Belle

Belle is one of the Princesses of Heart who appeared in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II. She is originally from the Disney animated film Beauty and the Beast (1991). For Kingdom Hearts, she spoke using dialogue boxes, but in Kingdom Hearts II her role was greatly expanded and she was thus voiced by her original voice actress, Paige O'Hara.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
"A young woman who saw kindness behind the Beast's gruff exterior."

''"Realizing Maleficent sought her heart, Belle acted coldly toward the Beast to keep her heart beyond the witch's reach."

Kingdom Hearts II
(Part I) "A girl who was held captive in the Beast's castle. At first he frightened her, but little by little, she noticed the injured heart he was hiding from the world."

"Belle is one of the Seven Princesses needed to open the final door to the realm of darkness. She's very grateful to the Beast and to Sora for saving her after she was kidnapped by the Heartless."

(Part II) "Belle saw through the Beast's rough exterior and helped him find the heart he'd been hiding from the world for such a long time."

"Belle loves to read books about exciting adventures in faraway places."

Kingdom Hearts
Belle's first appearance was a stained-glass likeness of her depicted on top of a yellow-colored pillar in the Awakening world. She was asleep in the artwork, suggesting that she had already been captured by Maleficent at that time. Belle had been living somewhat happily at the Beast's Castle, becoming closer to the Beast everyday, despite his hideous form and uneven temperament. One day, however, Belle was kidnapped by Maleficent as part of the plot to obtain Kingdom Hearts. The Heartless consumed her world, causing all of its enchanted inhabitants to disappear into darkness. But the Beast managed to survive the destruction of his world, and pursued Belle, using corridors of darkness to reach her at Hollow Bastion.

Maleficent put Belle into an enchanted sleep and placed her in an upstanding glass case alongside the other Princesses of Heart. She then used all of the Princesses' hearts to open the Final Keyhole. At the same time, the Beast witnessed a vision of Belle transforming into a Heartless (although this is not what actually occured, as the princesses lack darkness in their hearts, and cannot become Heartless).

Belle's heart was later restored by the bravery of Sora, and she was released from her enchantment. She seperated from her fellow princesses and, due to her passion for books, went to Hollow Bastion's library in search of ways to stop the darkness. Happily reunited with the Beast at last, she explained as best she could to Sora what had occured in Hollow Bastion during his brief departure, and then gave him the Divine Rose Keychain. When Sora finally sealed Kingdom Hearts, Belle and the Beast returned home together.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
The following events were really a corruption of Sora's memories from Kingdom Hearts, and thus they did not actually occur in the Kingdom Hearts reality. Sora, Donald and Goofy entered Sora's memories of Hollow Bastion through Castle Oblivion only to find Belle and the Beast in a heated argument near Hollow Bastion's entrance. The Beast attempted to explain to Belle that he had come from very far to rescue her from Maleficent, but Belle insisted that the Beast leave as she had no interest in talking to him. She eventually retreated to Hollow Bastion's library, leaving the Beast in depressed confusion.

Sora and his friends later found Belle in the library, and attempted to understand her oddly cold attitude towards the Beast. However, before she could explain, Maleficent entered and demanded that Belle call the Beast. When she refused to do so, Maleficent transported herself and Belle to a different area of the castle.

Belle continued to refuse Maleficent's demands, even under the threat of torture. Sora arrived just in time, as did the Beast. Belle continued her increasingly rude attitude towards the Beast upon seeing him, prompting the Beast to pour out his true feelings for her. Maleficent then threatened to steal the Beast's heart, which he had shown to be rich and vulnerable when explaining his love for Belle. As Maleficent attempted to take the Beast's heart, Belle sacrificed herself to save him.

Maleficent later revealed to the Beast, Sora, Donald and Goofy that Belle had been purposefully shunning the Beast in an attempt to prevent herself from exposing her heart for Maleficent to use for dark magic. After Sora defeated Maleficent, Belle was returned to her physical state with her heart intact. She quickly apologized for her actions, which the Beast easily forgave knowing that they were not her true feelings.

Kingdom Hearts II
A year after the events of Kingdom Hearts, Belle and the Beast were attempting to return back to their normal lives at the Beast's Castle. However, the peace was soon disrupted by Organization XIII member Xaldin. Xaldin began playing on the Beast's anger, attempting to enrage him to the point that his heart would be drenched in darkness, thus spawning an extremely powerful Heartless and Nobody variation of the Beast for the Organization to use. In an attempt to keep them safe, the Beast forced the majority of his servants into the castle's dungeon. Belle, not knowing what to do and fearing the Beast's sudden surge of rage, hid in her room in fear. She was overjoyed when Sora, Donald and Goofy happened to drop by. Once Sora freed the servants from the dungeon and utilized their aid to make the Beast calm down, the Beast realized he had been rude to Belle in his blind rage. Hoping to apologize, he headed off with Sora to find her, only to hear her muffled voice in the castle's ballroom. Belle had taken it upon herself to confront Xaldin on her own, warning him to leave the Beast alone. Xaldin used his influence of the darkness to set a Shadow Stalker on Belle. She managed to evade it, escaping to the ballroom's balcony. After the creature was defeated, the Beast apologized to Belle, who accepted his kind words but reprimanded him for not trusting her.

When Sora and the others visited Hollow Bastion for the third time, her name was found out to be part of a password to access the DTD's dataspace, along with the other princesses.

Sora later returned to Beast's Castle to find Belle and the Beast in the middle of a date. As the couple began a romantic dance in the ballroom, Xaldi] interrupted the celebration, much to Belle's displeasure. She was forced to briefly retreat as Xaldin sent a horde of Nobodies after Sora and the Beast. When the enemies were defeated, Belle returned only to find the Beast in great distress about his enchanted rose. Following him upstairs, she pleaded the Beast to explain what was wrong, but the Beast's frustration simply lead him to order Belle and Sora to leave the castle.

Belle retreated to her room in despair, eventually going out to the balcony to mull things over. When she later spotted the Beast, along with Sora, Goofy and Donald, emerging into the castle courtyard she headed back inside, but on her way spotted the rose sitting near the door. Happily showing off the rose to her companions below, she soon realized the whole thing was a setup as Xaldin grabbed her from behind and flew her to the bridge outside the Beast's Castle. As Xaldin offered the Beast a choice between Belle or the rose, Belle showed Xaldin she was not just a simple village girl. She elbowed the Organization XIII member hard in the stomach and, smiling to herself, ran back to the castle clutching the rose in its bell jar.

Once the Beast and Sora defeated Xaldin, Belle gladly returned the rose to the Beast. He nervously asked her to stay with him in his castle, to which she happily agreed.

At the conclusion of Sora's adventure in Kingdom Hearts II it was revealed that the Beast had transformed back into Prince Adam, effectively ending the Beauty and the Beast story arc in Kingdom Hearts, although Belle's status as one of the Princesses of Heart may still tie her in to future Kingdom Hearts adventures, including Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep as Terra is looking for the Princesses of Heart.

Personality
Belle manages to set herself apart from the members of the village which she lives in. The citizens of the village find Belle to be very strange, as she reads at an astonishing rate and rejects the advances of the town's muscle man, Gaston. Belle also has plans to be in control of her own future, and hopes for an adventure outside of her provincial life. Belle has been known to be easily frightened, but she often overcomes her fears and usually manges to be quite brave, even in the most dangerous situations. She is also known for being somewhat outspoken and occasionally allowing her curiosity to get the best of her.

Apperance
In Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Belle only appears in her yellow ball gown, which is her famous attire that she wore during her dance with the Beast in the film. When in this dress, Belle styles her hair slightly differently, pulling it further up on her head. In her common clothes, which she wears for the majority of Kingdom Hearts II, Belle lets her hair down, but ties it back with a blue bow that matches her dress. She also wears a white shirt, a white apron and black shoes. She can often be spotted with a book in hand. Her everyday look was inspired by Julie Andrews's apperance in The Sound of Music.

Abilities
Because Belle is a Princess of Heart, she has many special abilities that are heigtened or activiated when she is joined with the other princesses. In this exclusive group, her heart can be used to create the Dark Keyblade and open the Final Keyhole to Kingdom Hearts. In addition, as her heart only contains pure light, she can fight back the darkness (she can perform this task alone, but it has stronger effects when she is with the other princesses).

Belle also has a great affinity for books, which allows her to soak up knowledge quickly. And, as she showed Xaldin in Kingdom Hearts II, she can administer a good punch in the stomach if she has reason to.

Origin
Belle's apperance in the Kingdom Hearts franchise is based directly upon her apperance in Walt Disney's Academy Award winning film, Beauty and the Beast (1991). Belle's character has appeared in various incarnations of the Beauty and the Beast story throughout history, but her Disney counterpart is mainly based on the character of Beauty in Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's La Belle et la Bête, which was published in 1756.

Trivia

 * Paige O'Hara has voiced Belle ever since her first apperance in Beauty and the Beast. The only time she has not done so was when Belle made a cameo on Disney's House of Mouse; in this case, she was voiced by Jodi Benson (the voice of Ariel).


 * Belle is one of the few Disney princesses who is not a princess by birth, but by marriage (the other princess to marry into royalty is Cinderella).


 * Belle's heroic scene in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories took place in a random area of Hollow Bastion, while in Kingdom Hearts: re-Chain of Memories the scene was relocated to Hollow Bastion's entrance hall.


 * Belle is the only princess besides Kairi to attack an enemy. Although, in both cases, it was an act of defense. Belle was trying to save both herself and the rose, and Kairi attacked to save Sora from the Heartless. She is also the only female character to attack a member of Organization XIII.