Frozen (2013 film) billion, and Lasseter was promoted to chief creative officer of both Pixar and Disney Animation. The next attempt started in 2008, when Lasseter was able to convince Chris Buck (who co-directed the 1999 film "Tarzan" for the studio) to return to Walt Disney Animation Studios from Sony Pictures Animation (where he had recently co-directed the Oscar-nominated 2007 film "Surf's Up"); that September, Buck pitched several ideas to Lasseter, one of which was "The Snow Queen". Buck later revealed that his initial inspiration for "The Snow Queen" was not the Andersen fairy tale itself, but that he wanted "to do something
The Little Mermaid (1989 film) Andersen tales. Development started soon after "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in the late 1930s, but was delayed due to various circumstances. In 1985, Ron Clements became interested in a film adaptation of "The Little Mermaid" while he was serving as a director on "The Great Mouse Detective" (1986) alongside John Musker. Clements discovered the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale while browsing through a bookstore. Believing the story provided an "ideal basis" for an animated feature film and keen on creating a film that took place underwater, Clements wrote and presented a two-page treatment of "Mermaid" to Disney CEO