Chris Sanders
Sanders at the 2014 Golden Globe Awards
Born	Christopher Michael Sanders (1962-03-12)March 12, 1962 (age 63) Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.[1]
Alma mater	California Institute of the Arts (BFA)
Occupations	Film director screenwriter producer animator illustrator voice actor
Years active	1984–present
Employers	Walt Disney Animation Studios (1988–2007) DreamWorks Animation (2007–present)
Spouse	Jessica Steele-Sanders ​ ​ (m. 2015)​
Children	1
Signature

Christopher Michael Sanders (born March 12, 1962)^[1] is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. His credits includeLilo & Stitch (2002) andHow to Train Your Dragon (2010), both of which he co-wrote and directed withDean DeBlois;The Croods (2013) withKirk DeMicco; andThe Wild Robot (2024), receiving nominations for theAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature for all of them. In 2020, he made his live-action directorial debut with the adventure-dramaThe Call of the Wild. He created the characterStitch in 1985, wrote the film's story, and voiced Stitch inalmost all his media appearances.

Sanders was born inColorado Springs, Colorado on March 12, 1962.

He had been interested incomic strips and filmmaking from an early age. He was the only one of three siblings in his family to borrow his father'sSuper 8 film camera and, with encouragement from his father towards his drawing interests, make his own comics.^[2] He later got interested in animation upon learning about the camera's single-frame feature.^[2]

He went toArvada High School inArvada, Colorado. He initially wanted to take art classes at the school, but was dissuaded when he asked the art teacher to teach him cartooning, only for the teacher to reply, "Comics aren't art."^[2] Sanders later attended theCalifornia Institute of the Arts, graduating in 1984.

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Sanders began his career as a character designer forJim Henson's Muppet Babies. He then served as lead storyboard artist forWalt Disney Feature Animation, and was astoryboard artist, artistic director, production designer, and character designer on the company's filmsBeauty and the Beast,Aladdin,The Lion King, andMulan.

In 1985, Sanders created a character named "Stitch" for an unsuccessful children's book pitch.^[3] When Sanders was the head storyboard artist for Disney Feature Animation, then-Disney CEOMichael Eisner decided that, in the wake of a number of high-profile and large-budget Disney animated features during the mid-1990s, the studio might try its hand at a smaller and less expensive film.^[3] Chris Sanders was approached byThomas Schumacher to pitch that idea, and Sanders reused the "Stitch" character he came up with.^[4] The storyline required a remote, non-urban location, so Sanders choseKauaʻi as the location.^[5] Stitch became the central character of the 2002 filmLilo & Stitch, which Sanders co-directed and co-wrote withDean DeBlois. Sanders would also end up voicing the character he created for the film. The film's commercial and critical success spawned afranchise withthreesequelfilms andthreetelevisionseries, with Sanders reprising his role of Stitch throughout the original 2002–06 run of the franchise (Sanders did not reprise his role for the English dub of the animeStitch! or the English-language-produced Chinese animated seriesStitch & Ai, withBen Diskin taking over the role for both series), as well in several later Disney crossover works such asKingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep,Kinect: Disneyland Adventures, and theDisney Infinity series.

In the late 1980s, Sanders created an allegorical picture book entitledThe Big Bear Aircraft Company, with the subheading "A book for the big retreat" clarifying that it was created for a Disney offsite event.The Big Bear Aircraft Company is a thinly disguised version of Disney itself, and the book is critical of the creative process at the company, which prioritized "big ideas, figuring they will be big successes" and noted that if proposed aircraft (i.e., movie ideas) "don't look the same as the ones [that were] built before, [the boss, Big Bear] gets uncomfortable." After handing each idea pitched by the "visual engineer" to a writer who "likes airplanes" but "has actually never worked on one before, and couldn't tell you for sure what makes one fly", the story states the assigned writer "is guaranteed of making the same mistakes every time. He will make his airplane look like every one he's seen before ..." In the end, the head of the company, Big Bear, gets an airplane that is "a lot like last year's; not very inspiring and not very memorable. But people bought it before, and they'll probably buy it again. By playing it safe, he's insured his company's survival." However, since it is not the only aircraft company, these policies are destined to leave the company vulnerable to more imaginative competitors "with its wings of good reputation all shot off." The story concludes that Big Bear should instead give the visual engineers "the two things they need to do their job: Bear's trust and time" to allow smaller, more innovative ideas to flourish. Years later, to explain his motivation regarding the piece, Sanders wrote about his concern over "the ever-growing complexity of our films, and what I saw as an emerging pattern they were all cut from", citing the example that during the story development forMulan, one of the major concerns was the manner of the villain's death rather than the idea that the villain had to die at all. This in turn motivated him to developLilo & Stitch, which he summarized as "a story about a villain who becomes a hero."^[6]

By December 2006, Sanders had been removed as the director of the upcoming Disney animated filmAmerican Dog byJohn Lasseter. By March 2007, Sanders had been negotiating his exit from Disney.^[7] After the departure of Sanders from Disney, directing duties were handed toChris Williams andByron Howard, and the film was retitledBolt. Sanders later stated he had no ill will over being removed from the film, and hoped he could revisit some of his ideas in the future. He approved of the final film and the changes made, stating: "I think it would have been frustrating if the movie were essentially the same but with only slight changes. And I suppose my scenes and storylines are still sitting there on the shelf. I could actually pull them out and do them again. But it would be completely different."^[8] Despite his departure from Disney, Sanders continues to voice Stitch in all official Disney media except for the aforementioned Eastern-produced shows.^[a]

By March 2007, Sanders had moved toDreamWorks Animation and had then taken over as director onCrood Awakening (later renamed toThe Croods), a project previously in co-production withAardman Animations before their departure from DreamWorks.^[9] At the time, Sanders said about the move: "I've been so anxious to start working on things, and so I talked to a lot of people... I like the way DreamWorks looks at animation. Animation still has a lot of different places to go, and I don't want to miss out on a chance to try some new things with it."^[9]

On September 24, 2008, it was reported that Sanders and DeBlois would be screenwriting and directingHow to Train Your Dragon for DreamWorks Animation.^[10] The film was released on March 26, 2010, and was a huge success with both critics and at the box office, grossing nearly $500 million worldwide. It was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Animated Feature andBest Original Score at the83rd Academy Awards. The movie also won tenAnnie Awards, includingBest Animated Feature.

After completingHow to Train Your Dragon, Sanders returned toThe Croods, which was released on March 22, 2013.^[11] He shared directing and writing credits withKirk DeMicco, who had joined in the middle of production. The film proved to be a success, grossing over $500 million.^[12] Sanders and DeMicco then worked onThe Croods sequel for three and a half years, before its cancellation in late 2016.^[12][13] However, the sequel was revived in September 2017, although withJoel Crawford replacing both Sanders and DeMicco as director.^[14][15] After the sequel was out, now titledThe Croods: A New Age, Sanders and DeMicco were both credited for the story while Sanders reprised his role as Belt.

In October 2017, it was announced that Sanders would be directinga new film adaptation of the 1903Jack London novelThe Call of the Wild for20th Century Fox.^[16][17] The film, his live-action and solo directorial debut, was released in February 2020. The film received mixed critical reception, with a 63% approval rating onRotten Tomatoes (as of March 2024),^[18] making it the lowest-received film in Sanders's directorial career thus far, and grossed $107.6 million^[19][20] on a budget of $125–$150 million,^[21] becoming Sanders's first directorialbox-office bomb.

While it was speculated in February 2020 that Sanders would reprise his voice role of Stitch inthe live-action remake ofLilo & Stitch,^[22] he claimed in a September 2022 interview that Disney had not yet approached him on reprising the role, although he stated that he was always open to returning to voice his creation.^[23] In April 2023, it was confirmed he would reprise his role in the remake,^[24] which will be released in 2025. Sanders would ultimately do five voice recordings for the film, each session taking about four hours, which he admitted was hard for him to maintain his "Stitch voice" for such a long period of time.^[2]

On September 28, 2023, it was revealed that Sanders would return to DreamWorks Animation to write and direct an animated film adaptation ofPeter Brown's book seriesThe Wild Robot.^[25] The film was released in September 2024 to critical acclaim. The following month, Sanders confirmed that he would be directing a sequel to the film.^[26]

Sanders is married to wife Jessica Steele-Sanders. Together, they wrote an illustrated novel, titledRescue Sirens: The Search for the Atavist (2015).^[27] Sanders was previously thought to be gay by his colleagues in the industry, when in reality that was his gay screenwriting partner Dean DeBlois.^[28] In September 2023, Sanders filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences",^[29] although he remains married to Steele-Sanders as of June 2024.^{[primary 1]} Sanders also previously drew the webcomicKiskaloo.

According toPhineas and Ferb co-creatorDan Povenmire, Sanders has a daughter named Nicole.^[30]

• Official website
• Chris Sanders atIMDb 
• Chris Sanders as "alohalilo" onDeviantArt
• Chris Sanders Art onTikTok

• 1962 births
• Living people
• American animated film directors
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• American male screenwriters
• American male voice actors
• American male video game actors
• American storyboard artists
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• Animators from Colorado
• Animation screenwriters
• California Institute of the Arts alumni
• Artists from Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Film directors from Colorado
• Walt Disney Animation Studios people
• DreamWorks Animation people
• Annie Award winners
• Character designers

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