<Li> Kimmy Robertson as the Featherduster--A maid and Lumière's sweetheart, who has been turned into a feather duster . She is unnamed in the 1991 film (listed as Featherduster in the credits); Babette is the name given to this character later in the 1994 stage adaptation of the film; Fifi in the 1998 animated musical film Belle's Magical World and Plumette in the 2017 live - action remake . </Li> <Li> Frank Welker as Sultan--The castle's pet dog turned into a footstool . </Li> <P> 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 1946 version . </P> <P> 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 . </P>

When did the first beauty and the beast come out