Beauty and the Beast (1988 screenplay)

Background
In early 1988, while he was working on the screenplay for The Rescuers Down Under, Jim Cox was given a list of future animated films that the Disney company wanted to make. One of these was an adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, which Cox immediately stated he wanted to do. After he had written his initial treatment, he submitted it to Micheal Eisner and all the other Disney executives for approval. Upon reading the script, Micheal Eisner had some of the studio's artists, one of which was Mel Shaw do some initial sketches, which were then put together  to create a presentation reel which was later included on the Platinum and Diamond Edition DVD releases of the final film.

At this point, Jim Cox had left for his home in Mexico to see his wife. So, Micheal Eisner phoned him up, congradulated him and asked him to expand his treatment into a full-fleged screenplay. However, when the screenplay reached Jeffery Katzenburg, while he said that Cox had done well with it, he decided that his direction was not what the studio was looking for.