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Belle is a fictional character and the female protagonist of Walt Disney Pictures' 1991 animated feature film, Beauty and the Beast. She subsequently appears in the film's two direct-to-video midquels, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997) and Belle's Magical World (1998) as well as its animated/live-action direct-to-video spin-off, Belle's Tales of Friendship (1999). A live-action version of the character appears in Sing Me a Story with Belle, a spin-off television series based on the film. In all film appearances, Belle is voiced by American actress and singer Paige O'Hara.

Belle is noted for being the only Disney Princess to have brown hair, the majority having blonde or black. Belle is the only daughter of an aspiring inventor named Maurice, with whom she lives in a small, unnamed town in France. Described by her fellow villagers as the most beautiful girl in town - "strange, but special" because of her non-conformity, intelligence and love of reading. Belle is intelligent, stubborn and outspoken, though not very rebellious, and exhibits some traits of feminism throughout her film. In the first film, Belle dreams of leaving her provincial village life and having adventures "in the great wide somewhere", like the ones she reads about in her books.

Belle is based on the female protagonist of Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont's version of "Beauty and the Beast", but was developed into a different personality for the Disney film adaptation. The character has enjoyed a mostly positive reception, many praising her intelligence, wit, bravery and outspokenness, a departure from previous Disney heroines. Belle is an official Disney Princess, the fifth in order of film release.

Development

The character of Belle is based upon the heroine of Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont's abridged version of the original French fairy tale, "La Belle et la Bête", by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. Beaumont's version of the fairy tale is the better-known of the two, and is the one screenwriter Linda Woolverton based the screenplay on.

Disney originally considered bringing back Jodi Benson, the voice of Princess Ariel in Disney's previous animated film, The Little Mermaid (1989), to voice Belle, but later decided that the character, a French native, required a more European-sounding voice. Lyricist and executive producer Howard Ashman recalled working with Broadway actress Paige O'Hara prior to Beauty and the Beast. Impressed by her Broadway cast recording of Show Boat, Ashman brought her to the attention of the filmmakers, suggesting she audition for the role.

According to O'Hara during an interview, she first found out about Disney's then-upcoming animated film, Beauty and the Beast, while reading an article in The New York Times. Upon hearing that the studio was holding auditions to find a voice for the film's female lead and specifically looking for Broadway performers, O'Hara, a Broadway actress who was working on stage in New York at the time, contacted her agent, saying she had to have the part. After five auditions and competing against five hundred hopefuls, O'Hara received a phone call on her birthday, informing her that she had got the part..

Co-director Kirk Wise enjoyed the clarity and uniqueness of O'Hara's voice, comparing it to the likes of Judy Garland, who is coincidentally one of O'Hara's biggest influences. Beauty and the Beast was O'Hara's first animated film project. To keep Belle as natural-sounding as possible, Howard Ashman told O'Hara to avoid screaming; lower her voice and make use of the microphone, and avoid projecting like she was accustomed to doing onstage.

Design

Disney hired actress and model Sherri Stoner to provide the live-action reference for Belle. They filmed Stoner acting out various actions and mannerisms, and used the acquired footage as inspiration for Belle's performance. Prior to Beauty and the Beast, Stoner served as the performance model for Ariel in Disney's previous animated film, The Little Mermaid.

Animator James Baxter wanted Belle, a beautiful French native, to have a distinctly European appearance, so he drew inspiration from the face of British film actress Audrey Hepburn to design her. As a result, Belle was drawn with rounder eyes, darker eyebrows, fuller lips, and rounder cheeks.

Belle's supervising animator was James Baxter, assisted by Mark Henn. While Baxter, primarily responsible for animating Belle's dance sequences, worked at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, Henn worked across the country at Walt Disney Animation Studios in Orlando, Florida, animating Belle's more general scenes.. In order to provide Belle with a subtle air of elegance and weightlessness when walking, Baxter studied ballerinas and drew inspiration from the works of French artist Edgar Degas.

According to Belle's voice actress Paige O'Hara, Belle, in the original drawings by James Baxter, looked "too perfect. She looked like a cross between a young Liz Taylor and Angelina Jolie. I think they decided they wanted to keep her beautiful but quirkier and more identifiable." To fix this, Baxter re-designed Belle to make her look more natural and realistic. As a result, Belle's hair colour was changed numerous times, from blonde, to red, to black, and finally, brown.

Characteristics

In the original "Beauty and the Beast" fairy tale, Belle is a rather traditional fairy tale heroine in terms of personality. When English animation director Richard Purdum was assigned to the film, the story was kept rather similar to the original fairy tale. Therefore, few changes were made to the characters, and their personalities generally remained the same; Belle remained as kind, generous, sympathetic and soft-spoken as she did in the fairy tale, but nothing more. According to Charles Solomon, author of the behind the scenes book Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Beauty and the Beast, Belle was a rather bland character, who constantly being "upstaged" by more humorous and engaging characters.

Appearances

Beauty and the Beast

Belle is a beautiful book-loving young woman who lives in a small town in France with her father, Maurice, an aspiring inventor. Belle has grown tired of the constant romantic advances of Gaston, a handsome but arrogant and selfish hunter, and dreams of having adventure "in the great wide somewhere", a chance to escape her provincial village life.

On his way to a fair with his latest invention, Maurice gets lost in the woods and takes shelter in a dark, foreboding castle, where he is soon taken prisoner by the castle's master, a hideous beast, as punishment for trespassing. When their pet horse, Phillipe, returns home without her father, Belle sets out to find him. Phillipe leads her to the castle, where she finds Maurice has been locked in the dungeon by the Beast. She begs the Beast to set him free, and when he refuses, offers her own freedom in return. On the condition that she stay with him forever, the Beast frees Maurice.

Secretly moved by her affection towards her father, the Beast treats Belle more like a guest than a prisoner, giving her permission to roam freely around the castle as long as she stays clear of the West Wing. Later that night, Belle's curiosity gets the best of her and she ventures into the West Wing, where she is found by the Beast. Infuriated, the Beast orders her to get out, and a frightened Belle runs away. While racing through the forest, Belle is attacked by a pack of wolves. The Beast arrives just in time and fends them off, but collapses from his wounds. Knowing she can't leave him there, Belle brings him back to the castle and tends to his wounds. Belle's kindness touches the Beast, and, with the help of his enchanted objects, develops a more civil manner. Slowly, Belle and the Beast become friends.

The Beast falls deeply in love with her, but is in denial that she will ever love him in return. Belle is soon granted right to leave on behalf of her sickly father, who tries to rescue her. But after denying Gaston (a conceited hunter) her hand in marriage for a third time, a mob of villagers, led by Gaston, plots against the Beast. After a grueling tussle between Gaston and Beast, the Beast is stabbed. Gaston laughs but slips and falls from the castle roof to his death. Belle is able to lay the Beast on a balcony, and he dies in her arms. Belle confesses her love for the beast just as the last petal falls from the enchanted rose. Belle's love for the Beast revives him and releases him from the curse, and he, along with his furnishings, return to human beings.

Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas

A midquel taking place during the winter segment of Beauty and the Beast, this is the story of Belle's attempt to bring back to the castle the one ritual Beast hates most: Christmas, because it is the very day that the Enchantress cast a spell on him.

Unfortunately, a pipe organ called Forte is determined to do anything necessary to keep the spell from breaking, because he thinks that if the curse is broken then the Beast won't be nice to him anymore. Thus, he proves to be an obstacle in Belle's plans. After several attempts to get Beast to agree, Beast finally approves of the idea of Christmas and allows Belle to prepare festivities, though he still harbors resentment for the day.

With advice from Forte, Belle goes out into the woods to get a suitable tree for Christmas, but she falls into thin ice and almost drowns. Fortunately, she is rescued by Beast, but he is angry at her because of a lie that Forte told him: that she was trying to desert him. Belle is thrown into the dungeon as punishment, but Beast then finds a book in the West Wing that Belle had written for him earlier, and decides to set her free. They both continue to prepare for Christmas.

Persistent Forte attempts to bring the whole castle down with Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in order to prevent the spell from ending, trying to end everyone's lives. Fortunately, Beast stops him in time by crashing his keyboard to pieces. Christmas finally comes, and the story goes back to the actual party, which is one year after these events. Belle is presented with a gift from the Prince: a rose.

Belle's Magical World

In this movie, Belle is the only human. She meets her new three enchanted object friends Webster, Crane, and LePlume and is set out to solve problems in all four segments.before Belle's Tales of Friendship

Belle's Tales of Friendship

In Belle's narration, Belle owns and works at her music and bookstore in France. A group of children walk into the store eager to hear Belle's stories, as she is noted to be a great storyteller. Belle agrees to tell a story, but the gang also play games and learn some simple lessons about life. Belle narrates two classic Disney cartoons, The Three Little Pigs and Babes in the Woods, while the children help Belle clean the bookstore. She also reads The Wise Little Hen and Morris the Midget Moose, but Shawn and Harmony will not help make chili for the group. Along the way, Belle adds music and interacts with the children.

Paige O'Hara reprises her voice cast as Belle, while Lyndsey McLeod portrays the character in the live-action sequences.

Sing Me a Story with Belle

In the live-action television series, Belle (portrayed by Lyndsey McLeod) lives in the country of France and owns her own music and bookshop. Helping her at the bookstore are Lewis and Carol, two magical bookworms. Also at the bookstore is Harmony the Cat. The bookstore is visited by local children to whom Belle will tell (and sing) stories, usually with a moral that fit a situation happening in the shop or with the children.

In other media

Belle is an official member of the Disney Princess line, a prominent franchise directed at young girls. The franchise covers a wide variety of merchandise, including but not limited to magazines, music albums, toys, video games and clothes.

Belle makes regular appearances in the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Belle had her own meet and greet attraction at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom called Storytime with Belle, which ran from 1999–2010, where Belle and the park's guests would act out a popular story. She will soon have a new special location at the Magic Kingdom called Be Our Guest Restaurant, which will include the castle from the film as well as her cottage, village, and Gaston's Tavern.

Originally, when the first installment of Disney Princess Enchanted Tales was to be released, it was to feature a new Belle story and a brand new Aurora story. The First chapter was entitled "A Kingdom Of Kindness". The plot of Belle's story featured Chip getting in trouble with the Beast after breaking some of his things. Terrified, Chip runs away. Belle finds him and convinces him to come back to the castle, and teaches Beast what it means to be kind. She also teaches Chip that even when people are mad with you, it still means they love you. All of the original Beauty and the Beast cast returned for "A Kingdom Of Kindness", with the exception to Jerry Orbach.

Belle appears as an important Disney character in the renowned Kingdom Hearts series. Belle is portrayed as one of the seven Princesses of Heart, maidens who contain no darkness in their hearts. These Princesses hold the power to open the door to Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all worlds and a reservoir of untold wisdom. In the hopes of taking control of Kingdom Hearts to rule all worlds, Maleficent kidnaps her and has her world destroyed by the Heartless. Belle is then taken to Hollow Bastion where she is held hostage alongside the other Princesses. However, Belle is rescued by the Beast, who escaped their homeworld's destruction, and the adventurers Sora, Donald Duck, and Goofy. By speaking to Belle after rescuing her, she gives Sora a new weapon, the Divine Rose Keyblade. Belle returns to her homeworld with the Beast when it is restored at the end of the first game. Belle also appears again in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories with a much smaller role. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. However, in Kingdom Hearts II, Xaldin, a member of Organization XIII, sows seeds of distrust and rage in the Beast in an attempt to transform him into a powerful Heartless and Nobody for the Organization to control. While being manipulated by Xaldin, the Beast locks Belle in her room and his servants in the dungeons. Fortunately, Sora and his friends arrive and bring the Beast back to his senses. Later, Xaldin returns and holds Belle hostage with the Beast's enchanted rose. Xaldin forces the Beast to choose between the two, but Belle elbows him in the stomach and makes her escape with the rose, allowing Sora, the Beast and co. to defeat Xaldin. By the end of the game, Belle is shown to be with the Beast, who has transformed back into a prince.

Belle appears in the musical adaptation of the 1991 film, which is also entitled, Beauty and the Beast. The role was originated by actress, Susan Egan.

Reception and legacy

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Belle has received a mostly positive reception. Belle is one of Disney's best-known and well-received heroines. Stephen Whitty of the The Star-Ledger gave a fairly mixed review of the character stating "Cut out the score and Belle’s vaguely feminist spunk and you could be watching any of the forgettable Disney cartoons that clogged theaters..." But he went on to say that O'Hara, Belle's voice actress, has a lovely singing voice. James Berardinelli of ReelViews praised the character saying "Belle is strong-willed, independent, and smart." He went on to state that the animators did a good job catching her expressions. Hal Hinson of the Washington Post wrote positively about Belle, writing that she is more "compelling" than previous Disney Princesses, going on to say that Belle "isn't insipid and Barbie-doll cute the way the Little Mermaid was." And that Belle "seems more mature, more womanly and less blandly asexual".

I poll in Internet Movie Database showed Bell to be the third most attractive animated character after Ariel of The Little Mermaid.

References

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4. ^ Disney Princess Belle from 'Beauty and the Beast' as a Feminist
5. ^ 20 Best Animated Movies Ever
6. ^ Best/Worst Disney Movies
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33. Rumor no more: Magic Kingdom Fantasyland expansion to include Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Princess Fairytale Hall, The Great Goofini
34. Concept art: Fantasyland makeover coming to Disney World in 2012
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External links

• Template:Imdb character

• Disney's Beauty and the Beast characters
• Disney Princess characters
• Kingdom Hearts characters
• Fictional characters introduced in 1991
• Fictional French people