Introduction
Donald Paul Hahn is an American film producer.
Don Hahn produced the classic Beauty and the Beast, the first animated film to receive a Best Picture nomination from the Motion Picture Academy. His next film, The Lion King, broke box-office records all over the world to become the top-grossing traditionally animated film of all time and a long-running blockbuster Broadway musical. Hahn also served as associate producer on the landmark motion picture Who Framed Roger Rabbit. His other films include The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, the 2006 short The Little Matchgirl (which earned Hahn his second Oscar® nomination), Maleficent, and Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, as well as the Disneynature films Earth, Oceans, African Cats, and Chimpanzee. He also directed the documentaries Waking Sleeping Beauty, Hand Held, and The Gamble House, and produced the documentary High Ground.
Hahn has also authored three books on the art of animation, including the 2008 book, The Alchemy of Animation, which provides the definitive account of how animated films are created in the modern age. His other books include Brain Storm: Unleashing Your Creative Self, Before Ever After: The Lost Lectures of Walt Disney’s Animation Studio, and the upcoming Yesterday’s Tomorrow: Disney’s Magical Mid-Century.
He is currently directing Howard, a documentary film about writer and lyricist Howard Ashman, the creative force behind Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin.