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 (1995) and Home on the Range (2004).

He has won an Academy Award, Annie Award, and BAFTA Award, and additionally 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.

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 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.

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.

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. 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 YearFilmCredited As Director Writer Animator CharacterDesigner VisualDevelopment Other Notes 1981 The Fox and the Hound 1985 The Black Cauldron (Uncredited) 1987 The Brave Little Toaster 1988 Oliver & Company 1989 The Little Mermaid 1990 The Rescuers Down Under 1992 Bebe's Kids Animation Director 1995 Pocahontas Storyboard Artist / Supervising Animator: Percy/Grandmother Willow/Wiggins 1999 Tarzan 2004 Home on the Range Supervising Animator: Maggie Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas Animation Consultant; Direct-To-Video 2006 Open Season Special Thanks 2007 Surf's Up Voice of Filmmaker #2 2013 Frozen 2014 Big Hero 6 Creative Leadership 2016 Zootopia Moana 2018 Ralph Breaks the Internet 2019 Frozen 2 2021 Raya and the Last Dragon Encanto 2022 Strange World 2023 Wish 2025Zootopia 2 Creative Leadership (uncredited)

Short films YearFilmCredited As Director Writer Animator Other Notes 1979 Doctor of Doom Voice of Pepe 1982 Fun with Mr. Future 1984 Frankenweenie Special Thanks 1987 Sport Goofy in Soccermania 1988 Winter Special Thanks The Thing What Lurked in the Tub 1989 Palm Springs 1990 Next Door 1991 Box-Office Bunny 2010 Not Your Time Himself 2015 Frozen Fever 2017 Olaf's Frozen Adventure Special Thanks 2018 A Bug in the Room 2020 Once Upon a Snowman Creative Consultant

Television YearTitleCredited As Director AnimationDepartment CharacterDesigner Notes 1987 Amazing Stories Animation Supervisor - 1 Episode 1990 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures Character Designer - 13 Episodes 1993 Family Dog Series Director 1996 Quack Pack 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 YearAwardCategoryWorkResultReference1995Annie AwardsBest Individual Achievement for AnimationPocahontas1999Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature ProductionTarzan2000Sierra AwardBest Animated Film2008Academy AwardsBest Animated FeatureSurf's UpAnnie AwardsBest Directing in an Animated Feature ProductionBest Writing in an Animated Feature Production2013EDA AwardBest Animated Feature FilmFrozenAFCA AwardBest Animated FilmDubai International Film FestivalPeople's Choice AwardSLFCA AwardBest Animated Film2014Academy AwardsAcademy Award for Best Animated FeatureBAFTA Film AwardBest Animated Featured FilmBAFTA Children's AwardBAFTA Kids Vote - Feature FilmBest Feature FilmAnnie AwardsOutstanding Achievement in Directing in an Animated Feature ProductionGold Derby AwardAnimated FeatureHugo AwardsBest Dramatic Presentation - Long FormInternational Online Cinema Awards (INOCA)Best Animated FeatureItalian Online Movie Awards (IOMA)Best Animated Feature Film (Miglior film d'animazione)Seattle Film Critics AwardBest Animated FeatureVES AwardOutstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture2015Tokyo Anime AwardGrand Prize, Feature Film2019Seattle Film Critics AwardBest Animated FeatureFrozen II2020BAFTA Film AwardBest Animated Featured FilmAnnie AwardsOutstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature ProductionGolden Globe awardBest Animated Feature FilmLEJA AwardBest Animated FeatureOFTA Film AwardBest Animated Picture

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