her mom in the Enchanted Tales of Belle attraction.
 * Similarly, it was never stated where Belle had moved from other than it presumably being another location in France. The book "Belle's Discovery" as well as the live-action remake would later state that she had originally lived in Paris.
 * Belle being carried by the Prince near the end of the film is a reference to the poster of It's a Wonderful Life where George Bailey holds his wife.
 * Belle's blue peasant outfit closely resembles the one worn by an extra during the third act of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), though this is almost certainly coincidence.
 * In the activity book Wedding Wishes, Belle ended up tossing the bouquet to the Bimbettes.
 * Belle is the only main character in her village who wears blue. The animators wanted to accentuate how out of place she seems, so they paid extra close attention to her wardrobe, making sure that Belle would be the only member of the town to wear blue, whilst the other townsfolk sported more rustic and earthy colors such as red, green, orange, gray, and brown.
 * The green and rose dresses Belle wears can be briefly seen stored on the left side of the Wardrobe and displayed to Belle during her first night of captivity when she was asked to join the Beast for dinner.
 * In the fifth issue of Marvel Comics, when Belle rejects Gaston in the flashback and the triplets enviously note Gaston's obsession with Belle, they state that she doesn't even go to dances at the village. This was a subtle reference to the original tale, where Beauty preferred to stay at home reading good books, which often got her mocked by her sisters, who by contrast liked to go to balls, public walks, and plays.
 * Although Belle is explicitly stated in the film to have no parallel regarding her looks, it seems that her appearance can be replicated, as Laurette (one of the Bimbettes) managed to disguise herself as Belle well enough to completely fool Gaston in the third issue of Marvel Comics.
 * Belle is mentioned in the Disney Channel original movie Smart House.