In 1962, "The Aristocats" began as an original script for a two-part live-action episode of "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color". It was developed by writers Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe and producer Harry Tytle. Following two years of re-writes, Walt Disney said that the project would be better made as an animated movie. The project was placed in turnaround as "The Jungle Book" continued production. When "The Jungle Book" was nearly complete, Disney appointed Ken Anderson to develop preliminary work on "The Aristocats". It was the last movie project to be approved by Walt Disney before his death on December 15, 1966.