Belle (Beauty and the Beast) Belle (Beauty and the Beast) Belle is a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' animated feature film "Beauty and the Beast" (1991). Originally voiced by American actress and singer Paige O'Hara, Belle is the non-conforming daughter of an inventor who yearns to abandon her predictable village life in return for adventure. When her father Maurice is imprisoned by a cold-hearted beast, Belle offers him her own freedom in exchange for her father's, and eventually learns to love the Beast despite his unsightly outward appearance. Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg commissioned "Beauty and the Beast" as an animated
Beauty and the Beast Beauty and the Beast Beauty and the Beast () 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"). Her lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and published first by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756 in "Magasin des enfants" ("Children's Collection") and by Andrew Lang in the "Blue Fairy Book" of his "Fairy Book" series in 1889, to produce the version(s) most commonly retold. It was influenced by some earlier stories, such as "Cupid and Psyche", "The Golden Ass" written