The Little Mermaid is a 1989 animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and first released on November 17, 1989 by Walt Disney Pictures. The twenty-eighth animated feature in the list of Disney theatrical animated features, the film is based upon the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, "The Little Mermaid." The film grossed over $111 million in the U.S. and an additional $99 million worldwide, and is given credit for breathing life back into the animated feature film genre after a string of critical and commercial failures beginning in the early 1980s. An musical stage adaptation of the film with some differences opened on Broadway in 2007 or more early 2008, and closed on August 30, 2009. The musical's book is by Doug Wright, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by the late Howard