UW-Madison: Filmmaker lectures on entrepreneurship

Peter Schneider, first president of feature animation for the Walt Disney Co. from 1985-99 and the filmmaker behind some of the studio’s most acclaimed releases, will give a University of Wisconsin-Madison entrepreneurship lecture Wednesday, Dec. 8.

Reporters are welcome to attend the class.

Schneider, co-producer of the recent documentary “Waking Sleeping Beauty,” will discuss the revival of Disney animation during his presidency with Jeanan Yasiri’s Entrepreneurship in Society course in 1610 Engineering Hall at 2:30 p.m.

Some of Disney’s highest grossing and critically esteemed features were developed during Schneider’s tenure, including “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) – the first animated film nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award, as well as 1994’s blockbuster “The Lion King,” which has grossed more than $750 million worldwide.

“What Peter Schneider brings is a great mix of how entrepreneurial thinking transformed animation at a point in history when there was a fascinating tension regarding how that art form could move forward,” Yasiri says. “In a sense, he and his colleagues were able to re-engage totally new audiences through the risks and innovative approaches they took.”

Before he left Disney in 2001 to form his own theater production company, Schneider helped broker the lucrative partnership between Disney and Pixar.

To contact Yasiri, call 608-335-2980.