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Don Hall’s mother says he announced – at a very early age – he was going to make animated films for the Disney company.

“Every time the story is told, the age seems to fluctuate,” Hall says. “First, I was 5. Then I was 3. And now I think they were my first words out of the womb.”

Regardless, the die was cast; the Glenwood, Iowa, native was determined to be a Disney animator. And now? He’s one of the directors of “Big Hero 6,” the company’s 54th animated film.

How did it happen? Thanks to extensive research, Hall knew many Disney employees came from California Institute of the Arts. He applied several times, didn’t get in, got a bachelor of fine arts degree in drawing and painting from the University of Iowa and decided to try one more time. “I finally got accepted but it was too late for that year, so I had to wait.” Hall returned to Glenwood and got a job at the bank where his mom had worked since she was 18.

The owner, he says, was a big Grant Wood fan, so he had him do paintings on sheds. “He kept my artistic fires going” until school started. Just when Hall got in the door, the Northridge earthquake occurred, the campus was closed and students were rerouted to a Lockheed weapons testing facility in Valencia.