 Decades later , during the production of Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1987 , the Disney studio resurrected Beauty and the Beast as a project for the satellite animation studio it had set up in London , England to work on Roger Rabbit . Richard Williams , who had directed the animated portions of Roger Rabbit , was approached to direct , but declined in favor of continuing work on his long @-@ gestating project The Thief and the Cobbler . In his place , Williams recommended his colleague , English animation director Richard Purdum , and work began under producer Don Hahn on a non @-@ musical version of Beauty and the Beast set in 19th century France . At the behest of Disney CEO Michael Eisner , Beauty and the Beast became the first Disney animated film to use a screenwriter . This was an unusual production move for an animated film , which is traditionally developed on storyboards rather than in scripted form . Linda Woolverton wrote the original draft of the story before storyboarding began , and worked with the story team to retool and develop the film . 
