Inspired by the real villages of Riquewihr and Ribeauvillé, two neighboring towns in France's Alsace region, Belle's hometown is practically a real-life destination where fans of the classic, animated Beauty and the Beast can walk a mile in Belle's dainty, size six ballet flats.
It turns out that charming provincial village in the movie where she grows up is a real town in France. The town of Conques, in the Aveyron department of southern France, has classic narrow Medieval streets with cobbled roads.
It is widely known that Belle's “Poor Provincial Town” was modeled after the towns of Alsace. While located on the eastern side of France, these highly German-influenced towns have a very distinct look and feel to them.
BELLE is a modern take on the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast, where much of the film takes place in a virtual internet world called “U”. The protagonist is a freckled, self-conscious 17-year-old girl named Suzu, growing up in the lush countryside of Kochi.
The closest place in real life to the fictional town of Villeneuve is the village of Conques in the Aveyron in southern France. This Occitan village features many narrow medieval streets and plenty of Romanesque-style architecture.
Time-travelling back to France's 'Belle Époque' • FRANCE 24 English
What are the French towns in Beauty and the Beast?
The streets Belle calls home in the movie are almost identical to some of those seen in Colmar, Riquewihr and Ribeauvillé, all within a one-hour drive of the region's main city, Strasbourg.
Belle's hometown in Beauty And the Beast is based on this French village and the similarity is uncanny. FANS of Beauty And The Beast will never be able to enjoy Belle's library in the castle or dance with a candlestick, but they CAN prance through the heroine's home village of Villeneuve.
With names like Belle, Le Fou, Gaston and Lumière, it's no secret that the Beauty and the Beast takes place in France. If you look into it, it's not hard to see that the Eastern region of Alsace with its many small rural towns with timber houses has been a huge inspiration for Disney.
Behind 'Belle': An 18th Century Portrait Ahead Of Its Time
One is biracial. Belle is based on the real-life story of that woman, Dido Elizabeth Belle, who was the daughter of a Royal Navy captain and the slave he met after capturing a Spanish ship.
Belle's Cottage is a house that appears in the Disney's 1991 animated film, Beauty and the Beast. It was the residence of Belle, her father Maurice, and their horse Philippe until they moved into Beast's Castle. Directly behind the house is a valley with a winding riverbed.
In the first Frozen movie, Elsa's age was 21, while Anna was 18. Considering Frozen revolved around Elsa's coronation, it's refreshing to see that Arendelle waited until she was a more appropriate age to receive the queen title. Frozen II occurred after a 3-year time jump, with Elsa now 24 and Anna 21.
"Beauty and the Beast" (French: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins (The Young American and Marine Tales).
Although Alsace is part of France, its borders have not always been clear. The region has been passed between French and German control several times since 1681, when Strasbourg was conquered by French forces. As a result, Alsatian culture is a unique mix of French and German influences.
It's no surprise that Belle from Beauty and the Beast is from rural France with the many references to this setting in the film. Belle lives in a quiet medieval French village, which she wishes to escape early on in her adventure.
“She kind of looked like Angelina Jolie — very beautiful,” O'Hara said in the book “Disney Princess: Beyond the Tiara,” as excerpted by Insider. “I didn't see how anybody would identify with that person. You'd look at her and put her on a pedestal. [Animators] changed the look of her.
Dido Elizabeth Belle was the illegitimate daughter of Sir John Lindsay (1737–88), an officer in the Royal Navy, and an African woman named Maria Bell(e). We do not know where or how Maria and Lindsay first met, but during 1760 his ship the HMS Trent, was sailing around the coasts of Senegal and the Caribbean.
Belle (竜とそばかすの姫, Ryū to Sobakasu no Hime, literally The Dragon and the Freckled Princess) is a 2021 Japanese animated science fantasy film written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda and produced by Studio Chizu.
Major Hollywood icon Walt Disney had close ties with Europe, particularly France, where his family originated from. 100 years after the creation of The Walt Disney Company, these ties are as strong as ever, and can be seen in both the films and the Disney parks, beginning with Disneyland Paris.
In the 2017 live-action film, the village was given the name Villeneuve, which is a reference to the original author of the fairy tale, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.
Beauty and the Beast rely on magic and fantasies to come across a great ending. Belle out of her two sisters and her brother, she was the one that worked the hardest. She cared about her father very much and as always on the lookout for him.
A prince by birth, he was cursed by a mysterious Enchantress as punishment for his selfish and cruel nature; only by loving another and earning their love in return can the Beast free himself and those affected by the spell before time runs out.
Set in the late 18th century,Belle is a romantic drama based on the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Belle was the illegitimate daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral and a black slave. She was the first mixed-race woman to be raised by an aristocrat, making her a controversial figure in history.
