ar-off places, daring sword fights ... a prince in disguise ... Belle longs for so much more than a "normal life" in this small, provincial town -- a town where girls don't aspire to more than being the wife of a handsome lunk like Gaston. Still, adventure is the last thing on her mind when she rides her horse, Philippe, into the forest to find her beloved father, who is missing. Thinking only of her father, she makes a terrible bargain with a pitiless monster, a beast who holds her father captive. "Take me instead ..." Though the Beast now holds the key to Belle's prison, he doesn't have the key to her heart, and her yearning spirit won't be kept prisoner. But after he risks his own life to save hers, she begins to see past his hideous appearance. She realizes that, deep inside him, there might be something more than she -- or he -- has ever dreamed. With "The Little Mermaid," Disney had returned to the old custom of using live-action reference footage, a practice they continued for "Beauty." Actress Sherri Stoner portrayed the role of Belle on film and her live-action performance was used as inspiration for the character's animated performance. Beast's key animator, Glen Keane, and one of Belle's animators, Mark Henn, were drawing their respective characters (in the same scene) across the country from each other -- Henn at the Disney-MGM Studio in Florida, and Keane at the animation studio in Glendale, California. In order to coordinate their work, the animators had to exchange drawings daily by courier. Film: "Beauty and the Beast" Live-Action Model: Sherri Stoner Voice Artist: Paige O'Hara