Belle made reading cool, and for a 90's movie, the independence that reading gave Bella was pretty significant. She didn't care about the other villagers mocking and laughing at her for her love of learning, even women were starting to having an education and a career.

The most powerful scene is when Belle picks books over Gaston clarifying that her passion for learning is bigger than being Gaston's wife and having his children. This choice was pretty unusual when people valued motherhood and marriage over independence and education.

But the problems start when she meets Beast. Even as she fights for her independence and freedom, she falls in love with a man who keeps her trapped in a castle. Nowadays, feminist theories will say this relationship isn't a romantic one, but a co-dependent one in which the victim feels attraction for her captor.

On the other hand, the despection of physical appearance is essential because even if Belle is the most intelligent person in the town, villagers only give importance to her beauty. Focusing on appearance makes the movie lees feminist, because one more time, it gives more prominence to how you look at how intelligent you are.

(1) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101414/

TLDR; There are elements to this film that make it more progressive than previous Disney princess films but ultimately the romance takes precedence over it.

We have a character who feels her personality markers her out as different than her peers. She seeks out knowledge and adventure unreservedly and does not capitulate to expectation or demand. In earlier films such as Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, heroines have narratives thrust upon them. In Beauty and the Beast, Belle makes an active choice which initiates the events of the film.

The choice she makes confines her to the castle and the care of the love interest (plus assorted homewares) until she stumbles across something she shouldn't. (As a side note- if ever your partner inexplicably insists there is a room which you must on no account enter, be suspicious. Very rarely is there anything good in a "secret room"). An argument ensues; she flees and is saved from mortal peril by the beast. This marks a turning point.

In the end, her desire for "adventure in the great wide somewhere" seems to have been satiated by discovering love and a big castle. In retrospect it feels that her otherness and desire to explore were a problem to be resolved, rather than a quality to be valued and explored. More to the point; can it really be considered feminist if the protagonist has simply been extracted from the path her society dictated for women? It is a film about one single woman whose desire to not live as other women do is rewarded with comfort; servants and a love that seems to quash the need for exploration.

Beauty and the Beast (1991) is arguably one of the most feminist Disney movies of the 20th century. Belle is a reader. She loves books and loves narratives. She is the odd one out in her village and owns up to it.

Belle sees the kindness in the Beast. She falls in love with him much after he kidnaps her. He also saves her from wolves. This shows that he is not a cruel captor. Clearly, there is just something wrong with him. In the end, no one begs another to stay. There are mutual love and respect for each other. They gave each other what they wanted. Both of them saved each other.

Her relationship with the Beast is not co-dependent at all. She loves him after exploring everything about him. She is a kind-hearted person but not dependent. In fact, she is fiercely independent. In a village that only acknowledges her beauty, she chooses to reject Gaston and continue longing for adventure.

The movie is incredibly empowering because of the contrasts in the scenes. The villagers’ reactions and obsession with Belle’s independence, intellect, and self-dignity show how much she was equal to a man.