Donald Paul Hahn (born November 26, 1955) is an American film producer who is credited with producing some of the most successful animated films in history, including Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (the first out of three animated films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture) and The Lion King.
Hahn is currently executive producer of Disneynature films, and owns his own film production company, Stone Circle Pictures.
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. 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.[1]
Hahn produced the remake of Tim Burton's Oscar-nominated Frankenweenie.
At the 2015 D23 Expo, which marked the 20th anniversary of The Lion King, it was announced that a new film titled The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar would be released. Hahn was introduced to the crowd, and told them all the history of the Lion King franchise and informed the audience that the new film as well as its follow up series will continue the original film's story, before introducing the executive producer of the new film; Ford Riley.[2]
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 1990s. 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 E. Disney.
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.[3]
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.[4]
Hahn serves as 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.
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.[5] Don has also written three books on Animation (one of which is "Animation Magic" from Disney Press).[6]
Hahn leads a panel on the work of Walt Stanchfield at Comicon 2009.
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.[7]Animation World Network wrote that "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."[8]
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."[9]
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