Chris Buck
Chris Buck (born February 24, 1958) is an American film director 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 on Pocahontas (1995) and Home on the Range (2004).
Chris Buck | |
---|---|
Born | Wichita, Kansas, U.S. | February 24, 1958
Education | El Dorado High School |
Alma mater | California Institute of the Arts |
Employer | Walt Disney Animation Studios (1978-2004; 2008–present) Sony Pictures Animation (2004-2008) |
Known for | Film direction |
Notable work | Tarzan Surf's Up Frozen Frozen Fever Frozen II |
Spouse(s) | Shelley Rae Hinton Buck |
Children | 3 |
Awards | Academy Award Annie Award BAFTA Award |
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.[1]
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: Disney's Pinocchio.[2] His family eventually moved to Placentia, California, where he graduated from El Dorado High School.[3]
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[2] and Michael Giaimo, whom he would work with many years later on Frozen.[4]:33 He began his career as an animator with Disney in 1978.
Besides his work as a co-director on Tarzan and Frozen, 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 blockbuster 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).
Buck helped develop several films at Hyperion Pictures and served as a directing animator on the feature Bebe'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.[5]
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In 2008, Buck's old friend Lasseter, by then Disney Animation's chief creative officer, persuaded him to come back to Disney from Sony.[4]:6,11 Around September 2008, Buck pitched three ideas to Lasseter, one of which was a fairytale musical version of The Snow Queen; Lasseter liked The Snow Queen idea and authorized Buck to proceed with development.[4]:6,11 After it was put on hold during 2010,[6] the film was officially announced in December 2011 under the title Frozen, with a release date of November 27, 2013.[7] In turn, Buck persuaded Giaimo to come back to Disney to serve as the film's art director,[4]:33 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 spring 2015.[8]
On March 12, 2015, Disney announced that Buck and Lee would co-direct Frozen II, the sequel to Frozen.[9] It was released in November 2019.
Personal life
Buck is married to Shelley [10] Rae Hinton Buck, an Emmy and Oscar Award winner in sound editing. They have three sons, Ryder, Woody, and Reed.[11]
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.[10] 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.[10] 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.[10] The tragedy was an inspiration for the song "The Next Right Thing" in Frozen II, as well as a character named "Ryder."[12]
Reed lent his voice to Arnold, a little penguin from Surf's Up, directed by his father.[13]
Filmography
Animation Department
Year | Work | Job | Notes | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
1981 | The Fox and the Hound | (character animator) | [14] | |
1982 | Fun with Mr. Future | (animator) | (Short) | |
1983 | Mickey's Christmas Carol | (additional animator) | ||
1985 | The Black Cauldron | (animator) | ||
1987 | Amazing Stories | (animation supervisor) | (TV Series) | |
Sport Goofy in Soccermania | (supervising animator) | (Short) | ||
The Brave Little Toaster | (character designer) | |||
1988 | Oliver & Company | (animator) | ||
1989 | The Little Mermaid | (character designer) | ||
1990 | The Rescuers Down Under | (character designer) | ||
Box-Office Bunny | (key animator) | (Short) | ||
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures | (character designer) | (TV Series) | ||
1992 | Bébé's Kids | (animation director) | ||
1995 | Pocahontas | (character design)
(supervising animator: "Percy", "Grandmother Willow" & "Wiggins") |
||
1996 | Quack Pack | (character designer) | (TV Series short) | |
2004 | Home on the Range | (supervising animator: "Maggie") | ||
Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas | (animation consultant) | (Video) | ||
2010 | Not Your Time | (animator) | (Short) |
Director
Year | Work | Notes | Reference |
---|---|---|---|
1993 | Family Dog | (TV Series) | [14] |
1999 | Tarzan | ||
2007 | Surf's Up | ||
2013 | Frozen | ||
2015 | Frozen Fever | (Short) | |
2019 | Frozen II | ||
Idina Menzel & Aurora: Into the Unknown | (Video short) |
Writer
Year | Work | Job | Notes | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | Pocahontas | (story) | [14] | |
2007 | Surf's Up | (screenplay by) | ||
2013 | Frozen | (story by) | ||
2015 | Frozen Fever | (Short) | ||
Disney Infinity 3.0 | (characters: Elsa, Anna) | (Video Game) | ||
2017 | Olaf's Frozen Adventure | (characters) | (Short) | |
2019 | Frozen II | (story by) |
Miscellaneous Crew
Year | Work | Job | Notes | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Storybrooke Has Frozen Over | (original characters: Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Sven) | (TV Movie) | [14] |
Once Upon a Time | (original characters) | (TV Series) | ||
Big Hero 6 | (creative leadership: Walt Disney Animation Studios) |
Actor
Year | Work | Role | Notes | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
1979 | Doctor of Doom | Pepe | (Short) | [14] |
2007 | Surf's Up | Filmmaker | (voice) |
Art department
Year | Work | Job | Notes | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
1990 | The Rescuers Down Under | (visual development) | [14] | |
1995 | Pocahontas |
Thanks
Year | Work | Compliment | Notes | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
1984 | Frankenweenie | (special thanks) | (Short) | [14] |
1988 | Winter | (thanks) | ||
The Thing What Lurked in the Tub | (special thanks) | |||
1989 | Palm Springs | (lots of help) | ||
1990 | Next Door | (thanks) | ||
2006 | Open Season | (special thanks) | ||
2017 | Olaf's Frozen Adventure | (Short) | ||
2018 | A Bug in the Room | |||
Smallfoot |
Self
Year | Work | Role | Notes | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | Not Your Time | Himself | (Short) | [14] |
2013 | Días de cine | Himself - Interviewee | (TV Series) | |
2014 | 71st Golden Globe Awards | Himself - Accepting Award | (TV Special) | |
19th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards | ||||
The EE British Academy Film Awards | Himself - Winner | |||
The Oscars | ||||
D'Frosted: Disney's Journey from Hans Christian Andersen to Frozen | Himself | (Video documentary short) | ||
The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic | (TV Movie documentary) | |||
2015 | Cake Wars | Himself - Judge | (TV Series) | |
Behind the Magic: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | Himself | (TV Short documentary) | ||
2017 | Good Day AFA | (TV Series) | ||
2019 | Hollywood Insider | |||
2020 | 47th Annie Awards | |||
Made in Hollywood: Teen Edition | ||||
Made in Hollywood |
Archive footage
Year | Work | Role | Notes | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | Les Chroniques du Mea | Himself | (TV Series) | [14] |
Accolades
Year | Award | category | Work | Result | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | Annie Awards | Best Individual Achievement for Animation | Pocahontas | Nominated | [1] |
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 Film of the Year | 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 |
References
- "Chris Buck". IMDb. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
- King, Susan (December 10, 2013). "Walt Disney Animation Studios turns 90 in colorful fashion". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 2, 2014.
- Howmann, Anders (October 10, 2014). "'Frozen' treat for 50". Orange County Register. Freedom Communications, Inc. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
- Solomon, Charles (2013). The Art of Frozen. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-1-4521-1716-4.
- Orange, B. Alan (June 6, 2007). "Chris Jenkins, Ash Brannon, and Chris Buck Are Creating Waves in Their New Film 'Surf's Up'". MovieWeb. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
- "The Lion King Goes 3D". ComingSoon. June 22, 2010. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
- Sciretta, Peter (December 22, 2011). "Walt Disney Animation Gives 'The Snow Queen' New Life, Retitled 'Frozen' – But Will It Be Hand Drawn?". SlashFilm. Retrieved December 22, 2011.
- Gettell, O. (September 3, 2014). "Disney short 'Frozen Fever' coming in spring 2015, with new song". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
- Graser, M. (March 12, 2015). "Disney Announces 'Frozen 2'". Variety. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
- Walker, Chris (February 6, 2014). "The Tragic Death of Local Musician Ryder Buck, and His Uplifting Story". La Weekly. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
- Wexler, David (January 22, 2014). "Ryder Buck: 'Live and Love. We're Only Here Once'". Janglin Souls. Retrieved March 7, 2014.
The band performed alongside Ryder’s band, and brothers Woody and Reed.
- Cohn, Gabe (November 29, 2019). "How to Follow Up 'Frozen'? With Melancholy and a Power Ballad". The New York Times. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
- Armstrong, Josh (June 11, 2007). "Directors Buck and Brannon on Surf's Up". Animated Views. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
- "Chris Buck". IMDb. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
External links
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- Chris Buck on IMDb