Christopher James Buck (born February 24, 1958) is an American film director, animator, and screenwriter known for co-directing ''
Tarzan'' (1999), ''
Surf's Up'' (2007) (which was nominated for the 2007
Oscar for
Best Animated Feature), ''
Frozen'' (2013; which won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2014), ''
Frozen II'' (2019), and ''
Wish'' (2023). He also worked as a supervising animator and story artist on ''
Pocahontas
Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, also known as Matoaka and Rebecca Rolfe; 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. S ...
'' (1995) and ''
Home on the Range'' (2004).
He has won for one
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
,
Annie Award
The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in American cinema and television. Origina ...
and
BAFTA Award, and has been nominated for two Academy, two BAFTA and five Annie Awards.
Life and career
A native of
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the List of cities in Kansas, most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397, ...
, Buck was inspired to explore animation by the first film he ever saw in a movie theatre as a child: ''
Pinocchio
Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel, ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a poor man named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...
'' (1940).
His family eventually moved to
Placentia, California, where he graduated from
El Dorado High School.
Buck studied
character animation for two years at
CalArts, where he also taught from 1988 to 1993. At CalArts, Buck became friends with both
John Lasseter and Michael Giaimo. He began his career as an animator with Disney in 1978.
Besides his work as a co-director on ''
Tarzan'', Buck's other credits at
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
also include the 1995 animated feature ''
Pocahontas
Pocahontas (, ; born Amonute, also known as Matoaka and Rebecca Rolfe; 1596 – March 1617) was a Native American woman belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. S ...
'', where he oversaw the animation of three central characters:
Percy, Grandmother Willow, and Wiggins. Buck also helped design characters for the 1989 animated feature ''
The Little Mermaid'', performed experimental animation for ''
The Rescuers Down Under'' (1990) and ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay written by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman. It is loosely based on the 1981 novel ''Who Censored Roger Rabbit?'' by Gary K. Wol ...
'' (1988), and was an animator on ''
The Fox and the Hound'' (1981) and ''
The Black Cauldron'' (1985).
Buck helped develop several films at
Hyperion Pictures and served as a directing animator on the feature ''
Bebe's Kids''. He storyboarded
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and producer. Known for popularizing Goth subculture, Goth culture in the American film industry, Burton is famous for his Gothic film, gothic horror and dark fantasy films. ...
's live-action featurette ''
Frankenweenie'' (1984) and worked with Burton again as directing animator on the
Brad Bird
Philip Bradley Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning over four decades in both animation and Live action, live-action.
Bird was born in Montana and grew up in Oregon. He ...
-directed ''
Family Dog'' episode of
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...
's ''
Amazing Stories
''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearance ...
'' and as director of the subsequent primetime animated series.
Buck's credits include a number of animated commercials (including some with the
Keebler Elves) for such Los Angeles–based production entities as
FilmFair,
Kurtz & Friends, and Duck Soup.
Buck went on to co-direct ''
Surf's Up'' at
Sony Pictures Animation
Sony Pictures Animation Inc. (also referred to as Sony Animation Studios and abbreviated to SPA) is an American animation studio owned by Sony Entertainment's Sony Pictures Entertainment through their Motion Picture Group division and found ...
, which was released in June 2007.
In 2008, Buck's old friend Lasseter, by then Disney Animation's chief creative officer, persuaded him to come back to Disney from Sony.
Around September 2008, Buck pitched three ideas to Lasseter, one of which was a fairytale musical version of ''
The Snow Queen
"The Snow Queen" () is an 1844 original fairy tale by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published 21 December 1844 in ''New Fairy Tales. First Volume#New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection, New Fairy Tales. First Vo ...
''; Lasseter liked the idea and authorized Buck to proceed with development.
After it was put on hold during 2010, the film was officially announced in December 2011 under the title ''
Frozen'', with a release date of November 27, 2013. In turn, Buck persuaded Giaimo to come back to Disney to serve as the film's art director,
for which Giaimo would go on to win the
Annie Award
The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in American cinema and television. Origina ...
for Best Production Design in an Animated Feature Production.
In September 2014, it was announced that Buck and Lee would co-direct a
short film
A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...
based on the ''Frozen'' characters called ''
Frozen Fever''. It was released in March 2015, alongside ''
Cinderella''.
On March 12, 2015, Disney announced that Buck and Lee would co-direct ''
Frozen II'', the sequel to ''Frozen''.
It was released in November 2019.
Buck directed ''
Wish'', which was released in November 2023.
Personal life
Buck is married to Shelley
Rae Hinton Buck, an Emmy and Oscar Award winner in sound editing. They had three sons, Ryder, Woody, and Reed.
Their oldest son, Ryder, died at age 23 on October 27, 2013, in a car collision, when he was hit by two cars after his car broke down on
the Glendale Freeway just one month before ''
Frozen'' was released.
Ryder was a singer and songwriter performing in his band Ryder Buck and the Breakers, and was recovering from a year-long battle with a
Stage 4 testicular cancer
Testicular cancer is cancer that develops in the testicles, a part of the male reproductive system. Symptoms may include a lump in the testicle or swelling or pain in the scrotum. Treatment may result in infertility.
Risk factors include an c ...
.
On March 2, 2014, upon accepting the
Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for co-directing ''Frozen'' at the
86th Academy Awards, Buck dedicated the award to his son Ryder.
The tragedy was an inspiration for the song "
The Next Right Thing" in ''Frozen II'', as well as a character named "Ryder."
Reed lent his voice to Arnold, a little penguin from ''
Surf's Up'', directed by his father.
Filmography
Feature films
Short films
Television
Documentaries
Accolades
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buck, Chris
1958 births
Animators from Kansas
American animated film directors
Animation screenwriters
Living people
Artists from Wichita, Kansas
Annie Award winners
California Institute of the Arts alumni
California Institute of the Arts faculty
Film directors from Kansas
Sony Pictures Animation people
Walt Disney Animation Studios people
Directors of Best Animated Feature Academy Award winners