Gary Trousdale replaced him. Following the Academy Award-winning success of The Little Mermaid, Katzenberg asked The Little Mermaid songwriting duo of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken to write the songs for and score Beauty and the Beast. At first Ashman, who was at the time writing songs with Menken for a recently pitched idea for another Disney film called Aladdin (1992), was reluctant to join the struggling film project, but eventually agreed. Musically, "Be Our Guest" is based on a simple melody that was composed by Menken, who initially had little intention of using it as anything more than just a "dummy." Upon singing the tune and presenting it to co-writer Ashman, Menken discovered that he was unable to come up with a melody capable of surpassing "that dumb piece of music that I wrote initially because it was just right." Subsequently, Ashman wrote the song's lyrics. Originally, the filmmakers had initially intended for "Be Our Guest" to be performed by Lumière to Belle's disoriented father Maurice when the character first discovers the Beast's castle. According to co-director Gary Trousdale, "The song had already been recorded and the sequence partially animated when we decided that it would be more meaningful if it was directed towards Belle" because "she is one of the two main characters and the story revolves around her coming to the castle." Consequently, the song had to be re-written and the entire scene re-animated. Trousdale explained, "We had to bring Jerry Orbach and all the other vocal talents back into the studio to change all references to gender that appeared in the original recording." Context, scene, and analysis Beauty and the Beast fourth musical number, "Be Our Guest" is set within the first half of the film, occurring shortly after Belle sacrifices her own freedom in return for her father's, becoming the Beast's prisoner. Confined to her bedroom when she, upset, stubbornly refuses to join the Beast for dinner, Belle eventually ventures into the kitchen after feeling hungry, where she is greeted by the castle's staff of enchanted inanimate objects – Mrs. Potts, Cogsworth and Lumière. Upon insisting that they treat her more like a guest than a prisoner, Lumière decides to go against the Beast's orders and invites Belle to dinner. A "food chorus line," "Be Our Guest" is "a rollicking invitation to Belle from the castle staff." As one of the film's most poignant, large-scale,