In anticipation of the release of Frankenweenie, Rose Collard caught up with the executive producer Don Hahn, to ask him about how he came to working for Disney and what its like to work with the famously wacky Tim Burton
You started out in Disney as an assistant director. How did you get into that? What attracted you to Disney in the first place?
Well like most kids I grew up on Disney movies and I lived in Southern California – very close to Disneyland. I loved the place, it was a place where anything could happen and so I grew up going there. I was a music major, an art minor and painted and played cello in school and got a chance to have a summer job at Disney – just delivering coffee and being a runner. But I was delivering the coffee to Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston and all these people who had made their careers working with Walt Disney. I learnt this wonderful aesthetic that the Disney artists brought to the table; that it was about great storytelling and also about sophisticated, interesting artwork and people who were passionate about what they were doing. i was just the luckiest guy in the world because I was able to observe that and I came in at a time when you could still meet and be friends with those people. So I think a lot of it was right place at the right time with me.
What does your role as a producer for Disney films entail? How different is it to directing (which Don has also done) in the film industry and which do you prefer?
It is hard to understand the difference sometimes, particularly in animation. For us, the director is the primary storyteller so the producer’s job is to support the director and support the movie and make sure the audience get a great experience when they go to the theatre. When I was assistant directing (on The Fox and the Hound in the late seventies) I was working with a guy named Woolie Reitherman who directed The Jungle Book and 101 Dalmatians which were these amazing movies that I grew up on and so I felt like I was working with the King or something! I would do anything for him; take notes, get him coffee, help him work with editors – anything. Nowadays a producer’s job (which is what I do and have done for many years) is to start out with a blank piece of paper. As the first person on a movie you pull together interesting writers and collaborators and eventually art directors and animators and put a team together – and then you stand back and watch them play. It’s like a football team; you stand back and you coach and you give advice and you make sure you have a winning season. As a producer you’re really there to host an amazing party and in the case of Frankenweenie it was like lets get Tim Burton and lets get Danny Elfman and let’s get these great actors and just put on a two year long party and see what they come out with out the end. And thankfully they came out with something really special.
Frankenweenie is an animated film adapted from Tim Burton’s 1984 short film. How did you go about transforming it in this way?
Well every movie is like giving birth. It’s painful and then you forget the pain and effort when it’s done. So we started out with a short film Tim Burton had made at Disney Studios very early in his career. Tim and I have been friends for about thirty years and he was making Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in London in Camden and I went and visited him. We were talking about movies and the kinds of things he could do in the future. I said have you ever thought about taking Frankenweenie (which was only thirty minutes long) and expanding it, because its a Frankenstein myth and so there must be more flesh on the bone and more story to tell. He said yeah there really was more and he went away and thought about it and we brought in John August our writer and they came up with this wonderful scenario to expand the story and turn it into what the final film is. So because the original short film was Tim’s movie it really was taking what was just a sketch of a film to begin with and really letting him run with it and turn it into this wonderful full length feature that it is now. So a lot of what I was doing was just reminding Tim, kind of like holding up a mirror and saying ‘look Tim, look at this great story you have, why don’t you do something with it?’ And that was a pleasure, a real pleasure to do.
Speaking of Tim Burton, he’s publicly know as quite an extravagant character. What was it like to work with him?
Well I’ve know Tim for a long time and before Frankenweenie hadn’t worked with him in a while, but he is one of the most remarkable artists I’ve worked with. He’s surprisingly down to earth. He does come off as a little bit eccentric on the outside which I think is a wonderful part of him. I’m always amazed at his work ethic and his focus and his ability to direct and be very clear about what he wants, and also his ability to include other people’s ideas. He can come into a room and have a very specific agenda of what he wants but then the tea-trolley lady might say ‘but what if you did this?’ and he’ll say ‘oh that’s a great idea!’ You know he’ll really go along with wherever the best idea is and I think that’s part of his genius – he’s not so married to his own ego that he can’t bend and listen to his collaborators. So part of my job working with Tim is to give him a safe room to do that and then surround him with great collaborators that he trusts and knows. In Frankenweenie we were able to surround him with his most trusted people, people he’s worked with before who he just knows and trusts and that’s so much of the process as well.
If you had to pick a favourite Disney movies, which would it be and why?
Well aside from Frankenweenie? (laughs). I think of the movies I didn’t work on it would have to be Peter Pan as I’ve always loved the fantasy of lost boys and adventure and pirates. Of the movies I did work on I suppose I have a soft spot for Beauty and the Beast just because of what it was and the story and the time in my life when I worked on it and the fact that it got the first Academy Award Nomination for Best Picture (at the 64th Academy Awards in 1992). It’s a really special, sweet wonderful movie and kind of the last of the great fairy tales and so that was a real treat for me. (He pauses). But the truth is that I’ve been lucky and I’ve got to work with the best people on the planet, and if I’m successful it’s because I’ve been able to surround myself with amazing amazing talent.