Behind the Scenes: Screenwriting Disney Classics

In celebration of the exhibition “Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts,” join Beauty and the Beast screenwriter Linda Woolverton for an in-depth conversation with Wolf Burchard, Associate Curator, European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Beauty and the Beast was the first animated feature nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, but that's only one of the firsts that Linda Woolverton includes among her accomplishments: the first woman to write an animated feature film; the first female screenwriter with a sole writing credit on a film that grossed $1 billion dollars for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland; and playwright of Disney’s first Broadway musical, Beauty and the Beast, for which she received a Tony Award nomination and won an Olivier Award). Other Disney classics credited to Woolverton include: The Lion King, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Maleficent, and Maleficent: Mistress of All Evil.

This program was recorded on March 9, 2023.