Chris Buck

For the photographer, see Chris Buck (photographer).

Chris Buck
Birth name	Christopher James Buck
Born	(1958-02-24) February 24, 1958
Birth place	Wichita, Kansas, U.S.
Alma mater	California Institute of the Arts
Spouse(s)	Shelley Rae Hinton ​ ​ (m. 1989)​
Children	3
Awards	Academy Award Annie Award BAFTA Award
Employer(s)	Walt Disney Animation Studios (1978-2004; under 2005, 2006, 2007; 2008–present) Sony Pictures Animation (2004-2008) HR Animation (2019-present)

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, and Frozen II (2019). He also worked as a supervising animator and story artist on Pocahontas (1995) and Home on the Range (2004).

He has won for one Academy Award, Annie Award and BAFTA Award, and has been nominated for two Academy, two BAFTA and five Annie Awards.

Life and career

A native of Wichita, Kansas, Buck was inspired to explore animation by the first film he ever saw in a movie theatre as a child: Pinocchio (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.^{[citation needed]}

Besides his work as a co-director on Tarzan, Buck's other credits at Disney also include the 1995 animated feature Pocahontas, 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 (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 Bébé's Kids. He storyboarded Tim Burton's live-action featurette Frankenweenie (1984) and worked with Burton again as directing animator on the Brad Bird-directed Family Dog episode of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories 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, which was released in June 2007.

Buck with Frozen co-director Jennifer Lee and producer Peter Del Vecho

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; 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 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 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.

As of September 2022 Buck is directing Wish, scheduled for release 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. 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

Year	Film	Credited as
		Director	Writer	Animator	Character Designer	Visual Development	Other	Notes
1981	The Fox and the Hound	No	No	Character	No	No	No
1985	The Black Cauldron	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	(uncredited)
1987	The Brave Little Toaster	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
1988	Oliver & Company	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
1989	The Little Mermaid	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
1990	The Rescuers Down Under	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
1992	Bébé's Kids	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Animation Director
1995	Pocahontas	No	No	Supervising	Yes	Yes	No	Storyboard Artist / Supervising Animator: Percy/Grandmother Willow/Wiggins
1999	Tarzan	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
2004	Home on the Range	No	No	Supervising	No	No	No	Supervising Animator: Maggie
	Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Animation Consultant; Direct-to-video
2006	Open Season	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Special Thanks
	Enatacho	Yes	Story Collaborative	No	No	N	No	Directors with Mark Dindal, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise / Loop Group
2007	Surf's Up	Yes	Screenplay	No	No	No	Yes	Voice of Filmmaker #2
2013	Frozen	Yes	Story	No	No	No	No
2014	Big Hero 6	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Creative Leadership
2015	Dreamsinchiminted							Director with Matt Braly / Loop Group / Creative Leadership
2016	Zootopia	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Creative Leadership
	Moana	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
2018	Ralph Breaks the Internet	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
2019	Frozen II	Yes	Story	No	No	No	Yes
2021	Raya and the Last Dragon	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
	Encanto (Disney film)	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
2022	Strange World	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
2023	Wish	Yes	Story	No	No	No	Yes

Short films

Year	Film	Credited as
		Director	Writer	Animator	Other	Notes
1979	Doctor of Doom	No	No	No	Yes	Voice of Pepe
1982	Fun with Mr. Future	No	No	Yes	No
1984	Frankenweenie	No	No	No	Yes	Special Thanks
1987	Sport Goofy in Soccermania	No	No	Supervising	No
1988	Winter	No	No	No	Yes	Special Thanks
	The Thing What Lurked in the Tub	No	No	No	Yes
1989	Palm Springs	No	No	No	Yes
1990	Next Door	No	No	No	Yes
1991	Box-Office Bunny	No	No	Key	No
2010	Not Your Time	No	No	Yes	Yes	Himself
2015	Frozen Fever	Yes	Story	No	No
2017	Olaf's Frozen Adventure	No	No	No	Yes	Special Thanks
2018	A Bug in the Room	No	No	No	Yes
2020	Once Upon a Snowman	No	No	No	Yes	Creative Consultant

Television

Year	Title	Credited as
		Director	Animation department	Character Designer	Notes
1987	Amazing Stories	No	Supervising	No	Animation Supervisor - 1 Episode
1990	Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures	No	No	Yes	Character Designer - 13 Episodes
1993	Family Dog	Yes	No	No	Series Director
1996	Quack Pack	No	No	Yes	Character Designer - 1 Episode

Documentaries

Year	Title	Role
2014	The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic	Himself
2020	Into the Unknown: Making Frozen II	Himself; Special Thanks

Accolades

Year	Award	category	Work	Result	Reference
1995	Annie Awards	Best Individual Achievement for Animation	Pocahontas	Nominated
1999		Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production	Tarzan	Nominated
2000	Sierra Award	Best Animated Film		Nominated
2008	Academy Awards	Best Animated Feature	Surf's Up	Nominated
	Annie Awards	Best Directing in an Animated Feature Production		Nominated
		Best Writing in an Animated Feature Production		Nominated
2013	EDA Award	Best Animated Feature Film	Frozen	Nominated
	AFCA Award	Best Animated Film		Won
	Dubai International Film Festival	People's Choice Award		Won
	SLFCA Award	Best Animated Film		Won
2014	Academy Awards	Best Animated Feature Film of the Year		Won
	BAFTA Film Award	Best Animated Featured Film		Won
	BAFTA Children's Award	BAFTA Kids Vote - Feature Film		Won
		Best Feature Film		Nominated
	Annie Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Directing in an Animated Feature Production		Won
	Gold Derby Award	Animated Feature		Won
	Hugo Awards	Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form		Nominated
	International Online Cinema Awards (INOCA)	Best Animated Feature		Won
	Italian Online Movie Awards (IOMA)	Best Animated Feature Film (Miglior film d'animazione)		Nominated
	Seattle Film Critics Award	Best Animated Feature		Won
	VES Award	Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture		Won
2015	Tokyo Anime Award	Grand Prize, Feature Film		Won
2019	Seattle Film Critics Award	Best Animated Feature	Frozen II	Nominated
2020	BAFTA Film Award	Best Animated Featured Film		Nominated
	Annie Awards	Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production		Nominated
	Golden Globe award	Best Animated Feature Film		Nominated
	LEJA Award	Best Animated Feature		Nominated
	OFTA Film Award	Best Animated Picture		Nominated

External links

• Chris Buck on IMDb

v - e - dAwards for Chris Buck

v - e - dAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature 2000s Shrek – Aron Warner (2001) • Spirited Away – Hayao Miyazaki (2002) • Finding Nemo – Andrew Stanton (2003) • The Incredibles – Brad Bird (2004) • Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – Nick Park and Steve Box (2005) • Happy Feet – George Miller (2006) • Ratatouille – Brad Bird (2007) • WALL-E – Andrew Stanton (2008) • Up – Pete Docter (2009) 2010s Toy Story 3 – Lee Unkrich (2010) • Rango – Gore Verbinski (2011) • Brave – Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman (2012) • Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, and Peter Del Vecho (2013) • Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams, and Roy Conli (2014) • Inside Out – Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera (2015) • Zootopia – Byron Howard, Rich Moore, and Clark Spencer (2016) • Coco – Lee Unkrich and Darla K. Anderson (2017) • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (2018) • Toy Story 4 – Josh Cooley, Jonas Rivera, and Mark Nielsen (2019) Template:Annie Award for Directing in a Feature Production 2011–2030 v - e - dCritics' Choice Movie Award for Best Animated Feature 1998–2000 A Bug's Life – John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton / The Prince of Egypt – Simon Wells, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Hickner (1998) • Toy Story 2 – John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, and Ash Brannon (1999) • Chicken Run – Peter Lord and Nick Park (2000) 2001–2010 Shrek – Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson (2001) • Spirited Away – Hayao Miyazaki (2002) • Finding Nemo – Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich (2003) • The Incredibles – Brad Bird (2004) • Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – Nick Park and Steve Box (2005) • Cars – John Lasseter and Joe Ranft (2006) • Ratatouille – Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava (2007) • WALL-E – Andrew Stanton (2008) • Up – Pete Docter and Bob Peterson (2009) • Toy Story 3 – Lee Unkrich (2010) 2011–present Rango – Gore Verbinski (2011) • Wreck-It Ralph – Rich Moore (2012) • Frozen – Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee (2013) • The Lego Movie – Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (2014) • Inside Out – Pete Docter and Ronnie del Carmen (2015) • Zootopia – Byron Howard and Rich Moore (2016) • Coco – Lee Unkrich (2017) • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman (2018) • Toy Story 4 - Josh Cooley (2019) v - e - dGolden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film Cars – John Lasseter (2006) • Ratatouille – Brad Bird (2007) • WALL-E – Andrew Stanton (2008) • Up – Pete Docter (2009) • Toy Story 3 – Lee Unkrich (2010) • The Adventures of Tintin – Steven Spielberg (2011) • Brave – Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman (2012) • Frozen – Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee (2013) • How to Train Your Dragon 2 – Dean DeBlois (2014) • Inside Out – Pete Docter (2015) • Zootopia – Byron Howard and Rich Moore (2016) • Coco – Lee Unkrich (2017) • Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman (2018) • Missing Link – Chris Butler (2019)