 Stylistically, Ashman and Menken drew creative influence from several musical styles and genres, including French, classical and Broadway music, using them as reference and inspiration when composing the film's songs.Menken also revealed that the film's songs and score tend to convey a wide variety of emotions, ranging from poignancy to humor and joy.While composing the orchestral score that accompanies the film's prologue, Menken was inspired by the French suite "The Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saëns, referring to it as his own version of Saint-Saëns' composition.