Belle (Disney character)
Belle is a fictional character in Walt Disney Pictures' animated film Beauty and the Beast (1991). Voiced by actress and singer Paige O'Hara, Belle, the book-loving daughter of an eccentric inventor, yearns to abandon her predictable village life in return for adventure. When her father Maurice is imprisoned by a cold-hearted beast in an enchanted castle, Belle offers her own freedom in exchange for her father's, and gradually learns to love the Beast despite his outward appearance.
This article is about the Disney character. For the song from the film, see Belle (Disney song).Belle
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
- Paige O'Hara (1991–2011, 2018, 2023)[1][2]
- Julie Nathanson (2011–present)
- Jodi Benson (House of Mouse)
Maurice (father)
Ben (Descendants)
Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg commissioned Beauty and the Beast as an animated musical with a strong heroine, for which he hired first-time screenwriter Linda Woolverton. Basing her on the heroine of the 1740 fairy tale of the same name, Woolverton adapted Belle into a more proactive character for the film, deliberately conceiving her as a feminist to curtail criticisms Disney had long received for purportedly portraying female characters as victims. Inspired by the women's rights movement and actress Katharine Hepburn's performance in the film Little Women (1933), Woolverton created Belle as a unique departure from previous Disney heroines, particularly The Little Mermaid's Ariel. However, some story artists often contested Woolverton's liberated vision for the character. Animated by James Baxter and Mark Henn, the former of whom based the character's graceful gait on those of impressionist Edgar Degas' ballerinas, Belle's European facial features were inspired by those of British actresses Vivien Leigh and Audrey Hepburn. Several additional Hollywood actresses inspired Belle's appearance, including Natalie Wood, Elizabeth Taylor, and Grace Kelly. Disney auditioned 500 candidates for the role, before casting O'Hara based on her mature-sounding voice and Broadway experience.
Belle has garnered widespread acclaim from film critics who appreciated the character's bravery, intelligence, and independence. Reception towards her feminism, however, has been more mixed, with commentators accusing the character's actions of being romance-oriented. The fifth Disney Princess, Belle is often ranked among the franchise's best members. Highly regarded as one of Disney's strongest examples of a feminist character, critics agree that Belle helped spearhead a generation of independent film heroines while changing the reputation of a Disney princess. Also one of Disney's most iconic characters, Belle was the only animated heroine nominated for the American Film Institute's greatest heroes in film ranking. The character also appears in the film's several sequels and spin-offs, as well as her own live-action television series. American actress Susan Egan originated the role of Belle in the Broadway musical adaptation of the film, for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Emma Watson played Belle in the 2017 live-action adaptation of the film.
Development[edit]
Creation and writing[edit]
Shortly after the success of Disney's first feature-length animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Walt Disney himself had attempted to adapt the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale into one of the studio's earliest animated films several times, notably during the 1930s and 1950s.[3] The project was continuously shelved due to the fairy tale's "static" main characters and plot,[4] with Walt Disney expressing particular concern over depicting Belle's imprisonment.[5] Inspired by the success of 1989's The Little Mermaid, Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg green-lit another attempt at adapting the fairy tale under director Richard Purdum.[5] However, Katzenberg was dissatisfied with Purdum's dark, somber interpretation,[6][7] and ultimately ordered that the project be completely retooled into a Broadway-style musical film starring a strong heroine, similar to The Little Mermaid.[8] Largely in retaliation to critics' negative response towards The Little Mermaid's Ariel regarding her overall character and motivations,[9] Disney opted for a "feminist twist" on the original Beauty and the Beast story,[10] with Katzenberg hiring first-time screenwriter Linda Woolverton to write its screenplay.[7][11]
Characterization and themes[edit]
Woolverton created Belle as part of "her self-directed mandate to move women and girls forward."[18] The Express-Times described the character as an intelligent young woman who "sings songs about reading and wanting to gain knowledge, rather than falling in love."[90] Woolverton credits Belle's knowledge and love of books with providing the character with a "point of view of her life and that doesn't necessarily involve a man getting her there."[62] One of the film's main themes, Belle is considered an outsider because her love of reading provides her with knowledge of the outside world as opposed to her "narrow-minded" village peers.[5] Writing for Wired.com, Matt Blum dubbed Belle "the geekiest heroine of any Disney animated film", exemplified by an opening number that demonstrates just how much she does not fit in with her peers due to her intelligence and active imagination.[91] Similarly, Boxoffice's Amy Nicholson coined the character "Disney's Smartest Heroine",[31] while Rob Burch of The Hollywood News observed that the character "comes across as arrogant at times" because she "spends much of the first act complaining."[37] In her book Sex, Love and Abuse: Discourses on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, author Sharon Hayes described Belle as "the quintessential beautiful young ingénue."[92] Comparing Belle's personality to that of the princess in the Brothers Grimm's fairy tale "The Frog Prince", The Meanings of "Beauty and the Beast": A Handbook author Jerry Griswold described the character as a similarly "feisty and outspoken" heroine.[93] Writing for St. Francis Xavier University, Dawn Elizabeth England observed that Belle possesses equally as many traditionally feminine as she does masculine traits, citing her bravery, independence and assertiveness as masculine, and her sensitivity and fearfulness as feminine.[94] According to Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era author Susan Jeffords, "Belle's credentials as heroine are established ... when she is the only one of the town's single women not to swoon over Gaston," while the character's love of reading is essentially manipulated "to mark her as better than the rest of the townspeople."[95] Writing for The Statesman, David O'Connor cited Belle's intelligence and bibliophilia as "in stark opposition to the insensitive and significantly dim-witted Gaston."[96] Critics continue to debate over whether Belle or the Beast is the film's protagonist. Susan Jeffords, author of Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the Reagan Era, felt that although Belle appears to be the protagonist in Beaumont's original fairy tale, the character becomes "less the focus of the narrative" in Disney's adaptation and more of a "mechanism for solving the Beast's 'dilemma.'"[95] In her article "The Tangled Evolution of the Disney Princess," Noelle Buffam felt that Belle arrived just in time when Disney's heroines were "in a dire need for some change," awarding her "the red stamp of approval" for her intelligence and spirit.[97]
Analyzing ways in which Disney's heroines have evolved over time due to "the approach to the characterization of the princesses chang[ing]" as the characters gradually transformed from passive young women into heroines who "had ambitions and desires aside from finding true love,"[98] critics often divide the Disney Princesses into three separate categories and rank Belle among the middle of the timeline,[99] with Kit Steinkellner of HelloGiggles.com observing that the character improved upon "the Disney princess archetype" by simultaneously serving as both a "dreamer" and a "doer" in her film, as opposed to exclusively the former.[100] Film historian Paula Sigman Lowery explained to the Daily Express that Belle's personality is a combination of Ariel's spirit and burgeoning independence, and Pocahontas' maturity, while Belle is "a little older [than Ariel] and a little further along in their journey towards independence."[101] About.com's David Nusair believes that Belle belongs to a category of Disney Princesses known as "The Lady Vanishes", in which the heroines, in spite of being brave, outspoken and independent, nonetheless "are forced to behave passively as others help them achieve their respective goals."[102] Michelle Munro, writing for Durham College, felt that even though Belle shares several traits with her more passive predecessors, the character introduced "new possibilities for princesses."[103] Girls in Capes wrote that Belle pioneered a generation of princesses who taught "about ambition, self-discovery and the pursuit of what we want."[98] Additionally, Belle remains Disney's first and only princess to have hazel eyes.[104][105]
Appearances[edit]
Film and television[edit]
Belle debuted in Beauty and the Beast (1991) as a beautiful bibliophile[106][107] who, although praised by her fellow villagers for her unrivaled beauty, is at the same time ridiculed for her intelligence and non-conformity. Having grown weary of her uneventful provincial life, in which she is relentlessly romantically pursued by an arrogant hunter named Gaston, Belle longs for adventure. After her father's horse returns without its rider, she willingly ventures into the woods in search of her father. She persuades the Beast that she will trade her own freedom in return for her father's, since her father is ill in the dungeon, promising to remain with the Beast in his castle among his staff of enchanted objects forever. Belle's curiosity leads her to the forbidden west wing where she discovers an enchanted rose without realizing that it is tied to the Beast's fate; and the Beast's rage at her trespassing causes her to flee the castle on horseback. Belle is pursued by wolves in the woods but they are driven off by the Beast, afterwards Belle helps the injured Beast back to the castle and nurses him back to health. Although she initially dislikes her captor, Belle gradually learns to accept the Beast in spite of his appearance and eventually befriends him. Belle and the Beast's strong bond greatly envies Gaston to the point of which he storms the castle and mortally wounds the Beast, though Gaston falls to his own death in the process. However, Belle breaks down and confesses her love for the Beast just in time to break the spell under which he had been placed by an enchantress as punishment for his selfish ways, and the Beast ultimately transforms back into a handsome prince.[108]
In Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (1997), Belle attempts to reignite the castle's waning spirit by reintroducing and celebrating Christmas, in spite of the Beast's strong resentment towards the holiday. Meanwhile, a solemn pipe organ named Forte grows determined to sabotage Belle and the Beast's burgeoning friendship because he longs to maintain his co-dependent relationship with his master. Tricked by Forte into retrieving a large Christmas tree from a frozen pond, Belle nearly drowns, only to be rescued by the Beast. The Beast, however, having been misinformed by Forte, wrongly accuses Belle of trying to escape again, and locks her in the dungeon as punishment. When the Beast finally discovers the truth, they forgive each other, and Belle helps him thwart Forte's plan to destroy the castle.[109] Belle's Magical World (1998), depicts Belle as she interacts with both the Beast and his enchanted servants in various segments, exploring themes such as forgiveness, friendship, cooperation and respect.[110]
In Belle's Tales of Friendship (1999), a spin-off of the film series, Belle owns a bookshop in which she teaches valuable lessons to children by reading and retelling well-known stories and fairy tales, narrating four Disney animated shorts: The Three Little Pigs (1933), Peter and the Wolf (1946), The Wise Little Hen (1934), and Morris the Midget Moose (1950). For the first time, Belle appears as both animated and live-action versions of herself, voiced and portrayed by actresses Paige O'Hara and Lynsey McLeod, respectively. In the television series Sing Me a Story with Belle (1995–97), Belle, in a role reprised by McLeod, runs her own music and bookshop, where she is visited by children to whom she tells and sings stories.[111][112]
Belle appeared in the animated television series House of Mouse and its direct-to-video films Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse and Mickey's House of Villains.[55] In the television series, Belle is voiced by American actress and singer Jodi Benson, while O'Hara reprised her role in Magical Christmas.[55][113][114]
A live-action version of Belle appears as a main character in the ABC television series Once Upon a Time, where she serves as the love interest of Rumplestiltskin (who is the show's version of the Beast). She is portrayed by Australian actress Emilie de Ravin.[115] Another live-action version of the character appeared in the 2015 television film Descendants, where she was played by Keegan Connor Tracy and serves as the Queen of the United States of Auradon, and along with Beast have a son called Ben. She returned in the film's sequels Descendants 2 (2017) and Descendants 3 (2019). The series Sofia the First included a guest appearance by Belle in the episode "The Amulet and the Anthem".[116] British actress Amy Jackson who portrayed as Belle opposite Indian actor Vikram, who being portrayed as Beast for sequences in a dreamy song "Ennodu Nee Irundhal" in the 2015 Tamil language romantic thriller I.[117] The original prosthetic make-up for the characters were provided by Sean Foot (Shaun) and Davina Lamont and additional works were done by National Film Award winners—Christien Tinsley and Dominie Till.[118][119]
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
Belle has received largely positive reviews from film critics, who praised her bravery, intelligence, independence, and maturity.[155][156][157] Jennie Punter of The Globe and Mail described Belle as a "smart, courageous ... 'take-charge kind of gal'", crowning her the film's "main attraction".[158] Both Emma Cochrane of Empire and Annlee Ellingson of Paste enjoyed the character's feminism, with the former hailing Belle as "more rounded than previous Disney characters".[159][160] According to Stephen Hunter of The Baltimore Sun, Belle is "no passive fairy tale princess, but a real live girl, with a spunky personality and her own private agenda".[161] A reviewer for TV Guide felt the film's familiar plot was improved by Belle's confidence and independence, concluding, "Unlike Disney heroines ... Belle is smart, knows what she wants, and doesn't spend her time pining away for the love of a handsome prince".[162] Marc Bernardin of Entertainment Weekly dubbed Belle "the hero" of Beauty and the Beast,[163] while the same publication's Christian Blauvelt opined, "Unlike previous Disney heroines who needed to be rescued by a prince themselves, Belle not only saves the Beast's life, she saves his soul".[164] TLC's Vicki Arkoff reviewed Belle a "smart" and "sharp-tongued", crediting the character with "break[ing] Disney's passive-princess mold".[165] About.com's David Nusair described Belle as an "admirable" heroine.[166] AllMovie's Don Kaye and Perry Seibert echoed each other's reviews of the character, with Kaye describing both Belle and the Beast as "three-dimensional ... complex individuals who defy stereotyping and change over the course of the story",[167] and Seibert calling Belle a "strong female character" who "sidesteps most of the clichés surrounding Disney heroines".[168] Common Sense Media hailed Belle as "one of Disney's smartest, most independent heroines".[169] In 2022, Matthew Stewart and Paul Sheehan of Gold Derby ranked Belle as the second best Disney Princess writing, "Belle is one of the smartest, bravest, and most tender-hearted characters the Disney company has ever created, and her story becomes more and more relevant all the time. By daring to improve her mind even when ridiculed for it, fortifying herself against Gaston's oafish advances, and making her own choice when it comes to love, she serves as a source of inspiration for all women."[170]
Several critics also voiced their preference for the character over her immediate predecessor, Ariel.[157] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post described Belle as a "compelling" character who is "more mature, more womanly and less blandly asexual" than Ariel, as well as "a more worldly girl", describing her as "a bookworm, with gumption and a mind of her own".[171] Similarly comparing Belle to Ariel, John Hartl of The Seattle Times wrote that, in Beauty and the Beast, "there's rarely a sense of déjà vu, perhaps because the heroine is so different from 'Mermaid's' dependent Ariel, and her dilemma is more poignant",[172] while Boxoffice scribed, "Undoubtedly in response to criticism that the cute little 'Mermaid' Ariel was nothing more than a precocious sexpot, the idea-people behind this beauty—aptly named Belle ... chose to make her an icon of self-reliance and a voracious reader with a curiosity and love for everything around her".[173]
Meanwhile, Belle's relationship with the Beast has also been met with positive reviews. About.com's David Nusair wrote that "the palpable chemistry between Belle and The Beast ensur[es] that Beauty and the Beast lives up to its reputation as one of the most memorable romances of all time."[174] Describing it as an "unconventional romance", Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times opined, "The idea of a young woman learning to love a gentle heart hidden beneath a baleful exterior represented a major break with tradition."[88] Likewise, critics enjoyed O'Hara's performance. According to Variety, Belle was "magnificently voiced by O'Hara."[175] The Star-Ledger's Stephen Whitty enjoyed O'Hara's "pretty soprano".[176] John Hartl of The Seattle Times wrote, "O'Hara does a spirited job of investing the character with warmth, intuition and maturity,"[172] while the Sun-Sentinel's Candice Russel felt that O'Hara "does a good job of creating Belle as intellectual, wisely feminine and disarmed by the stirrings of her heart."[177]
One of the character's few negative reviews was written by Ethan Alter of Television Without Pity, who opined: