In 1989 Musker and Clements wrote, directed and produced "The Little Mermaid" (1989), a prelude to the huge commercial and critical resurgence of animated films; it harkened back to the golden age of Disney animation (e.g., "Dumbo", "The Jungle Book", "Bambi"). Their second team attempt was "Aladdin" (1992), a loose retelling of "The Thief of Bagdad" and featuring the music of the late Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, the composers of such recent Disney favorites as "Beauty and the Beast" (1991) and "The Little Mermaid" (1989).