The Little Mermaid was originally planned as part of one of
Walt Disney's earliest feature films, a proposed
package film featuring vignettes of
Hans Christian Andersen tales.
[14] Development started soon after
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the late 1930s, but was delayed due to various circumstances.
[15]
In 1985,
Ron Clements became interested in a film adaptation of
The Little Mermaid while he was serving as a director on
The Great Mouse Detective (1986) alongside
John Musker.
[16] Clements discovered the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale while browsing through a
bookstore.
[17] Believing the story provided an "ideal basis" for an animated feature film and keen on creating a film that took place underwater,
[16] Clements wrote and presented a two-page
treatment of
Mermaid Walt Disney Studios chief
Jeffrey Katzenberg at a "gong show" idea suggestion meeting. Katzenberg passed the project over, because at that time the studio was in development on a sequel to their live-action mermaid comedy
Splash (1984) and felt
The Little Mermaid would be too similar a project.
[17] The next day, however, Katzenberg approved of the idea for possible development, along with
Oliver & Company. While in production in the 1980s, the staff found, by chance, original story and visual development work done by
Kay Nielsen for Disney's proposed 1930s Andersen feature.
[14] Many of the changes made by the staff in the 1930s to Hans Christian Andersen's original story were coincidentally the same as the changes made by Disney writers in the 1980s.
[17]