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Beauty and The Beast is only the fifth Disney animated feature film to be based on a classic fairy tale. The other films are Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and The Little Mermaid.
The best known version of the original fairy tale is the one by Madame Le Prince de Beaumont from the Contes Marins of Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve which dates back to 1740. The origins of Disney's adaptation of Beauty and The Beast can be traced back at least forty years to initial discussions between Walt Disney and the rest of his pioneering team about the possibility of adapting the story into a classic Disney film. At that time, the team could not find a way to deal with the tale's claustrophobic second half, when Belle is imprisoned in the Beast's castle. The project was put on the shelf and remained there until 1989.
In 1989 a group of Disney animators went to Europe for development and pre-production work where they worked on story development and character design. However, the result of their time in Europe was a serious drama with no range for music. In essence, they ran into the same problem Walt had several decades earlier which persuaded him to put off making the film to a later date.
In the best known version of the film (adapted by Madame Le Prince de Beaumont), Beauty (Belle) was the youngest daughter of a merchant who had fallen on hard times. He sets off on a business trip, hoping it will be successful, and as he leaves he tells his daughters he will bring them gifts from afar. Beauty (Belle) asks only that he bring her a rose. The trip was unsuccessful and as he returns home he happens across an apparently deserted castle and picks a rose from the garden. The Beast emerges from the castle and wishes to exact the penalty of death from the merchant, who offers his youngest daughter instead of him. Beauty (Belle) accepts and goes to live in the castle with the Beast with whom she eventually falls in love.