Animation festival comes to life

Disney producer Don Hahn calls animation "the ultimate team sport."

To prove it, he'll bring to Everett artwork from the Disney archives, some of which, he says, has never been seen. It's a way to show the "people who draw and paint and work on scripts and music, who contribute to making an animated film," he said.

Hahn is the keynoter for the second annual "2D or Not 2D" animation festival Friday and Saturday at the Everett Theatre. Hahn will present films and share what he knows at 7 p.m. Saturday during the festival, which is rich with animator talks, animated film showings, and screenings of entries for the Golden Pencil awards, given out at 8 p.m. Saturday.

Female animators are featured Friday, including filmmaker Nancy Beiman, producer Kathie Flood of Microsoft and Pixar animator Kureha Yokoo.

Michel Gagné, an award-winning animator and artist, will show a variety of his work for film, TV and books at 3:35 p.m. Saturday. Animator, director and educator Tony White, the festival's founder, will give a talk and screen "Fire Gods," about the history of glassblowing, at 6:15 p.m. Saturday.

Like most kids, Hahn grew up on Saturday morning cartoons.

"I loved Rocky and Bullwinkle, 'The Flintstones' and 'The Jetsons,' " he said. In college as a music major, "I got a summer job at Disney, and I never left."

That was in the mid-1970s, when many of the great animators were still at the studio, including Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston and Woolie Reitherman, producer-director of "The Jungle Book."

"I'd get coffee and clean his Moviola screen," said Hahn. "I got seduced by the animation process. It could exercise every creative muscle I had. I drew and did some cleanup and animation on some films, and ultimately thought my gift was working with people as a producer. I produced the animation on 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?' then 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'The Lion King.' 'Roger Rabbit' was a big general-audience movie, a film-noir murder mystery that "proved animation can be for everybody," Hahn said.

Invited to Everett by festival founder White, Hahn said: "This festival is really about the art. Young filmmakers hear experienced filmmakers. And I learn from seeing new filmmakers, young high-school and college-aged kids."

Hahn wrote "Animation Magic," a guide for kids, 10 years ago, and is now doing an updated edition. "I love being able to pass the torch to people," he said.

"When I was going to college in the '70s, you still had to work with pencil and paper and film and a camera. Now you can go to a local computer store and buy a desktop and create your own animation. It takes the barriers down."

Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com