Belle

**Belle** is the female protagonist of Disney's 1991 animated feature film *Beauty and the Beast*. She is the only daughter of Maurice, an inventor with whom she resides in a small French village. The townsfolk labeled Belle an outcast because of her free spirit. She is also a proud bibliophile, her favorite genres being fantasy and adventure. Belle's passion for fantastical stories, coupled with her outcast status, left her yearning for a life of adventure outside her small village. She unexpectedly gets her wish when she becomes the Beast's prisoner in order to save her father's life.

Belle is also the fifth official member of the Disney Princess line-up.

## Contents

* 1Contents
* 2Background
	+ 2.1Official Description
	+ 2.2Development
	+ 2.3Personality
	+ 2.4Physical appearance

## Contents

* 1Background
	+ 1.1Official Description
	+ 1.2Development
	+ 1.3Personality
	+ 1.4Physical appearance

## Background

### 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, Philippe, into the 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 past his appearance. She realizes that deep inside him there might be something more than she - or he - has ever dreamed.*
### Development

When production first started 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 elder 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 also 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 Linda 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 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 her 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 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 appears less concerned about her or others' appearances and is able to look past appearances into their personality. In addition, Belle pays very little attention or concern to her appearance, unlike the very rude and arrogant Gaston. 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 appeared disgusted with 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 film 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 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 was a scientific skeptic 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

Like her namesake, Belle is known in her village for her great beauty, mainly her outer features, and is viewed as "the most beautiful girl in town" by Gaston. Belle has long, brown hair, most often tied back in a low ponytail by a 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 puffy-sleeved shirt underneath, a white apron on her waist, a white petticoat, and dark 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 with a yellow button. 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 when she was knocked away by her horse Philippe, 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 light green dress (similar to the color scheme of Ariel from *The Little Mermaid*) with Juliet sleeves and a darker bodice, 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 dress with a rose bodice (similar to Aurora's from *Sleeping Beauty*), 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 outfit is a golden ball gown with a simply designed bodice, wrapped off-the-shoulder sleeves, a wide-hemmed floor-length skirt made of eight triangular panels and small round yellow ornaments, long yellow opera gloves, round yellow earrings, a multiple-layered white petticoat with scalloped edging on the hemline, and yellow high-heeled shoes. This is the outfit 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 by a golden hair band, 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 deep red winter coat with a white fur collar, belt, and folded sleeves while wearing her primary outfit with short brown gloves and brown boots with white fur cuffs. 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 light yellow bell-bottoms at the sleeves and deep red roses-like decorations with green leaves, a matching hair ribbon, a pearl necklace, a light yellow lining connected to her bodice and the end of her dress skirt, a deep red bow on the waist back of her dress, a white petticoat, and deep red high-heeled shoes.

when belle is captured by bella she changes her look on her legs with white frilly knee lengh pantelettes