 Following a difficult period during where Walt Disney Feature Animation struggled to release successful animated feature films, the studio, inspired by their most recent animated success "The Little Mermaid "(1989), decided to adapt the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" into an animated musical film after a non-musical adaptation had been attempted that failed to impress Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chairman of Walt Disney Studios.Katzenberg ordered that production on the film be started over from scratch, hiring songwriting team Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who had just recently completed scoring "The Little Mermaid", to write the film's songs.Dion and Bryson were hired to record a pop version of – and draw media attention to – the film's title song.