- Don Hahn
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This article is about the film producer. For the baseball player, see Don Hahn (baseball).
Don Hahn 
Don Hahn, July 2009Born 1955
Chicago, IllinoisOccupation Film producer, Film director Years active 1977 - Present Spouse Denise Hahn (?-present) 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.
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Early life
Hahn was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of a Lutheran minister.[1] 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.[1] He graduated from North Hollywood High School where he was drum major of the marching band, and went on to study music at Los Angeles Valley College where he was also drum major of the marching band. At California State University Northridge he majored in Music and minored in graphic and fine art. Hahn was a percussionist in the Los Angeles Junior Philharmonic Orchestra. He worked as a drum head tester for Remo Inc. and taught music at Notre Dame High School to put himself through college.
Film career
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 the Woodpile Cat. 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 made 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, and 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,[citation needed] Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Many[who?] 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, and 2011's "African Cats" from Disneynature.[2]
Four of his films have been adapted into stage musicals: Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In all, his films have been nominated for 18 Academy Awards.
Hahn will produce the remake of Tim Burton's Frankenweenie.[3]
Documentaries
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.
Hahn is the Executive Producer of numerous Disneynature documentaries such as Earth, Oceans, and African Cats all of which placed in the top five nature movies of all time. He is Executive Producer on the Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield directed Chimpanzee (2012).
Books
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 print," 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!
Filmography
- 1981 - The Fox and the Hound - Assistant director
- 1983 - Mickey's Christmas Carol
- 1985 - The Black Cauldron - Production manager
- 1988 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit - Associate producer
- 1989 - Tummy Trouble - Producer
- 1991 - Beauty and the Beast - Producer
- 1994 - The Lion King - Producer
- 1996 - The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Producer
- 2000 - The Emperor's New Groove - Executive producer
- 2000 - Fantasia 2000 - Director (Live-action segments)
- 2001 - Atlantis: The Lost Empire - Producer
- 2003 - The Haunted Mansion - Producer
- 2004 - Lorenzo (Academy Award Best Animated Short Nominee) - Executive producer
- 2006 - The Little Matchgirl (Academy Award Best Animated Short Nominee) - Producer
- 2009 - Waking Sleeping Beauty - Director
- 2009 - Earth - Executive Producer of US version
- 2010 - Oceans - Executive Producer
- 2010 - Hand Held - Producer, Director
- 2011 - African Cats - Executive Producer
- 2012 - Frankenweenie - Executive Producer
- 2012 - Chimpanzee - Executive Producer
Awards
Academy Awards
- 1991 - Nominated Best Picture - Beauty and the Beast
- 2006 - Nominated Best Animated Short Film - The Little Match Girl
Golden Globe Awards
- 1991 Winner Best Picture Musical or Comedy - Beauty and the Beast
- 1994 Winner Best Picture Musical or Comedy - The Lion King
National Board of Review Awards
- 1991 Best Animated Film Beauty and the Beast
ASIFA Hollywood Annie Awards
- 1991 Winner Best Animated Feature - Beauty and the Beast
- 1994 Winner Best Animated Feature - The Lion King
- 2011 Winner Special Award - Waking Sleeping Beauty
California State University Northridge
- 2011 Honorary Alumni of the Year
St. Xavier University
- 2011 Honorary Doctorate
References
External links
- Don Hahn at the Internet Movie Database
- Drawn to Life by Walt Stanchfield and Don Hahn
- Q&A With Don Hahn, Director of Waking Sleeping Beauty
Persondata Name Hahn, Don Alternative names Short description Date of birth 1955 Place of birth Chicago, Illinois Date of death Place of death Categories:- 1955 births
- American film producers
- Living people
- People from Chicago, Illinois
- Animated film producers
- Disney people
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