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The Little Mermaid is a 1989 American animated musical fantasy film written and directed by John Musker and Ron Clements and produced by Musker and Howard Ashman, who also wrote the film's songs with composer Alan Menken. Loosely based on the 1837 Danish fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen, it was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation in association with Silver Screen Partners IV and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film features the voices of René Auberjonois, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, Paddi Edwards, Buddy Hackett, Jason Marin, Kenneth Mars, Ben Wright, and Samuel E. Wright. The story follows a teenage mermaid princess named Ariel who dreams of becoming human and falls in love with a human prince named Eric, which leads her to forge an agreement with the sea witch Ursula to be with him.
Walt Disney planned to put the story in a proposed package film containing Andersen's stories, but he scrapped the project. In 1985, while working on The Great Mouse Detective (1986), Clements and Musker decided to adapt the fairy tale. They proposed it to Walt Disney Studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, who initially declined due to its similarities to a proposed sequel to the 1984 film Splash, but ultimately approved it. Ashman became involved, and brought in Menken. With supervision from Katzenberg, they made a Broadway-style structure with musical numbers as the staff was working on Oliver & Company (1988). Katzenberg warned that the film would earn less since it appealed to female viewers, but he eventually became convinced that it would be another blockbuster hit for the company.