Don Hahn Talks Howard Ashman, Musical Animation, and his Documentary Howard

For a few brief shining years Howard Ashman was one of the most influential filmmakers in Hollywood. With the composer Alan Menken he had already created an Off-Broadway hit with Little Shop of Horrors, and, at Walt Disney Animation Studios in the late 1980s, he was a pivotal force in creating The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin--films that galvanized an industry-wide animation renaissance--as not just a lyricist but a producer, writer, and director. He died of AIDS-related com...