Disney animators evolved Belle's look to what it is now to make sure that she was someone who viewers could connect with when they saw the film. According to the book, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, and Natalie Wood all inspired the look and feel of Belle in the 1991 film.
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.
The fairy tale was influenced by Ancient Greek stories such as "Cupid and Psyche" from The Golden Ass, written by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis in the second century AD, and "The Pig King", an Italian fairytale published by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola around 1550.
Who designed Belle's dress in Beauty and the Beast?
Designed by Academy Award-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran, who designed everything from the costumes for all the villagers to the elaborate ball gown worn by Belle when she dances with the Beast in the castle ballroom.
Belle managed to maintain a sense of self despite being held captive in the Beast's castle. Even before that, she resisted the town's rejection of her interest in reading, and didn't allow the opinions of others to influence the way she felt about herself or her actions or her family.
7 Halloween Costumes Disney Princess Belle and Beast from Beauty and the Beast Movie part 1
Why does Belle look different in Beauty and the Beast?
Belle's early look in "Beauty and the Beast" was considered too glamorous to be relatable. In "Disney Princess: Beyond the Tiara," voice actor Paige O'Hara compared early concept art to Angelina Jolie. Belle was described as looking "a little too perfect." Animators changed her appearance, accordingly.
Overall, Belle, the leading lady in Beauty & the Beast, is one of the most beloved and celebrated princesses from the magical world of Disney. Like her royal peers, she is beautiful, inspiring, caring and strong, but she is also a reader, a loner, and a free thinker who can be bold and even a bit brash.
She tucks her skirt up into her waistband so you can see her bloomers, and she wears bloomers so that she can not be trapped by the skirt.” All of these elements serve as reminders of Belle's will for freedom.
She first appears at the beginning of the film (after the prologue) as she emerges out of the cottage she lives in and heads to a bookstore in the village, aware that the villagers are noting her peculiarity and how she does not fit in with the rest of them due to her love of books and withdrawn nature.
Who was originally cast as Belle in Beauty and the Beast?
Disney had originally considered casting Jodi Benson from The Little Mermaid as Belle. They eventually decided upon Broadway actress and singer Paige O'Hara in favor of having a heroine who sounded "more like a woman than a girl".
I discovered the closest thing at Château de Chambord. This is the real castle from Beauty and the Beast. When I say 'real', I don't mean there is an actual beast lurking in the West Wing; this is what the animators of the original 1991 Oscar-nominated film based the fictional castle on.
What is the original message of Beauty and the Beast?
The moral of Beauty and the Beast is that we should value inward characteristics such as kindness over other superficial qualities, such as wit and appearance. This moral is presented by showing that Beauty valued the inward characteristics of Beast, and fell in love with him despite his outward appearances.
"Emma Watson was our first -- and really our only -- choice for Belle," director Bill Condon said, "for a lot of reasons: her talent, her beauty, her intelligence." He also said that the actress is similar to Belle because she is strong and independent.
Belle is the only Disney princess with hazel eyes. She was meant to look more 'European' than previous princesses and was given eyes slightly smaller than Ariel's. Incidentally, Emma Watson also happens to have hazel eyes. Belle is supposed to be 18 years old.
“Though we didn't completely take blue out of the village, Belle is distinct within the town as the only one who wears a column of blue,” says Durran. “She stands out as different than her environment.” And therein lies the essence of the blue dress.
Belle's story is a tense psychological drama, following her struggle with schizophrenia while using her hallucinations as a lens through which we can examine our own ambivalence towards class conflict.
From the start, Watson didn't want her Belle to be a "corseted, impossible idea of female beauty." So they removed the corset from her iconic yellow ballgown, and replaced it with a flexible bodice. "Nothing she wears is inhibiting," Durran explained. "She can do whatever she would want to do in any of her costumes.
The three Disney Princess Cinderella, Belle, and Tiana are always seen wearing opera gloves; well, that's because opera gloves signify that they married into royalty.
But April Calahan, a fashion historian at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, explains that Belle's two main dresses aren't actually reflective of what women would've had in their closets at the time the film is set—namely because they feature design elements cherry-picked from totally different eras: ...
Gaston was Belle's greatest enemy. He wanted to marry her by any means necessary just because she was the most beautiful girl he laid eyes on. However, Belle strongly disliked Gaston for his snobbish, arrogant, and narcissistic personality and was the only girl in the village to not be infatuated with Gaston.
They were given an official number in the franchise line-up based on the chronological order in which their films were released, starting with Snow White as the first and original Disney Princess, with Cinderella being the second, followed by Aurora and so on.
Contrary to what you might think, “Belle” does not mean “Beauty” in French, which would be in keeping with her inspirational namesake, but instead means “beautiful.” (The French word for “beauty” is “beauté.”) In the original tale, her full name was “La belle enfant” (“The Beautiful Child”).
Books are everything to Belle – they are her form of escapism in the town and a mark of the Beast's love. It's no wonder that when Belle learns that the Beast is almost illiterate, she decides to teach him how to read. She's not the only Disney heroine who gives her romantic lead reading lessons, however.
