Disney's 1989 film The Little Mermaid won two Academy Awards.
The film won Best Original Song for “Under the Sea,” written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, and Best Original Score for Menken. These victories recognized the movie’s distinctive musical style, which helped re-establish the commercial and critical strength of Disney’s animated features.
The awards were presented at the 62nd Academy Awards in 1990. The Little Mermaid had been released in 1989 and received three nominations in total; its third nomination was for “Kiss the Girl,” another Menken-Ashman song. That song did not win.
The film’s two wins are sometimes mixed up with later Disney productions that received different numbers of awards. The Little Mermaid is also important historically because it began the period often called the Disney Renaissance, although the label describes an era rather than an official award category.