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A celebration of the talent and legacy of important animated projects with the creators who made them happen.

The ’90s marked a period of success for Walt Disney Feature Animation. Commonly referred to as the “Disney Renaissance,” the period included the release of numerous classics including The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Aladdin and Beauty & the Beast, among many others.


In this not-to-be-missed presentation, legendary producer Don Hahn is joined by a roster of animation legends including Brenda Chapman, Roger Allers, Kirk Wise, Gary Trousdale, John Musker, Lorna Cook, Rob Minkoff and Ron Clements to discuss their experiences, and the long-lasting impact of their work on the animation industry.


30th Year Anniversary · Beauty and the Beast · Image courtesy © 1991 Disney. All Rights Reserved.



MODERATOR


Don Hahn

Producer // Independent

(Howard, Maleficent, Frankenweenie, The Lion King, Beauty & the Beast)


Don loves to write, paint and make movies. As a student, he studied music and art and often peered over the fence at Disney wondering if he could ever get a job there. In 1976, he started in the basement of the Ink & Paint building where the old animation was stored, and later worked for Disney Legend Woolie Reitherman who directed Jungle Book, 101 Dalmatians and the movies that Don idolized as a kid. Don went on to produce dozens of films, three that are now on the Library of Congress collection as culturally, historically and esthetically important: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Beauty & the Beast, and The Lion King.


He guest lectures at Microsoft, Deloitte, Apple, Google and is on the advisory board of the Walt Disney Family Museum and a former trustee of PBS SoCal. He holds two Academy Award nominations, two Emmy nominations, two Golden Globes for Best Picture, two Honorary Doctorate degrees, and often orders the two tacos for 99¢ special at his local drive-thru.


His latest film Howard, about Disney Legend Howard Ashman, is streaming now on Disney+. Don wants to live in a world where people connect with stories, music, coffee and a love for the common good. A world where dark chocolate is left on your pillow each night no matter where you sleep.


SPEAKERS


Brenda Chapman

Writer, Director // ‘Twas Entertainment

(The Prince of Egypt, Brave, Come Away)


Brenda Chapman started her career as a story artist at Walt Disney Feature Animation in 1987, contributing to her favourite fairytales: The Little Mermaid, and Beauty & the Beast. She also worked on a few non-fairytales and was the story supervisor on the original The Lion King for which she won an Annie. Chapman then helped launch DreamWorks Animation Studios, where she co-directed The Prince of Egypt.


In 2003, Chapman joined Pixar Animation Studios where she created, wrote and directed Brave, winning an Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe. Come Away, Chapman’s live-action debut, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.


Currently, Chapman is writing and developing a couple of animated features, and working on a novel, a memoir, a children’s book and on various projects at ‘Twas Entertainment with her husband, Kevin Lima.


Website


Roger Allers

Writer, Director // Independent

(The Prophet, Open Season, The Little Match Girl, The Lion King)


Roger Allers made his feature film directing debut with The Lion King following a prolific two-decade career in the animation medium that included everything from character design and animation to storyboarding.


He was instrumental in shaping the structure and dialogue for the six Disney animated features previous to The Lion King, serving as Head of Story on Oliver & Company and Beauty & the Beast and contributing to The Little Mermaid. The Prince & the Pauper, The Rescuers Down Under, and Aladdin in senior story capacity.


He co-wrote the book for the Broadway musical The Lion King with Irene Mecchi, for which they were nominated for a Tony award in 1998. He also directed the animated short The Little Match Girl, based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale and set to the music of Borodin. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 2006.


Prior to Disney, Allers worked in animation in Boston, Toronto, and Tokyo on children’s education shows and feature films, including Nelvana’s Rock & Rule, Tokyo Movie Shinsha’s Litlle Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, and development work for TRON.


Post-Disney, Allers co-directed Open Season for Sony Pictures Animation.


In an independent production headed up by Salma Hyack, Roger Allers wrote and directed the animated feature The Prophet, adapted from the 1923 philosophical book by Kahlil Gibran.


Presently, he is engaged in writing an original musical for the Broadway stage.


Kirk Wise

Director // Independent

(Bobbleheads: The Movie, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beaty & the Beast)


Growing up in Palo Alto CA, Kirk took a summer community centre course in animation while still in elementary school, and soon he was creating his own Super-8 animated films. After graduating from Palo Alto High School, Kirk submitted his portfolio to CalArts and was accepted.


After graduation, Kirk worked in various capacities on multiple animated projects, including Sport Goofy in Soccermania, The Brave Little Toaster, Family Dog, The Great Mouse Detective, and Oliver & Company. He eventually segued from animation into storyboarding at Walt Disney Feature Animation. It was there that he was reunited with former CalArts classmate Gary Trousdale.


Due to a creative shakeup on the still-in-preproduction Beauty & the Beast, Wise and Trousdale were offered the chance to direct their first feature-length film, teaming with the Oscar-winning songwriting duo Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. Kirk and Gary’s directorial debut became a worldwide box-office sensation, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Picture (the first-ever for a feature-length animated film).


Wise and Trousdale teamed up to direct two more animated features for Disney, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis the Lost Empire.


Kirk eventually branched out into live-action projects as well, serving as an Executive Producer on Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, and as Creative Consultant on DisneyNature’s Chimpanzee. He also directed the live-action educational short Disney History Connections: Colonial America for Disney Educational Productions.


Kirk has recently completed his first 100% CGI-animated feature Bobbleheads: The Movie for Universal 1440 Entertainment, which premiered worldwide on Netflix and DVD in December of 2020.


Gary Trousdale

Director // Independent

(The Power of I, Atlantis: The Last Empire, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beauty & the Beast)


Gary Trousdale is a Southern Californian, raised in La Crescenta and educated at Crescenta Valley High School, Glendale College, and the California Institute of the Arts (in that order.) One would think that the road between CalArts and helming the iconic Disney feature Beauty & the Beast would be wide, smooth and straight, but one would be wrong.


Gary didn’t get into Disney until he had worked at Tom Carter Animation and a small illustration studio for the better part of two years. As he describes it, the Mouse House wasn’t pre-disposed to hire him straight out of CA, and so he learned his trade in smaller, lower-paying venues. When Mr. Trousdale finally did find his way to Disney, it was as an effects artist on The Black Cauldron, and even then his path was winding. Gary Trousdale expected to be laid off from the House of Mouse at the end of The Black Cauldron, but a series of in-house effects jobs kept him at Disney until his jokey cartoons, and a recommendation from Joe Ranft, helped boost him into Disney Feature Animation’s story department.


Becoming a feature animation director was another promotion that was far from pre-ordained. Gary and Kirk Wise were made “temporary” directors on Beauty & the Beast after the original directors left the project. It was only after months of work that they became “official,” and the rest, as they say, is animation history.


After Beauty & the Beast, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise became a Disney directing team through the rest of the 1990s. After Atlantis: the Lost Empire (released by Disney in 2001), Gary moved to DreamWorks Animation where he has written, directed and storyboarded.


Ron Clements

Director

(Moana, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid)


Ron Clements is a renowned director, storyteller, and filmmaker from Walt Disney Animation Studios. With his longtime collaborator, John Musker, Clements has written and directed iconic feature films that have become part of Disney’s legacy, including beloved classics like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Moana.


Clements began his career at Hanna-Barbera, then afterward transferred into Disney’s Talent Development Program where for two years he was mentored by the animation legend, Frank Thomas.


He quickly progressed through the ranks at Disney, working on such films as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, The Rescuers, Pete’s Dragon, The Fox and the Hound, and The Black Cauldron. In 1986, Clements made his writing-directing debut with Musker on the feature The Great Mouse Detective.


Clements recently retired from Walt Disney Animation Studios.


John Musker

Director // Independent

(Moana, The Princess and the Frog, Treasure Planet, Hercules, Alladin, The Little Mermaid)


John Musker is a 40-year veteran of the Walt Disney Animation Studios where he was an animator, storyboard artist, writer, director and producer. John grew up in Chicago, Illinois as part of a large Irish Catholic family. He followed up his English Literature studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, with two years at CalArts as part of the new Character Animation Program in the mid-seventies, where he learned not only from Disney and Chouinard veterans like Elmer Plummer, Bill Moore, and Ken O’Connor, but also his fellow classmates there, many who have gone on to direct distinguished films: folks like Brad Bird, Henry Selick, John Lasseter, Tim Burton and Chris Buck. At Disney, he was mentored by Eric Larson, the veteran animator and one of Disney’s fabled “Nine Old Men,” who brought Figaro the cat to life in Pinocchio, among many other characters in his distinguished career.


John became an animator on The Fox & the Hound (1981) and later joined Ron Clements to direct The Great Mouse Detective (1986), alongside Disney veterans Burny Mattinson and Dave Michener. Ron and John paired up to write and direct The Little Mermaid (1989) which John co-produced with Howard Ashman. Ron and John also wrote and directed a number of subsequent animated features including Aladdin (1992), Hercules (1997), Treasure Planet (2002) and The Princess and the Frog (2009). John’s most recent project was Moana (2016), which he once again directed with Ron Clements, along with co-directors Don Hall and Chris Williams.


John is busy chasing around his two granddaughters, sisters Lucy (nearly 5) and Gwen (nearly 3).


John resides in La Cañada, California, with his wife Gale, a former researcher at Disney, not far from his three grown children Patrick, Jackson and Julia.


Lorna Cook

Director // Independent

(Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Beauty & the Beast, The Lion King, The Prince of Egypt)


Lorna Cook directed Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and won four Annie Awards. Her extensive credits as an animator include The Land Before Time and the Universal Picture’s An American Tail.


Ms. Cook was an animator on two Academy Award-winning films from Walt Disney Pictures Beauty & the Beast and The Lion King. Ms. Cook spent several years as a valued story artist at Disney as well, including the position of key story artist on The Lion King, Mulan, and was Co-Head of Story on DreamWorks' The Prince of Egypt.


Rob Minkoff

Director // Independent

(Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Flypaper, The Forbidden Kingdom, Stuart Little, The Lion King)


Animation director Rob Minkoff was born and raised in Palo Alto, California. In his youth, his interest in drawing and animation was magnified while watching his 8mm film collection, which included Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959). Slowing the films down, he studied the action one frame at a time. He furthered his personal education on the subject after discovering the book The Art of Walt Disney at a friend's house. When his head wasn't swimming in animation, Rob worked in theatre, performing for numerous groups including the Palo Alto Children's Theater, Theater Works and his high school dramatic group.


Following graduation, the decision to attend CalArts in Valencia and pursue his dream of becoming an animator was coming to fruition. In 1982, he served an internship at Disney and had a chance to train with one of the studio's legendary "Nine Old Men," Eric Larson. A year later, Rob was hired by Disney and began to work on his first assignment, The Black Cauldron (1985), followed by The Great Mouse Detective (1986). The next few years, he worked on various aspects of Disney's feature films such as developing and writing for a variety of animated features, including a song for Oliver & Company (1988), character designs for The Little Mermaid (1989), and an early treatment for Beauty & the Beast (1991). He made his directing debut on a couple of animated shorts starring Roger Rabbit, such as Tummy Trouble followed by Roller Coaster Rabbit. He landed the chance to direct a feature film in the early 1990s with Disney's The Lion King (1994).


Following the success of The Lion King, Rob left Disney to work with Columbia where he released the popular Stuart Little films (1999 and 2002), based on a mouse who lives as an equal family member with a group of kindly humans. The films mix live-action and computer animation. His next few films were live-action, including The Haunted Mansion (2003) starring Eddie Murphy; The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li; and Flypaper (2011) starring Patrick Dempsey and Ashley Judd. Rob returned to animation with Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014), a big-screen adaptation of the cartoons that aired during the animated 1960s series The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show.