On the strength of the success of "Little Shop of Horrors", Menken and Ashman were hired by Walt Disney Studios to write the music for "The Little Mermaid" (1989). The challenge was to create an animated musical film of this Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale that could sit alongside the Disney films "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Cinderella". "The Little Mermaid" opened to critical and commercial success and signaled a new Disney era called the Disney Renaissance. The film gave them their first Oscar win: Best Song for the song "Under the Sea". Menken also won the 1989 Oscar for Best Score.