The Little Mermaid won two Academy Awards.
At the 62nd Academy Awards, the 1989 Disney film won Best Original Score for Alan Menken and Best Original Song for “Under the Sea,” written by Menken and Howard Ashman. Those victories recognized both the film’s Broadway-influenced musical design and one of its most memorable songs, performed in the film by Sebastian.
The wins were especially important because the film helped restore prestige to Disney’s animated features after a less consistent period. Its success is commonly associated with the beginning of the Disney Renaissance, a run of commercially and critically acclaimed animated films that followed in the 1990s.
A frequent source of confusion is counting nominations rather than wins, or mixing the film’s Academy Awards with honors from other organizations. The Little Mermaid received three Oscar nominations, including one for “Kiss the Girl,” but it won two. “Under the Sea” prevailed over the other nominated song from the film.