Who wrote the screenplay for Disney's 1991 animated Beauty and the Beast?

Linda Woolverton wrote the screenplay for Disney's 1991 animated Beauty and the Beast.

Woolverton became the first woman to receive a sole screenplay credit for a Disney animated feature. Her script helped turn Belle into an active protagonist whose curiosity, reading, and choices drive the story rather than making her a passive romantic figure.

The screenplay adapts the traditional Beauty and the Beast tale but also adds Disney-specific characters and comic structure. Gaston, LeFou, Lumière, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, and Chip give the castle a social world around the central relationship.

Woolverton later wrote the screenplay for The Lion King and the live-action Alice in Wonderland. Songwriters Howard Ashman and Alan Menken were essential creative collaborators, but they are not the screenplay's credited writer.