Chris Sanders (director)


 * For other people with the same name see Chris Sanders (disambiguation).

Christopher Michael "Chris" Sanders (born March 12, 1962) is an American film animator and voice actor best known for co-directing and co-writing the Disney animated feature Lilo & Stitch, and providing the voice of Experiment 626 from Lilo & Stitch and Leroy from Disney's Leroy & Stitch. After being later dismissed from Walt Disney Pictures, Sanders went on to work for Dreamworks Animation, directing the highly acclaimed animated feature film, How to Train Your Dragon.

Life and career
A 1984 graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, Sanders began his career as a character designer for Muppet Babies. He also served as a storyboard artist, artistic director, and character designer on Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Mulan.

On December 16, 2006 several internet animation fan sites, including AnimatedNews.com, reported that Sanders had been removed as the director of the upcoming Disney animated film American Dog by John Lasseter. AnimatedNews.com and JimHillMedia.com (among others) speculated that Sanders was removed as director of American Dog allegedly because Lasseter thought Sanders's take on the film was "too quirky for its own good." After the departure of Sanders from Disney, directing duties were handed to Chris Williams, a Disney writer, and the film was retitled Bolt.

In March 2007, Variety reported that Chris Sanders had moved to DreamWorks and had then taken over as director on Crood Awakening, a project previously with Aardman Studios before their departure from Dreamworks. At the time, Chris had this to say 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.'"

On September 24, 2008, Steward Street Blog reported that Sanders and Lilo & Stitch co-director and co-writer Dean DeBlois would be screenwriting and directing  How to Train Your Dragon for DreamWorks Animation.

Sanders also draws the popular webcomic Kiskaloo, but, since a post from Chris on September 30th, 2008 stating "I'll be drawing and posting the new comic in a just a couple of days!", hasn't been drawn since.

Despite his departure from Disney, Sanders reprised his role as Stitch in the English version of the Square Enix/Disney collaboration game Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.