Don Hahn (born 1955) is an American film producer who has produced some of the most successful Walt Disney animated films of the past 20 years. He currently owns his own film production company called Stone Circle Pictures.
Hahn was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of a Lutheran minister. When Hahn was 3, his family moved to Bellflower California where he went to school and shot his first animated shorts in the high school film club. His family then moved to Burbank, California when he was a teenager. He graduated from North Hollywood High School where he was drum major of the marching band, and went on to study for his Bachelor's degree at California State University Northridge where he majored in Music and minored in art. Hahn was a percussionist in the Los Angeles Junior Philharmonic. He worked as a drum head tester for Remo Inc. and taught music at Notre Dame High School to put himself through college.
He began his career in animation working for Disney Legend Wolfgang Reitherman as an assistant director on "The Fox and The Hound." He worked closely with Director Don Bluth on the production of "Pete's Dragon" and even worked in Bluth's garage on the animated short "Banjo". He later became production manager of The Black Cauldron (1985) and "The Great Mouse Detective" before moving on as an associate producer of Disney/Amblin's Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).
In 1989, Hahn makes his first mark as producer for Disney and Amblin Entertainment's first Roger Rabbit short, Tummy Trouble, producing along with Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall. He then became the producer for the benchmark animated feature Beauty and the Beast, released in 1991, which made him the first producer in Hollywood to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar for an animated film. His next production, 1994's The Lion King, set worldwide box office records for an animated film and quickly became the highest grossing traditionally-animated film in history. In 1996 he produced The Hunchback of Notre Dame, in 2000 he was an Executive Producer on The Emperor's New Groove.
Hahn directed Steve Martin, James Earl Jones and Itzhak Perlman in the host sequences of "Fantasia 2000." The next year in 2001 he experienced his first failure, The Lost Empire. Many have alleged that its failure was due to both its high budget and the fact that most animated action/adventures were not popular at the box-office, despite the fact that the film did moderately well in the box office. In 2003, Hahn teamed up with Lion King co-director Rob Minkoff to produce "The Haunted Mansion" starring Eddie Murphy, making it Hahn's first live-action film to produce.
He also produced the Oscar-nominated animated short Lorenzo (2004).
In 2006, Hahn was interim head of Disney's animation division during its successful merger with Pixar Animation Studios. Hahn received his second Academy Award nomination that same year in the category of Best Animated Short for The Little Match Girl, an adaptation of the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale which was originally intended for inclusion in a version of Fantasia.
Don was Executive Producer for the landmark nature film "Earth" the premiere film project from the Disneynature film label. In 2010 he once again served as Executive Producer on "Oceans" the epic documentary on the seas from Disneynature.
Three of his films have been adapted into stage musicals: Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In all, his films have been nominated for 18 Academy Awards. Hahn will produce tbe remake of Tim Burton's Frankenweenie.
Waking Sleeping Beauty is Don Hahn's feature directorial debut. The film is the true story of the perfect storm of people and circumstances that led to the animation renaissance of the 1980s and '90s. The film had its world premiere at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, and won the audience award at the Hampton's Film Festival. It offers a candid perspective of what happened in the creative ranks set against the dynamic tensions among the top leadership, Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Roy Disney (the nephew of Walt).
Hand Held is Hahn's second documentary feature. When Hahn took a year sabbatical from his job at Disney, he set out to make a very personal film about photographer Mike Carroll, one of the first photojournalists to uncover the pediatric AIDS epidemic in post communist eastern Europe. Hahn filmed extensively in Bucharest, Transylvania, and in Carroll's home town of Boston.
Christmas With Walt Disney (2009) is a feature documentary commissioned by the Walt Disney Family Museum and directed by Hahn. The film chronicles Disney's life as husband, father, and film maker centered around the holidays. Hahn directed the film, narrated by Walt Disney's daughter Diane Disney Miller. The film runs every holiday season at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.
In January 1999, Hyperion Books published Don's book on creativity called "Dancing Corndogs In The Night." The best selling book is a case study of the human creative spirit. Don has also written three books on Animation. "Animation Magic" from Disney Press. Publisher's Weekly said: "producer Don Hahn distills the difficult and detailed process of animated feature film creation into an easily understood narrative. From the birth of an idea, to voice-overs, special effects and computer-generated imagery, each phase is generously illustrated with sketches, movie stills, scenes of artists at work, flow charts and even a photo of the opening of Pocahontas in New York's Central Park.
Don's book "Alchemy of Animation" became an extremely popular book on the process of making an animated film. The text covered traditional hand drawn animation as well as 3D digital animation, visual effects and stop motion animation. Animation World Magazine said about the book: Whether you're a veteran story artist, or you're trying to land your first studio job as an in-betweener, or you're delivering coffee and donuts to the higher-ups or if you're just a fan of animation, you'll want to add this to your bookshelf.
Early in his career, Hahn set up and managed the Disney School of Animation, an internal training program for a generation of young artists coming up within the Disney Studio animation department. The program was mentored by veteran animators Eric Larson and Walt Stanchfield. In the spring of 2009 Focal Press released the landmark book "Drawn to Life" by Walt Stanchfield which Don edited. "It was a dream project for me to bring the complete works of Walt to pring," said Hahn. "Stanchfield was a brilliant teacher, and my personal mentor, and it's a thrill to be able to publish his work to inspire generations to come." Website Animation Nation called Drawn to Life: one the strongest primers on animation ever written. It is a masterpice compilation by Don Hahn. The material spares no detail on the craft of animation, but also digs deep into the artistic roots of animation. It is a publication that has been anticipated for many years by every artist and student that Walt ever came in contact with. It has been a labor of love for Don and we're happy, proud and excited that Walt's teachings will live on in these two volumes thanks to him!
