Ever a Surprise, Ever as Before: How Belle Moves Back in Beauty and the Beast

Bonjour! Bonjour!

The third release of the Disney Renaissance (the decade during which Walt Disney Feature Animation produced a string of their most critically acclaimed and commercially successful titles, beginning with 1989’s The Little Mermaid and ending with 1999’s Tarzan), Beauty and the Beast was, and still is, widely considered to be one of the greatest animated movies of all time. Its vibrant storytelling, its blending of traditional and computer animation, the sweeping instant-classic soundtrack by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman—each element was a touchstone of its respective craft.

Released in 1991, the movie spawned an empire of its own: the Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson jam that essentially established Dion’s career; the hit musical (Broadway’s ninth-longest running, after Mamma Mia!); the all-encompassing merchandise; and almost 25 years later, the live-action film adaptation of the movie and musical expected to go into production later this year, starring Emma Watson.

The film itself, of course, came from a long line of adaptations of a 1756 French fairy tale. If you’re even peripherally familiar with both, it would not be an undue assumption to think that Walt Disney Pictures’ beloved take on the original transforms the latter’s ladylike, virtuous girl into a feisty, liberated heroine. In addition to the introduction of anthropomorphic cookware with remarkable musical talent, the film makes many modifications to its incarnation of the Beauty character, now a spirited, studious, and more developed leading lady named Belle. For all intents and purposes, these changes are progressive.

But closer consideration of the changes made to Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s enduring story communicate the contrary. While there are probably a million and one fine essays out there about whether Beauty and the Beast is or isn’t feminist, I’m going to focus on how Disney’s perhaps well-meant attempts to double down on each of Beauty’s positive traits in fact boomerang. Belle’s overpronounced bookishness, the dramatic path by which she learns to love the Beast, and her general flawlessness as a protagonist actually work to undermine the potential for a true ideological message of empowerment.