The film was originally planned as one of Disney's earliest films. Production started soon after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but was put on hold due to various circumstances. In the 1980s, the Disney company did not know that Walt had intended to make a Little Mermaid film. The Disney Company thought of the idea independently. While in production in the 1980s, someone found Walt's Mermaid script by chance. Many of his changes to Hans Christian Andersen's original story were coincidentally the same as the changes made by Disney writers in the 1980s.