In February 1939, Walt Disney announced he had purchased the film rights to T. H. White's "The Sword in the Stone". However, following the outbreak of World War II, the studio was restricted by the United States government to produce cartoons for the armed services. In June 1944, following the successful re-release of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", Disney had assigned writers to work on "The Sword in the Stone" along with "Cinderella" and "Alice in Wonderland". The project continued to be announced to be in active development throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s. In June 1960, Disney told the "Los Angeles Times" that following the release of "One Hundred and One Dalmatians", two animated projects were in development, which were "Chanticleer" and "The Sword in the Stone". Around that same time, Disney's elder brother Roy O. Disney attempted to persuade him to discontinue their feature animation division, as enough films remained to make successful re-releases. The younger Disney refused, but because of his plans to build another theme park in the United States, he would approve only one animated film to be released every four years.