Belle is a fictional character in Disney's Beauty and the Beast franchise. First appearing in the 1991 animated film, Belle is the book-loving daughter of an inventor who yearns for adventure and respite from her mundane village. When her father is imprisoned by a cold-hearted beast, Belle offers her own freedom in exchange for his. Despite his outward appearance, she gradually befriends the Beast, who learns kindness in return.
The character was created by screenwriter Linda Woolverton, who Disney had hired to adapt the "Beauty and the Beast" fairy tale into an animated musical about a strong heroine. Influenced by the women's movement, Woolverton committed to writing Belle as a proactive and intelligent character to distinguish her from previous Disney heroines, particularly Ariel from The Little Mermaid (1989). Belle's supervising animators, James Baxter and Mark Henn, drew inspiration from various sources to design a beautiful yet believable heroine, specifically referencing European facial features, ballerinas, and several classical Hollywood actresses. 500 actresses auditioned for the role before Paige O'Hara was cast due to her Broadway experience and mature-sounding voice.
Belle has received mostly positive reviews from film critics, who praised her bravery, intelligence, and independence. Although she was initially celebrated as a feminist character, reassessments have been more divided, with some critics arguing that her story romanticizes captivity and traditional romantic ideals. The fifth Disney Princess, Belle is often ranked among the franchise's best characters and is credited with influencing a generation of smart, empowered animated heroines. One of Disney's most recognizable characters, she was also the only animated heroine nominated for the American Film Institute's list of greatest film heroes.
Susan Egan was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for originating the role of Belle in Broadway adaptation of the film, and Emma Watson played her in its 2017 live-action remake. In addition to the film's several sequels, spin-offs, and merchandise, iterations of the character have appeared in various media outside the Beauty and the Beast franchise.
Role Belle debuts in Beauty and the Beast (1991) as a bright, independent young woman, who longs for adventure beyond her "provincial" town. Although admired for her beauty, she is considered odd by the villagers due to her love of books. She is relentlessly pursued by the arrogant hunter Gaston, whose advances she rejects. When her father goes missing, Belle finds him imprisoned by a beast in a mysterious castle inhabited by enchanted objects and offers herself in exchange for his freedom. Belle gradually forms a bond with her host after he rescues her from a wolf attack and she tends to his injuries. As their relationship deepens, the Beast allows Belle to return home after she discovers her father has fallen ill. When Gaston leads an attack on the castle, Belle returns in time to confess her love to the mortally wounded Beast before he dies, breaking the spell and restoring his human form.
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. 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.
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.
Development Creation and writing 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 several times. The project was shelved due to challenges encountered translating the fairy tale's static main characters and plot to film, and Walt Disney was particularly wary about animating Belle's imprisonment. Inspired by the success of 1989's The Little Mermaid, Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg greenlit another attempt at adapting the story under director Richard Purdum. However, Katzenberg was dissatisfied with Purdum's dark, somber interpretation, and ordered that the film be completely reworked into a musical starring a strong heroine, similar to The Little Mermaid. Largely fueled by some critics' condemnation of Ariel's characterization in The Little Mermaid, Disney encouraged a "feminist twist" on the "Beauty and the Beast" story. After hearing some of her ideas about Belle in a story meeting, Katzenberg hired screenwriter Linda Woolverton to write the film's screenplay.
Woolverton is credited with creating the character. She felt Disney had typically portrayed their female leads as victims, with Belle's lack of agency in early drafts of the script proving contentious among the film's writers. While the studio still wanted Beauty and the Beast to evoke their classic films, the writers by contrast envisioned Belle as "a woman that was ahead of her time". As the first woman to write a feature-length animated film for Disney, Woolverton decided to use Belle as an opportunity to create a female character who would ultimately be better received than Disney's previous princesses, specifically Ariel. Aware of the daunting responsibility due to the mermaid's popularity, Woolverton fought relentlessly to create "a new kind of Disney heroine". Inspired by the women's rights movement, the screenwriter conceived Belle as a brave yet book smart feminist to avoid creating an "insipid" princess. She believed contemporary audiences would not relate to Belle unless she was updated to reflect modern times, but incorporated fairy tale elements so she would still seem plausible in her environment. Refusing to watch Jean Cocteau's 1946 film adaptation of the fairy tale, Woolverton instead based Belle on actress Katharine Hepburn's portrayal of Jo March in the 1933 film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women.
The story team for Beauty and the Beast was predominantly male. Woolverton frequently debated Belle's characterization with some of the more traditional-minded story artists, although she was supported by Katzenberg and lyricist Howard Ashman, who advocated for Belle to be "a thinker and a reader" rather than a passive character. She recalled that much of her work on Belle was met with pushback, including an instance where a scene depicting Belle choosing travel destinations on a map was replaced with her baking a cake. Arguing that baking did not align with Belle's independent nature, Woolverton proposed having her read a book instead, although some felt this was too passive an activity. As a compromise, Belle was ultimately depicted walking while reading, a behavior inspired by Woolverton's own childhood habit. Despite numerous revisions that she found at odds with her original vision, her overall concept for Belle remained largely intact. Woolverton acknowledged that her firm stance on Belle's characterization was not always well received by the writing staff, but she remained committed to shaping the character as she had envisioned.
In adapting the fairy tale, Woolverton omitted Belle's two selfish sisters and their love interests to prioritize her dynamic with Gaston. She also removed the subplot in which Belle asks her father for a rose. Characters from Purdum's treatment, including Belle's younger sister, Clarice, and her strict aunt, Marguerite, were discarded; Clarice's removal emphasized Belle's loneliness, while Marguerite was replaced by Gaston as the film's primary antagonist. Visual development artist Sue Nichols suggested that Belle needed a female confidante in the castle to help her feel safe and develop a bond with the Beast, leading to the creation of Mrs. Potts. In Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's version of the fairy tale, Belle is forced to take her father's place as the Beast's prisoner. To emphasize Belle's independence, Woolverton rewrote the character to willingly search for her father at the castle, where she confronts the Beast and offers to take Maurice's place. Woolverton explained that she wanted to establish Belle's willingness to make sacrifices early in the film so the audience would find her decision believable. To add realism, Woolverton included small imperfections in Belle's design, such as a stray lock of hair that frequently falls into her face, which was one of the few details she specified about the character's appearance. During Gaston's climactic fight with the Beast, his original line, "Time to die!", was changed to "Belle is mine!" to keep the story's focus on Belle.
Voice Disney auditioned approximately 500 actresses for the role of Belle. They originally considered rehiring Ariel's voice actress, Jodi Benson, but decided she sounded too young and American for the character they created, who they wanted to sound more like an adult woman than a girl. Actress Paige O'Hara was performing on Broadway when she first read about Disney's then-upcoming animated film Beauty and the Beast in The New York Times, and immediately booked an audition once she learned the studio was specifically recruiting Broadway talent for its female lead. Familiar with O'Hara's work in the Broadway musical Show Boat, Ashman had already been considering her for the part. O'Hara auditioned five times over the span of two weeks, first solely for casting director Albert Taveres. She also mailed recordings of herself singing "Heaven Help My Heart" from the musical Chess to Disney. At her first in-person audition, O'Hara originally spoke and sang in a higher register but the filmmaker's preferred her natural voice. In addition to Katzenberg and Ashman, O'Hara's last few auditions were attended by directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, producer Don Hahn, and composer Alan Menken. They initially listened with their eyes closed to avoid being influenced by her physical appearance. Wise said they were drawn to a unique hitch in O'Hara's voice that helped convince them she was equally capable delivering comedy and drama, with certain qualities that reminded them of actress Judy Garland. An hour after her final audition, Disney telephoned O'Hara on her birthday to inform her she had been cast. The actress was fairly confident she had been cast before it was official, for which she credits Ashman. The lyricist would later reveal to Benson that the final choice was between her and O'Hara, and explained that they ultimately chose the latter because they felt the princesses should be represented by different actors.