Hahn Tapped Interim Chief of Disney Animation

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Don Hahn, a producer at Walt Disney Feature Animation, will assume the role of interim head of WDFA until Disney's acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios is complete. Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook informed studio employees of Hahn's assignment late Thursday in a company-wide e-mail. Hahn will take over many of the duties of outgoing president David Stainton, who is expected to take another position within the Disney organization. Hahn stood beside Ed Catmull and John Lasseter last month when the newly appointed president and chief creative officer of the Pixar and Disney animation studios toured WDFA a day after Disney announced its plan to buy Pixar. Hahn and Lasseter have a history dating back almost two decades. The two first worked together at Disney on the 1981 production of "The Fox and the Hound," the crew of which is a veritable who's who of power players in today's animation community. Hahn was an early and ardent champion of Pixar inside Disney when the fledgling computer animation boutique first began producing "Toy Story" in the early '90s. When Disney's first deal with an as-yet-unproven Pixar was challenged by doubters, Hahn was quoted as saying, "Pixar has the ability to be small and naughty, to be fleet of foot." Hahn is known to be an advocate of the many styles and techniques of animation, from 3-D to hand-drawn 2-D and stop-motion as well as integration of 2-D and live action. He was an associate producer on 1988's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and a producer on 1991's "Beauty and the Beast," 1994's "The Lion King" and 1996's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."