 After the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 , Walt Disney sought out other stories to adapt into feature films , with Beauty and the Beast being among the stories he considered . Attempts to develop the Beauty and the Beast story into a film were made in the 1930s and 1950s , but were ultimately given up because it " proved to be a challenge " for the story team . Peter M. Nichols states Disney may later have been discouraged by Jean Cocteau having already done his version . 
